Ancient Worlds: The Search for the Origins of Western Civilization

400 Pages·2011·7.03 MB·English

by  Richard Miles

RICHARD MILES
Ancient Worlds
The Search for the Origins of Western Civilization
PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
List of Maps
List of Illustrations
Introduction
PART 1
Revolution: The First Cities
  I Mesopotamia: From Clans to the Earliest Empire
 II Egypt: A Glittering One-o�?
III Civilizations for Export
PART 2
The End of the Bronze Age and its Aftermath
  I Bronze Age Systems Failure: Catastrophe and the Sea Peoples
 II The Rise of the Middleman: The Phoenicians
III The Assyrians: Shock and Awe in Assur
IV The Rediscovery of Greece
PART 3
Ancient Greece: The Tyranny of Freedom
  I Words and Iron: The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece
 II Sparta and Athens: Fossilized Eunomia and Appeasing the Demos
III Persian Wars
IV The Golden Age of Athens and the Desolation of Greece
PART 4
Age of Kingship: Alexander and the Hellenistic Age
  I The Retreat to Kingship: The Rise of Macedon
 II The Alexander Enigma
III The Hellenistic Kings: Picking up the Pieces
PART 5
The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic
  I Early Rome: A Meteoric Rise
 II ‘Carthage Must Be Destroyed!’
III Empire and the End of the Republic
PART 6
Empire
  I Restoring Rome: Virtue Regained, Freedom Lost
 II The Building Blocks of Empire
III In the Name of the Cross: Christianizing the Roman Empire
Concluding Thoughts
Acknowledgements
Sources of Quotations
PENGUIN BOOKS
ANCIENT WORLDS
Richard Miles is the author of Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of
an Ancient Civilization. He teaches classics at the University of Sydney and was
previously a Newton Trust Lecturer in the Faculty of Classics and Fellow and
Director of Studies at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. He has written
widely on Punic, Roman and Vandal North Africa and has directed
archaeological excavations in Carthage and Rome. Ancient Worlds was written
to accompany his highly acclaimed six-part television series of the same name,
�rst shown on BBC2.
For Maisie, Jessamy and Gabriel, with all my love
List of Maps
1.   The Ancient Near East
2.   Ancient Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean
3.   Trade in the Mediterranean
4.   The Assyrian Empire
5.   Ancient Greece
6.   The Persian Empire, c. 500 BC
7.   Greek and Phoenician Colonies
8.   Alexander’s Conquests
9.   The Hellenistic Kingdoms, c. 275 BC
10. Early Rome
11. The Western Mediterranean, c. 200 BC, and Hannibal’s Campaigns
12. The Roman Empire, 60 BC
13. The Roman Empire under Trajan
List of Illustrations
1.   Lion-hunt stele (National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad/Photographer: Tim
Kirby)
2.   Statue from Bassetki (National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad/Photographer:
Tim Kirby)
3.   Royal standard of Ur (© The Trustees of the British Museum)
4.   Victory stele of Naram-Sin (Louvre/Bridgeman Art Library)
5.   Ram-headed sphinxes (Photographer: Tim Kirby)
6.   Columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall, Karnak (Photographer: Tim Kirby)
7.   Tablets from Kanesh (Photographer: Tim Kirby)
8.   Lion Gate, Mycenae (Photographer: Tim Kirby)
9.   Fresco from Mycenae (Photographer: Tim Kirby)
10. Lion-hunt scene (© The Trustees of the British Museum)
11. Votive o�erings, National Archaeological Museum, Beirut (Philippe
Maillard/akg-images)
12. Temple of Obelisks (Photographer: Chris O’Donnell)
13. Striding lion, Ishtar Gate (Istanbul National Archaeological
Museum/Photographer: Tim Kirby)
14. Papyrus fragment (UC 1354 Recto) (Courtesy of the Center for the Tebtunis
Papyri, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)
15. Kouros (Kerameikos Museum, Athens/Photographer: Tim Kirby)
16. Riace bronze A (National Museum, Reggia Calabria/Erich Lessing/akg-
images)
17. Dipylon funerary urn (© Gustavo Tomsich/Corbis)
18. Gri�n head (Archaeological Museum of Olympia/Photographer: Tim
Kirby)
19. Corinthian helmet (Archaeological Museum of Olympia/Photographer: Tim
Kirby)
20. Peisistratos’ bodyguards (Kerameikos Museum, Athens/Photographer: Tim
Kirby)
21. Persepolis (© Michele Falzone/JAI/Corbis)
22. Leonidas statue (Museum of Classical Antiquity, Sparta/John Hios/akg-
images)
23. Hemlock pots (Agora Museum, Athens/Photographer: Tim Kirby)
24. Apamea (Photographer: Tim Kirby)
25. Bust of Alexander (© The Trustees of the British Museum)
26. Temple of Amun (© VascoPlanet, http://www.vascoplanet.com)
27. Alexandrian glass vase (© Thierry Ollivier/Musêe Guimet/Getty Images)
28. Demetrius I’s tetradrachm (© The Trustees of the British Museum)
29. Roman paperweight (© Lawrence Manning /Corbis)
30. Carthaginian pendants (National Museum of Carthage, Tunisia/© Charles
& Josette Lenars/Corbis)
31. Punic and Roman transport amphorae, Lilybaeum (Marsala Museum,
Sicily/Photographer: Chris O’Donnell)
32. Bust of Hannibal (The Quirinale, Rome/© Bettmann/Corbis)
33. Funerary monument from Lilybaeum (Marsala Museum,
Sicily/Photographer: Chris O’Donnell)
34. Tomb of the Scipios (© Araldo de Luca/Corbis)
35. Bust of Pompey the Great (© Burstein Collection/Corbis)
36. Temple of Mars Ultor, Rome (© Angelo Hornak/Corbis)
37. Cameo of Augustus (National Archaeological Museum, Naples/Alinari/The
Bridgeman Art Library)
38. The Capitol, Dougga (© Franck Guiziou/Hemis/Corbis)
39. Hunting scene, Palmyra (Palmyra Museum/Photographer: Chris O’Donnell)
40. Legionaries �ghting, Trajan’s Column (© Vittoriano Rastelli/Corbis)