#GreatCitiesOfTheAncientWorld | Reviews of Great Cities of the Ancient World in English Books| Hashreview

#GreatCitiesOfTheAncientWorld

Great Cities of the Ancient World is a 1972 history book by L. Sprague de Camp, published by Doubleday. A translation into German has also appeared.The work is a study of the ethnology, history, geography, and everyday life in such famous ancient Read More..

by L. Sprague de Camp

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Hash title	Great Cities of the Ancient World
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Description	Great Cities of the Ancient World is a 1972 history book by L. Sprague de Camp, published by Doubleday. A translation into German has also appeared.The work is a study of the ethnology, history, geography, and everyday life in such famous ancient capital cities as Thebes, Jerusalem, Nineveh, Tyre, Babylon, Memphis, Athens, Syracuse, Alexandria, Anuradhapura, Rome, Pataliputra, and Constantinople. The narrative is enlivened by personal observation, the author having personally traveled to each of the sites treated. New World sites are not treated.The author's treatment of the classical cities is typical of the rest. He started the book off with a narrative of Athens in 433/2 B.C. The narrative follows several slaves just after they wake up and are walking to work through busy polluted streets having a racist conversation and listening to the herald summon other citizens to the assembly. After this dramatic entrance, he dives into a survey of Athenian history.In the fifth century he diverts his attention to the walls and the Themistocles. The treatment of the Peloponnesian War stresses the contrast between Sparta and Athens, with the obligatory quote from the Funeral Oration and a long passage from Thucydides' reflections of the moral damage done by the war. He emphasizes the nature of the Polis and developments in art and literature as political power waned in the fourth century.
Description	Great Cities of the Ancient World is a 1972 history book by L. Sprague de Camp, published by Doubleday. A translation into German has also appeared.The work is a study of the ethnology, history, geography, and everyday life in such famous ancient capital cities as Thebes, Jerusalem, Nineveh, Tyre, Babylon, Memphis, Athens, Syracuse, Alexandria, Anuradhapura, Rome, Pataliputra, and Constantinople. The narrative is enlivened by personal observation, the author having personally traveled to each of the sites treated. New World sites are not treated.The author's treatment of the classical cities is typical of the rest. He started the book off with a narrative of Athens in 433/2 B.C. The narrative follows several slaves just after they wake up and are walking to work through busy polluted streets having a racist conversation and listening to the herald summon other citizens to the assembly. After this dramatic entrance, he dives into a survey of Athenian history.In the fifth century he diverts his attention to the walls and the Themistocles. The treatment of the Peloponnesian War stresses the contrast between Sparta and Athens, with the obligatory quote from the Funeral Oration and a long passage from Thucydides' reflections of the moral damage done by the war. He emphasizes the nature of the Polis and developments in art and literature as political power waned in the fourth century.

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Name	Great Cities of the Ancient World
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Authors	L. Sprague de Camp
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Language	English
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Country	United States
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