Juno's aeneid

A major new interpretation of Vergil's epic poem as a struggle between two incompatible versions of the Homeric heroThis compelling book offers an entirely new way of understanding the Aeneid. Many scholars regard Vergil's poem as an attempt to combine Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey into a single epic...

Life as told by a sapiens to a neanderthal

Prehistory is all around us. We just need to know where to look. Juan José Millás has always felt like he doesn’t quite fit into human society. Sometimes he wonders if he is even a Homo sapiens at all, or something simpler. Perhaps he is a Neanderthal who somehow survived? So he turns to Juan Lui...

Love, war, and diplomacy

From the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C., a spellbinding account of the archaeological find that opened a window onto the vibrant diplomatic world of the ancient Near EastIn 1887, an Egyptian woman made an astonishing discovery among the ruins of the heretic king Akhenaten’s capital city, a site no...

Making silence speak

This collection attempts to recover the voices of women in antiquity from a variety of perspectives: how they spoke, where they could be heard, and how their speech was adopted in literature and public discourse. Rather than confirming the old model of binary oppositions in which women's speech w...

Masada

The dramatic story of the last stand of a group of Jewish rebels who held out against the Roman Empire, as revealed by the archaeology of its famous siteTwo thousand years ago, 967 Jewish men, women, and children—the last holdouts of the revolt against Rome following the fall of Jerusalem and the...

Mass and elite in democratic athens

Men of bronze

A major contribution to the debate over ancient Greek warfare by some of the world's leading scholarsMen of Bronze takes up one of the most important and fiercely debated subjects in ancient history and classics: how did archaic Greek hoplites fight, and what role, if any, did hoplite warfare pla...

Mushrooms, myth and mithras

A fascinating tour of the mushroom-centered mystery religions which have profoundly influenced Western civilization.

Nothing to do with dionysos?

These critically diverse and innovative essays are aimed at restoring the social context of ancient Greek drama. Theatrical productions, which included music and dancing, were civic events in honor of the god Dionysos and were attended by a politically stratified community, whose delegates handle...

Olympia

A comprehensive and richly illustrated history of one of the most important athletic, religious, and political sites in the ancient Greek and Roman worldThe memory of ancient Olympia lives on in the form of the modern Olympic Games. But in the ancient world, Olympia was renowned for far more than...

Origins of the just war

A groundbreaking history of the ethics of war in the ancient Near EastOrigins of the Just War reveals the incredible richness and complexity of ethical thought about war in the three millennia preceding the Greco-Roman period, establishing the extent to which ancient just war thought prefigured m...

Out of one, many

A sweeping new account of ancient Greek culture and its remarkable diversityCovering the whole of the ancient Greek experience from its beginnings late in the third millennium BCE to the Roman conquest in 30 BCE, Out of One, Many is an accessible and lively introduction to the Greeks and their wa...

Pliny's roman economy

The first comprehensive study of Pliny the Elder’s economic thought—and its implications for understanding the Roman Empire’s constrained innovation and economic growthThe elder Pliny’s Natural History (77 CE), an astonishing compilation of 20,000 “things worth knowing,” was avowedly intended to ...

Polis

A definitive new history of the origins, evolution, and scope of the ancient Greek city-stateThe Greek polis, or city-state, was a resilient and adaptable political institution founded on the principles of citizenship, freedom, and equality. Emerging around 650 BCE and enduring to 350 CE, it offe...

Private life in new kingdom egypt

Much of the literature on ancient Egypt centers on pharaohs or on elite conceptions of the afterlife. This scintillating book examines how ordinary ancient Egyptians lived their lives. Drawing on the remarkably rich and detailed archaeological, iconographic, and textual evidence from some 450 yea...

Prometheus

A landmark account of the Prometheus story as myth and archetypeThe god Prometheus stole fire from heaven and bestowed it on humans. In punishment, Zeus chained him to a rock, where an eagle clawed unceasingly at his liver until Herakles freed him. For the Greeks, the myth of Prometheus’s release...

Ravenna

A riveting history of the city that led the West out of the ruins of the Roman EmpireAt the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. Here, in Ravenna on the coast of Italy, Arian Goths and Cathol...

Rehearsals of manhood

A bold reconception of ancient Greek drama by one of the most brilliant and original classical scholars of his generationWhen John Winkler died in 1990, he left an unpublished manuscript containing a highly original interpretation of the development and meaning of ancient Greek drama. Rehearsals ...

Rehearsals of manhood

A bold reconception of ancient Greek drama by one of the most brilliant and original classical scholars of his generationWhen John Winkler died in 1990, he left an unpublished manuscript containing a highly original interpretation of the development and meaning of ancient Greek drama. Rehearsals ...

Rethinking the other in antiquity

Prevalent among classicists today is the notion that Greeks, Romans, and Jews enhanced their own self-perception by contrasting themselves with the so-called Other--Egyptians, Phoenicians, Ethiopians, Gauls, and other foreigners--frequently through hostile stereotypes, distortions, and caricature...

Rome is burning

Drawing on new archaeological evidence, an authoritative history of Rome’s Great Fire—and how it inflicted lasting harm on the Roman EmpireAccording to legend, the Roman emperor Nero set fire to his majestic imperial capital on the night of July 19, AD 64 and fiddled while the city burned. It’s a...

Sea of treasures

How goods and people in motion across the ancient world were entangled through consumptionThe ancient world was a far more interconnected place than is often assumed. Maritime routes across the Indian Ocean, by no means peripheral, made these connections possible. In Sea of Treasures, Jeremy Simm...

Slaving states

A pathbreaking new perspective on the ways ancient societies were shaped and transformed by slave tradingThe growing economies of ancient Greece and Rome created an ever-increasing demand for enslaved labor, which was supplied by states on the peripheries of their empires. In Slaving States, arch...

Status in classical athens

Ancient Greek literature, Athenian civic ideology, and modern classical scholarship have all worked together to reinforce the idea that there were three neatly defined status groups in classical Athens--citizens, slaves, and resident foreigners. But this book--the first comprehensive account of s...

Strabo's geography

A lively new translation of Strabo’s complete Geography—an encyclopedic guide to the ancient world of the first century CE—connecting it with the world of the twenty-first centuryStrabo’s Geography is an encyclopedic description of the ancient world as it appeared to a contemporary observer in th...

Studies on pre-capitalist modes of production

This collection represents a wide-ranging and important new contribution to the historical debate of how to understand pre-capitalist societies.

That tyrant, persuasion

How rhetorical training influenced deeds as well as words in the Roman EmpireThe assassins of Julius Caesar cried out that they had killed a tyrant, and days later their colleagues in the Senate proposed rewards for this act of tyrannicide. The killers and their supporters spoke as if they were f...

The ancient interpretation of dreams

The first book-length study of dream interpretation in classical GreeceLong before Freud, dreams and how to make sense of them fascinated ancient thinkers. In The Ancient Interpretation of Dreams, Mirjam Kotwick traces a continuous intellectual practice of dream interpretation across a range of a...

The ancient mariners

Written by the renowned authority on ancient ships and seafaring Lionel Casson, The Ancient Mariners has long served the needs of all who are interested in the sea, from the casual reader to the professional historian. This completely revised edition takes into account the fresh information that ...

The ancient near east

Two classic illustrated anthologies, now combined in one convenient volumeJames Pritchard's classic anthologies of the ancient Near East have introduced generations of readers to texts essential for understanding the peoples and cultures of this important region. Now these two enduring works have...

The art of running

Join Andrea Marcolongo, renowned classicist and one of today’s most original thinkers on antiquity, for an inspiring journey as she learns to run—and to live—like a Greek. Why do we run? To what end, all the effort and pain? Wherefore this love of muscle, speed, and sweat? The Greeks were the fir...

The birth of politics

A lively and accessible introduction to the Greek and Roman origins of our political ideasIn The Birth of Politics, Melissa Lane introduces the reader to the foundations of Western political thought, from the Greeks, who invented democracy, to the Romans, who created a republic and then transform...

The end of the bronze age

The Bronze Age came to a close early in the twelfth century b.c. with one of the worst calamities in history: over a period of several decades, destruction descended upon key cities throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, bringing to an end the Levantine, Hittite, Trojan, and Mycenaean kingdoms and...

The fall of republics

What caused the world’s great republics to fall—and what their fate reveals about the dangers facing modern democracies todayIn this timely book, distinguished historian Thomas Madden explores the people, events, and factors that led to the collapse of some of the world’s most enduring republics—...

The first fossil hunters

The fascinating story of how the fossils of dinosaurs, mammoths, and other extinct animals influenced some of the most spectacular creatures of classical mythologyGriffins, Centaurs, Cyclopes, and Giants—these fabulous creatures of classical mythology continue to live in the modern imagination th...

The folds of olympus

A cultural and literary history of mountains in classical antiquityThe mountainous character of the Mediterranean was a crucial factor in the history of the ancient Greek and Roman world. The Folds of Olympus is a cultural and literary history that explores the important role mountains played in ...

The four heavens

“An extraordinary recovery of a lost world.”—Peter Brown, author of The World of Late AntiquityFrom the world-leading expert on the Maya, a monumental history of a flourishing civilization across three millenniaThe Four Heavens brings to life the cultural and visual splendor of the ancient Maya, ...

The gardens of adonis

Rich with implications for the history of sexuality, gender issues, and patterns of Hellenic literary imagining, Marcel Detienne's landmark book recasts long-standing ideas about the fertility myth of Adonis. The author challenges Sir James Frazer's thesis that the vegetation god Adonis-- whose p...

The greek experience of india

An exploration of how the Greeks reacted to and interacted with India from the third to first centuries BCEWhen the Greeks and Macedonians in Alexander’s army reached India in 326 BCE, they entered a new world. The plants were unrecognizable, the customs of the people various and puzzling. Alexan...

The homeric hymn to demeter

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, composed in the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.E., is a key to understanding the psychological and religious world of ancient Greek women. The poem tells how Hades, lord of the underworld, abducted the goddess Persephone and how her grieving mother, Demeter, ...

The horse, the wheel, and language

"A fascinating look into the origins of modern man."—Publishers WeeklyA book that solves the mystery of the people who spread the ancient mother tongue that gave us English and the other languages spoken by half of humanity today"Authoritative."—New York Times • "A masterpiece."—Wilson QuarterlyR...

The last pharaohs

The history of Ptolemaic Egypt has usually been doubly isolated--separated both from the history of other Hellenistic states and from the history of ancient Egypt. The Last Pharaohs, the first detailed history of Ptolemaic Egypt as a state, departs radically from previous studies by putting the P...