Ancient Greece and the Mediterranean

Ancient Greece occupied a strategic position as the central crossroads of the ancient world. It formed a meeting place between the hinterlands of a still undeveloped Europe and the great civilizations of Asia Minor and North Africa. Ancient Greece and the Mediterranean brings alive this fascinating story, beginning with the Cretan civilization of the Minoans. The book recounts the rise of the Greeks and the fate of local warlords, who gradually gave way to an emerging "middle class" merchants, craftsmen, and farmers. It goes on to relate the supreme test of the Greek spirit: the wars with Persia, in which the Greeks forestalled an invasion attempt by the mighty empire to the east. Victory over the Persians ushered in the Golden Age of Athens. Presided over by the statesman Pericles, this era saw a stream of magnificent architectural projects. Pride, however, came before a fall, with Athens's decline from glory and the rise of a northern, hitherto obscure Greek state -- Macedonia. The Macedonian, Alexander the Great, blazed an extraordinary trail of conquests across the Near East and into India. His renown as a conqueror has endured to this day: it also ensured the widest possible scattering of Greed culture, which was ultimately the ancient Greeks' most important legacy to the history of civilization.