Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction

For a book of such brevity, this is a remarkably full accounting of the Ancient Greeks. As Cartledge observes, ancient mainland and Aegean Greece included over 700 individual city-states (poleis), as well as hundreds more Greek colonies and trading-posts along the rims of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Thus it is salutary that Cartledge chooses to approach ancient Greek history through the technique of considering 11 representative Greek city-states in 11 successive chapters, and an Epilogue. This is appropriate, as the polis remained the fundamental unit in over two millennia of Greek History, even when under the later hegemony of such Great Powers as Macedon, Rome, and Constantinople.The poleis Cartledge chooses are as follows: Prehistory: Cnossos (on Crete) and Mycenae; Dark and Archaic Ages (ca. 1000-500 B.C.):Argos, Miletus, Massalia, and Sparta; Classical Period (500-330 B.C.): Athens, Syracuse (on Sicily), and Thebes; Hellenistic Age (ca. 330-31 B.C.): Alexandria; and, finally, Byzantion (later Constantinople and Istanbul). As Cartledge makes clear, this list of necessity leaves out many other worthy contenders such as a Black Sea settlement (though Byzantion is on the narrows of the Bosporus, which lead into the Black Sea); the significant North African city of Cyrene, on the eastern Libyan coast (though Alexandria is later placed some 400 miles east, on the coast of the western Nile Delta); or a city of Magna Graecia (mainland Italy), maybe Cumae, on the Bay of Naples.Through the cities Cartledge DOES choose, he is well-able to narrate the history of Ancient Greece, including the Minoans on Crete; the Mycenaeans on Crete (after 1400 B.C.) and the mainland (Mycenae, Argos) who used Linear B, (deciphered as the earliest known written form [ca. 1400 B.C.] of Greek by Michael Ventris in 1952) mainly for taxation and inventory purposes; colonization; the rise of tyrants; the Greco-Persian Wars (ca. 500-479 B.C.); the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens (431-404 B.C.); the ascendancy of Thebes (early 4th c. B.C.); the rise of Macedon (ca. 338 B.C.); and the coming of Rome (2nd c. B.C.).Professor Cartledge's mind is clearly brimming with a lifetime's learning, and he ranges with alacrity across this sweep of time and geography. This is the first book by Cartledge that I have read, and I quite enjoyed it. He has an engaging style, often leavened by humor. As the book was published in 2009, Cartledge is able to incorporate the most recent scholarship, often archaeological. We learn that a Linear B tablet was found at Thebes with a word that looks like "Lakedaemon," the southwestern region of the Peloponnese which includes Sparta, and is mentioned frequently in Homer as the home of Menelaos, King of Sparta, original husband of Helen (later "of Troy"). No Mycenaean palace (as would have housed King Menelaos), has yet been found in Lakonia, but recent surface finds of Linear B fragments in the vicinity of Sparta offer tantalizing prospects.Also, in Athens, the recent tunneling for the new subway uncovered mass graves, probably from the plague that swept Athens in 430-29 B.C. and took the life of Pericles (builder [and rebuilder] of the sacred structures on the Athenian acropolis) and countless other Athenians.In his narrative, Cartledge notes some interesting facts. He states that Sparta was by far the largest Greek polis in terms of land area, followed by Syracuse, and Athens/Attica in third place. He mentions that at the height of its "Athenian Empire," (ca. 440 B.C.) Athens was collecting 1,000 talents a year from its "allied" poleis, an huge sum not to be equaled by a Greek power until Alexander the Graet pillaged the seemingly limitless wealth of the Persian Empire after 331 B.C.Cartledge also makes the important point that, to the "Old Greeks" in the eastern homelands, the colonies of Sicily, Italy, and the western Mediterranean, represented the "Golden West:" a region of rich agricultural lands and favorable settlement sites. Indeed Sicily, known as a breadbasket and land of sumptuous local coinages, exerted a powerful pull on the Athenians' imagination; and fantasies of riches led to the Athenians' ill-fated Sicilian naval expedition in 415-13 B.C. This horrific defeat at Syracuse planted the seeds for the Athenians' final defeat by Sparta in 404 B.C.Cartledge brings the narrative full-circle by ending with Byzantion. Originally founded as a colony of Megara (on the eastern coast of the Isthmus of Corinth) in 688 or 657 B.C, Byzantion controlled the trade-routes to the rich grainlands of today's Ukraine and south Russia. Constantine moved his main capital from Rome to Byzantion (renamed "Constantinople") in 324-30 A.D. Here Latin was the official language until the reign of Justinian the Great (527-65 A.D.). Later, as the capital of the "Byzantine Empire," (through 1453 A.D.) the inhabitants spoke Greek, but continued to call themselves "Romans."To me, Cartledge's book is a compact but rewarding read. However, as some other reviewers note, it may not be the ideal introduction to someone who knows very little about Ancient Greece. If you paid attention in a decent college survey of Ancient Greek History, much of the book should be familiar. But if there are too many names and places coming too fast, I would suggest reading Cartledge's "Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities" along with H.D.F. Kitto's "The Greeks" (1951), or Moses Finley's "The Ancient Greeks" (1964), both short treatments that will further flesh out the details. The maps in Cartledge's book are quite good, and there in a helpful Glossary, Who's Who, and suggestions for further reading. All in all, a very good book.

High gloss overview. It is what it said it’d be.

Book came with a tasseled 6 inch/15 cm bookmark and a nice TY note.

While reading this book I went through excitement at first, to boredom second, and finally to annoyance that the book would not end already. Considering that it is an extremely short book that could easily be read in one day, that is not saying much for it.I am not sure who the target audience of this book is. If I had to guess, it is for people with a mild interest in Greek history, but who don't really have the time or desire to dig to deeply into it, and who might choose to read while on an airplane, or on the subway, or something like that where they have little choice but to sit still for a while.I am not a fan of Dr. Cartledge's writing style. I have read his book on the Spartans, and his biography of Alexander the Great (which I am reading for a class), and it is fairly consistent from book to book. It usually has long sentences that seem to run on, full of strange place names or obscure people. He also tends to go on tangents a lot. For example, his chapter on Alexandria was talking about the assassination of Philip, the Seleucids, the Battle of Cannae, and finally ended with the stoning of Hypatia. There was some Alexandria in there, but not much.On the positive side, the organization of the book is chronological, from pre-history, to Archaic, to Classical, to Hellenistic, and he does this by highlighting the cities that were in ascendance during these particular time periods. Also, there are a few interesting facts or bits of knowledge that even veterans might gain. For example, I always thought Miletus was an island, but it turns out it is actually on the mainland of Asia Minor.I guess its good that people do write these introductory level books, so that everybody has access to the ancient Greeks.

Paul Cartledge's engaging history of Ancient Greece fills the niche of a quick guide to the places, names and events that a reader may want learn about in order to get oriented to a vast and much covered topic. He does this in a readable fashion with maps and a handful of well-chosen plates. He admirably uses the latest in archeological scholarship to fill out his work, which nonetheless remains intentionally cursory.As noted in the Product Description, his framework is 11 cities that he describes in the chronological order that they were important to the evolving history of the Ancient Greek world, enabling him to cover such topics as Ancient Mycenaean Greece, the colonization movements both east and west of mainland Greece, the conquests of Alexander and the Hellenistic world, and the rise and fall of the Byzantine civilization.The chief criticism is inherent in the project itself. Names, places speed by so quickly that one is left knowing that one has passed through the countryside but is unable to say much about it. Having read other histories, I was aware of the vast amounts of material that needed to be edited out. And in fairness Cartledge devotes many pages at the end for an annotated section of suggestions for further reading.But if you are in the market for a Cook's Tour of the Ancient World, this Baedeker will probably fit the bill until you have the leisure to come visit at greater length.

The book writes in an academic style and it is a bit boring and confusing trying to explain the ancient Greek world in a few city states, such as Athens, Thebes, Sparta and Marcedon, etc. If you have some ideas on the topic and want to strengthen your memory, it will be an appropriate material. But sometimes I was lost in the events and timeline because it mentions the event more than once in different chapters if it happened between two city states, e.g. a war between Athens and Sparta, not to mention the ever-changing hostilities and peace between them. Nevertheless, I am much clearer when I strengthen my understanding through Hellenistic Age and Alexander the Great in the same series after finish this.

The author's idea is to tell the story of ancient Greece by talking about various cities. But he doesn't give the basics that the reader needs – a clear timeline, a clear geography and a clear narrative. You're left to put together the pieces. In addition, his writing style isn't easy to follow, with frequent digressions and sentences you have to read twice.

I bought this book in anticipation of a trip to Athens in September. All I can say is that reviewer Alex Connolly saved me the trouble of writing anything further. His review is exactly what I would have written.

I love the 'A very short Introduction' collection and own quite a few. They have been very helpful to me with essay writing for my most recent OU module. I would highly recommend them, and already have to my fellow students.

Interesting approach to Ancient Greek history through the stories of 11 cities. I found the writer's style rather pedantic and over fussy with lots of asides and unnecessary references in parenthesis. Maps could have been easier to read.