Best historical greece biographies according to redditors
We found 90 Reddit comments discussing the best historical greece biographies. We ranked the 34 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 90 Reddit comments discussing the best historical greece biographies. We ranked the 34 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
this is totally not true. Tribes were constantly rebelling against Alexander. Alexander would pacify them, and then move forward, and then they would rebel again. Alexander never had complete control over the lands he conquered.
He also did not exactly embrace cultures - in Anatolia he consistently overthrew the local oligarchy governments to set up democracies that would work in his favor. While this may sound like a nice act, Alexander also over threw democracies in Greece to set up oligarchies - he did whatever was necessary to consolidate his own power.
Third, Alexander the great was never known as the great in his time. The roman's gave Alexander the title the great because they wanted to justify their own imperial conquests. The Romans turned Alexander into a symbol for their own purposes.
Fourth, and the reason why Alexander did embrace Persian culture, was that Alexander was of mixed blood. Alexander's mother, Olympia, was from Epirus, a rival tribe to the Macedonians. Macedonians looked down upon Epirus as being a backward and savage place. Alexander, consequently, was looked down upon for being of mixed blood. In fact, Alexander's father tried to murder Alexander when Alexander was 16 so that his new son, whom his 5th wife had just birthed, and who was of pure Macedonian blood, would take over the throne. After fleeing into exile, two years later Alexander and Olympia plotted together to convince one Phillip's guards to assassinate Philip, and thats how Alexander became king.
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Macedon-356-323-B-C-Historical/dp/0520071662
tl:dr; Alexander wasn't a nice guy, but no one can be a nice guy he is playing the game of thrones.
The Alexiad very understandable source material written by the Princess Anna during her father Alexios I Komnenos reign.
Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe this is a tale that every CK2 player would enjoy reading. Published 2007 both well written and well researched. It's the story of one count of Provence who each rose to be influential queens of England, France, Germany and Sicily. There's also more than a bit on when some of them accompanied their husbands on crusade.
Chin Up /u/Bit_By_Bit
Read the original, it's not daunting! Xenophon is by far the most readable of all the Greek historians. You'll get a bit bored at first as he documents the progress of the army of Kyros the Younger by days and parasangs, but it gets more exciting after Book 1. Free translation here or check out Rex Warner's Penguin Classics edition. The bit about Nineveh is here (Anabasis 3.4.10-12).
What are the best books on Hannibal (particularly ones that may have been overlooked)?
Personally I like Lazenby's Hannibal's War (for the academically inclined) and Dodge's Hannibal (for a general audience).
EDIT:
For those interested in learning more about Hannibal, here are my top picks from books actually on my book shelf:
And recommendations and from /u/gevemacd :
Rubicon by Tom Holland is perhaps the most popular of recent histories. It's a very well written history of the fall of the Republic. Holland has a particularly modern style. I recommend it.
Swords Against the Senate covers roughly the same period, but focuses on the influence and actions of the Roman Army during the period. Slightly more "scholarly", but equally interesting, particularly if you have an interest in the Roman military.
Anthony Everritt's much lauded biographies of famous Romans includes the excellent Cicero and Augustus, both of also deal with the autumnal years of the Republic, but obviously in the context of these two great men and the events that they lived through. I think Cicero is perhaps one of the best biographies I've ever read. Everitt also wrote a bio of Hadrain, which I have yet to get to, and the fascinating sounding The Rise of Rome, to be published later this year.
On a more broad scale, there is Robin Lane Fox's best selling The Classical Age, which covers Greek and Roman history from the earliest times to the Fall of the Empire.
Finally, Emperors Don't Die in Bed sounds exactly like what you're looking for. It's not the cheapest book, but it does offer potted biographies of the the most famous Roman Emperors and their down-fall. Fascinating stuff!
More?
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it.
Unfortunately I don't know ancient Greek, so I had to rely on translations. I tried to use several translations and compare and contrast. My two favorites: The Oxford World Classics and The Landmark Arrian.
So I didn't look for linguistic similarities, but more subject matter similarities and what I knew to be Ptolemy's bias.
Random selection of some of my favorites to help you expand your horizons:
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is a great introduction to scientific skepticism.
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris is a succinct refutation of Christianity as it's generally practiced in the US employing crystal-clear logic.
Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor by Anthony Everitt is the best biography of one of the most interesting men in history, in my personal opinion.
Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski is a jaw-dropping book on history, journalism, travel, contemporary events, philosophy.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a great tome about... everything. Physics, history, biology, art... Plus he's funny as hell. (Check out his In a Sunburned Country for a side-splitting account of his trip to Australia).
The Annotated Mona Lisa by Carol Strickland is a thorough primer on art history. Get it before going to any major museum (Met, Louvre, Tate Modern, Prado, etc).
Not the Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier is a detailed refutation of the whole 'Christianity could not have survived the early years if it weren't for god's providence' argument.
Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman are six of the easier chapters from his '63 Lectures on Physics delivered at CalTech. If you like it and really want to be mind-fucked with science, his QED is a great book on quantum electrodynamics direct from the master.
Lucy's Legacy by Donald Johanson will give you a really great understanding of our family history (homo, australopithecus, ardipithecus, etc). Equally good are Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade and Mapping Human History by Steve Olson, though I personally enjoyed Before the Dawn slightly more.
Memory and the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel gives you context for all the Bible stories by detailing contemporaneous events from the Levant, Italy, Greece, Egypt, etc.
After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton is an awesome read if you don't know much about Islam and its early history.
Happy reading!
edit: Also, check out the Reasonable Doubts podcast.
I've recently posted twice on the Anabasis of Xenophon. Great story, based on true events, of a 10k strong Greek mercenary army that enters Persia to help a pretender to the throne, Cyrus, who gets killed in the first battle, Cunaxa, 399 B.C. The army is now behind enemy lines, and Xenophon, student of Plato, from whom he learnt the art of rhetoric, organizes this army, and they march northward, along the Euphrates, to the Black Sea, via Armenia. The novel is about how does this young man organize the return of this massive army, with its soldiers having identity struggles within the army (think Athens vs Sparta), and how this affects their ability to work together in their common struggle to return home.
In terms of translations, you have either W.H.D. Rouse or Rex Warner. Also this is the story that the [Warriors film is based on](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warriors_(film)
The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian
"The Letters Of The Younger Pliny" by Pliny the Younger.
This dude was some bigwig in Roman times. Ran a country that was owned by Rome. His letters are cool for a number of reasons, but some of the highlights are:
> Of course these details are not important enough for history, and you will read them without any idea of recording them; if they seem scarcely worth putting in a letter, you have only yourself to blame for asking them.
Basically, it's a direct step into the life of a dude who lived 2,000 years ago. In his own words.
K, kids? I know you and your rocking and rolling. But there's seriously hip stuff from ancient dudes too. Check it out, YOLO and so forth.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1781395136?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
So annoyed its out of stock, cant seem to find it in a bookshop near me either.
There's an edition published by Benediction Classics that is complete. It's 1008 pages long.
The same complete translation was also published by the Modern Library in one volume in 1975. You might be able to find a secondhand copy.
Both books are the 1859 revision by Clough of the so-called Dryden translation.
Check out the book.
I will definitely look into that and may I suggest this book in return
http://www.amazon.com/Philip-II-Macedonia-Greater-Alexander/dp/1597975192/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419107532
Pretty much all of the books about Alexander the Great are based on Arrian, Plutarch, and (had to look it up) Rufus. I found Arrian very readable, and now that there is a Landmark Arrian, you might as well read it. There are maps on almost every page. It's pretty sweet.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Landmark-Arrian-Campaigns-Alexander/dp/1400079675
Ahaha, right - well, for Alexander the Great you'll of course be spoilt for choices on secondary reading. There will be newer books than Peter Green's biography on Alexander but Green's a veteran on the subject and absolutely solid classical scholar. I think those Blackwell and Brill companions will still be good sources for secondary reading.
The Wikipedia page on historiography of Alexander the Great is a good place to start for ancient sources, if you haven't seen it yet. Life of Alexander by Plutarch will be on the same book that I recommended for you above.
I've had Davies since high school and he's never failed me as a jumping off point into different periods and civilizations.
Also, Hansen is quite good at describing Hoplite warfare with an uncanny knack for the soldeir's perspective.
Everitt is great for looking at the fall of the Roman republic from Cicero's perspective. He also has a good book on Pompey but I have yet to read it.
These are the first 3 books I pulled off my shelf next to my desk, there are more but Ancient history is pretty broad (and two of my books arguably are classical rather than ancient), I'm not going to make an exhaustive list though, because well, that would be exhausting.
I find Hannibal Barca to be fascinating and love reading about him. Depends on what aspect you want to read about though. For me the Punic Wars and especially the Second Punic war are incredible to study. Here are some of the books on him that I liked.
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
https://www.amazon.com/dp/080701429X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_JQnkDbPF9HNJ9
The Last Days of Socrates by Plato
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140449280/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_CRnkDb8FCT0YF
>Admittedly, analytical philosophy is the only type that has any real significance in the world of academia.
This has been a waning truth since 2001.
>The fairly traditional introductory text is "The Republic" by Plato. A massively influential work, and it is easy to read, not difficult to follow, and not bogged down by jargon like most modern philosophy. However, you might find it fairly boring.
Try The Last Days of Socrates.
Sure! You can start with Pliny the Elder himself, then read his nephew, Pliny the Younger and the letters he wrote to people across the Roman Empire. Then The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbons is a classic - and much easier to read that it sounds like it would be.
For Ancient Greece, Read Homer's The Illiad and The Odyssey. Then read anything you can get your hands on by Sophocles, Seneca, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Herodotus and Plutarch, as your interest leads you.
For the story of Alexander's campaigns, read the contemporary histories, The Anabasis and The Indica, written by Arrian.
My favorites are Pliny's Natural History, the letters of Pliny the Younger, Gibbons' Decline and Fall, Homer's The Illiad and The Odyssey, Arrian's Anabasis and Indica, and the medical histories of Hippocrates.
Have fun! It's a fascinating history, spanning centuries and continents. You'll probably want to get a summary history at some point, just to get all of these different time periods and major players in context. There are lots of them, so just look for something you find readable. What i love is being able to read about the time from people that were alive and writing then. Like when Pliny the Younger writes about his uncle, Pliny the Elder's, death while exploring the volcano that destroyed Pompei. It makes it feel like something that happened yesterday.
Happened in about 200BC, didn't it?
Book
Is there a part of the world you'd like to focus on? Fiction v. non-fiction?
I personally have always enjoyed reading Robert Kaplan and Michael J. Totten especially (Totten lived in Beirut in the 2000s).
There's a new book out called "Hannibal: A Hellenistic Life" that offers some really good context and analysis from the Carthaginian perspective of the war.
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
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This one is excellent for the immediate aftermath of Alexander's death. The author I feel tackles the insane cast very well.
This is better for the actual wars themselves and getting a good idea of each of the Diadochi. I felt he could jump around a little, but that's just my preference of reading history.
This book is good if you want a shorter read. Its split into two parts, one being about the actual situation and the other being about the battles and tactics used amongst the Diadochi. I found it's biggest problem to be taking people like Plutarch as gospel - the book is too short to really discuss the source material whereas the other two were more willing to do so.
Book about Socrates
Book about socrates
Book about Socrates
Go read some Socrates
If you're looking for a textbook, try this. It's pretty informative as an overview of Ancient Greece, from the stone age up to (and including some of the) Roman Empire, and it also covers how we know what we know (the archaeology and anthropology). If you supplement it with this and this, as well as Plutarch, you'll get the entirety of my Ancient Greek History course. I'm sure these books are available in libraries as well, and some of the primary source material is also available online (especially Plutarch).
I always find it hard to judge how well known a book is, but here are some I loved that I hardly ever see get any mention on Reddit:
Found! https://www.amazon.ca/Letters-Younger-Pliny/dp/0140441271/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517681712&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=pliny+the+younger+Betty+Raddice. Awesome. I will check this out!
For his campaigns, this is a great edition of the main history we have (has maps, appendices on important topics etc.)
​
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Landmark-Arrian-Campaigns-Alexander-Anchor/dp/1400079675/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549829953&sr=8-1&keywords=landmark+arrian
UK Link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alexander-Great-Beginning-Military-Generals-ebook/dp/B01D8DIOPS/
UK Link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alexander-Great-Beginning-Military-Generals-ebook/dp/B01D8DIOPS/
You should definitely read about Alexander the Great. He was one of the most amazing characters in any history of the world. The things he accomplished were greater than some mythological tales. He was viewed as a god by many. His teacher was Aristotle. He conquered the known world and beyond at the time. And he died at 33.
This is a good very historical version.
Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520071662/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_O.0vzbKZ5PRVF
Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography
https://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Macedon-356-323-B-C-Historical/dp/0520071662
Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization
https://www.amazon.com/Lost-West-Forgotten-Byzantine-Civilization/dp/0307407969
Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War (General Military)
https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Desert-Ancient-General-Military/dp/1846031087
Didn't read many books besides the one from Billows, but I've heard a few people recommend these.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Legacy-Alexander-Propaganda-Successors/dp/0198153066/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_3
http://www.amazon.com/Alexanders-Successors-323-281-Commanders-Campaigns/dp/184415761X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250078968&sr=8-1
For individual Diadochi:
http://www.amazon.com/Lysimachus-Study-Early-Hellenistic-Kingship/dp/0415070619/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250076907&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Seleukos-Nikator-Constructing-Hellenistic-Kingdom/dp/0415047013/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250077394&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Ptolemy-Egypt-Walter-M-Ellis/dp/0415100208/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250077806&sr=1-1
History of Macedon and Diadochi in general:
http://www.amazon.com/History-Macedonia-336-167-B-C-Macedonia/dp/0198148151/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250077079&sr=1-1
ob·jec·tive
adjective
>(of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.
___
Is it possible for any human being to express their opinion on their interpretation of ART without being influenced by personal feelings or taste?
If your answer is yes, go study more about logic and get back to me about how that makes no sense.
If your answer is no, congrats... you are now closer to understanding my point than you were before.
The theory of GRAVITY is objective because so far, it cannot be disputed and it is empirically testable.
What you believe to be "Clever Rhyming" is NOT.
...and sure, if it makes you happy... I am dumb, you are smart.
Why are you guys acting like I'm the first one to come up with the idea that Alexander the Great wasn't so great? There's been many authors that have taken a skeptical look at the historical dick-riding that Alexander has gotten.