From acclaimed archaeologist and bestselling author Eric Cline, a breathtaking account of how the collapse of an ancient civilised world ushered in the first Dark Ages

Modern receptions of Graeco-Roman Antiquity are important ideological markers of the ways we envisage our own twenty-first-century societies. An urgent topic of study is: what kinds of narratives – sometimes controversial – about Antiquity do people create for themselves at this moment in time, and for what reasons? This volume aims to showcase a number of illustrative examples, and thus to provide a deeper understanding of twenty-first-century reception of Antiquity.

After a general intr...

"The Republic" is a philosophical work written by Plato, one of the most important and influential thinkers in Western philosophy. The book is a dialogue between Socrates and several other Athenians, in which they discuss the nature of justice, the ideal society, and the human soul.

In the book, Socrates argues that justice is not only desirable for its own sake but is also necessary for a well-functioning society. He proposes that the ideal society would be one in which individuals are assig...

The European Beta-tradition is the second in the series of five Homeric oral traditions that Ward Blondé discovered in the Iliad. In contrast to the Mykenaian Alpha-tradition, the Beta-tradition has its origins in the proto-Celtic Europe of the Tumulus and Urnfield cultures; it describes a society of clans who fought each other to death on the battlefield. The European Beta-tradition is so realistic and varied in its descriptions that it must have originated in a warrior culture.

Blondé’s...

"Old Greek Stories" is a collection of Greek myths and legends retold by James Baldwin. The book includes tales of gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, as well as famous events from Greek history and culture. Baldwin's engaging writing style brings these stories to life for readers of all ages, from the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts to the labors of Hercules, and the Trojan War. The book also includes informative introductions and notes that provide context and background informat...

This book explains, by following the mainstream of the history of computus (i.e. Paschal reckoning developed from early third century for determining Julian or Alexandrian calendar dates of Paschal Sunday) which shortly after AD 250 rose in Alexandria (Egypt) to ultimately in AD 1582 (turning point in the history of chronology) flow into a more realistic method for determining Gregorian calendar dates of Easter, how at the time calendar dates of Paschal Sunday depended on phases of the moon ...

"Sophist" is a dialogue written by Plato in the 4th century BC. It is part of his tetralogy of works on the nature of reality, which also includes the "Republic," the "Timaeus," and the "Critias."

The dialogue centers around the nature of the sophist, a type of professional educator who was skilled in the art of rhetoric and persuasion. Socrates engages in a discussion with several other interlocutors, including a visitor from Elea named Theaetetus and a group of sophists, who claim to be exp...