Best of
Ancient

2001

The Complete Plays


Sophocles - 2001
    This collection includes the revised and updated translations by Paul Roche of the Oedipus cycle, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone, as well as all-new translations of Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philocetes.

The Lost Book of Enki


Zecharia Sitchin - 2001
    Missing from these accounts, however, was the perspective of the Anunnaki themselves. What was life like on their own planet? What motives propelled them to settle on Earth - and what drove them from their new home? Convinced of the existence of an actual autobiography of Enki - a lost book that held the answers to these questions - the author began his search for evidence. Through exhaustive research of primary sources, and using actual discovered portions of the ancient text as "scaffolding," he has here re-created the memoirs of Enki, the leader of these first "astronauts." What takes shape is the story that begins on another world, a story of mounting tensions, survival dangers and royal succession rivalries, and sophisticated scientific knowledge concerning human origins that is only today being confirmed. An epic tale of gods and men unfolds that parallels the Bible and may challenge every assumption we hold about our past and our future.An eminent Orientalist and Biblical scholar, Zecharia Sitchin is distinquished by his ability to read Sumerian clay tablets and other ancient texts. He is a graduate of the University of London and worked as a journalist and editor in Israel for many years.(Description from the back cover of trade paperback edition)

Daily Life at the Time of Jesus


Miriam Feinberg Vamosh - 2001
    From the inspiring historical background of the unique period which has affected the lives of so many to the succinct, in-depth explanations that accompany each illustration, this is a perfect book for all ages.

Sword And Sorceress XVIII


Marion Zimmer BradleyLawrence Watt-Evans - 2001
    PaxsonLessons Learned · Kati Doughery-CarthumKendat’s Ax · Jan CombsThe Tower of Song · Howard HolmanThe Needed Stone · Denise Lopes HealdArmageddon · Lisa S. SilverthorneThe Land of Graves · Dave SmedsLight · Susan Urbanek LinvilleIn the Sacred Places of the Earth · Dorothy J. HeydtThe Glass Sword · Richard CorwinBed of Roses · Elisabeth WatersSword of Peace · Lucy Cohen SchmeidlerThe Fall of the Kingdom · Mary Soon LeeArms and the Woman · Lawrence Watt-EvansThe Stone Wives · Michael Chesley JohnsonTiger’s Eye · India EdghillRaven-Wings on the Snow · Pauline J. AlamaLittle Rogue Riding Hood · Rosemary EdghillThe Queen in Yellow · Gerald PerkinsMagic Threads · Pete D. Manison

Journey to the Cross: The Complete Easter Story for Young Readers


Helen C. Haidle - 2001
    Sidebars will show how Jesus Christ is the exact fulfillment of prophecy

The History of Greek Vases


John Boardman - 2001
    It provides a continuous commentary on all other Greek arts, even sculpture, and the scenes figured on the vases can prove to be as subtle and informative as the great works of Greek literature. In no other art of antiquity do we come closer to the visual experience of the ancient Greeks, or are we able to observe so clearly their views on life, myth, and even politics. John Boardman has demonstrated the stylistic history of Greek vases in other Thames Hudson titles; as he writes, the subject "is a central one to classical archaeology and art, and dare not be ignored by students of any other ancient medium, or indeed of any other classical discipline."Here Boardman sketches that history but goes on to explore many other matters that make the study so fruitful. He describes the processes of identifying artists, the methods of making and decorating the vases, the life of the potters' quarter in Greek towns, and the way in which the wares were traded far beyond the borders of the Greek world. Boardman shows how Greek artists exercised a style of narrative in art that was long influential in the West, and how their pictures reflected not simply on storytelling but also on the politics and social order of the day.

Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology


Ian M. Plant - 2001
    Edited by I. M. Plant, Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome is a comprehensive anthology of the surviving literary texts of women writers from the Graeco-Roman world that offers new English translations from the works of more than fifty women.From Sappho, who lived in the seventh century B.C., to Eudocia and Egeria of the fifth century A.D., the texts presented here come from a wide range of sources and span the fields of poetry and prose. Each author is introduced with a critical review of what we know about the writer, her work, and its significance, along with a discussion of the texts that follow. A general introduction looks into the problem of the authenticity of some texts attributed to women and places their literature into the wider literary and social contexts of the ancient Graeco-Roman world.

Puerilities: Erotic Epigrams of The Greek Anthology


Anonymous - 2001
    It is a delightful eroticopia of short poems by great and lesser-known Greek poets, spanning hundreds of years, from ancient times to the late Christian era.The epigrams--wry, wistful, lighthearted, libidinous, and sometimes bawdy--revel in the beauty and fickle affection of boys and young men and in the fleeting joys of older men in loving them. Some, doubtless bandied about in the lax and refined setting of banquets, are translated as limericks. Also included are a few fine and often funny poems about girls and women.Fashion changes in morality as well as in poetry. The sort of attachment that inspired these verses was considered perfectly normal and respectable for over a thousand years. Some of the very best Greek poets--including Strato of Sardis, Theocritus, and Meleager of Gadara--are to be found in these pages. The more than two hundred fifty poems range from the lovely to the playful to the ribald, but all are, as an epigram should be, polished and elegant. The Greek originals face the translations, enhancing the volume's charm.A friend of Youth, I have no youth in mind, For each has beauties, of a different kind. --StratoI've had enough to drink; my heart and soul As well as tongue are losing self-control. The lamp flame bifurcates; I multiply The dinner guests by two each time I try. Not only shaken up by the wine-waiter, I ogle too the boy who pours the water. --StratoVenus, denying Cupid is her son, Finds in Antiochus a better one. This is the boy to be enamored of, Boys, a new love superior to Love. --Meleager

Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite


Frank R. Trombley - 2001
    Although that conflict is treated in other ancient texts, none of them can match "Joshua" in his wealth of detail, his familiarity with the region where the hostilities occurred, and his proximity in time to the events. The Chronicle also vividly describes the famine and plague that swept through Edessa in the years immediately before the war. The work is a document of great importance for both the social and military history of late antiquity, remarkable for the information it provides on Roman and Persian empires alike.

Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from the British Museum


Edna Russmann - 2001
    Created to accompany one of the greatest loan exhibitions ever to have been mounted from the collections of the British Museum, Eternal Egypt illustrates the development and achievements of ancient Egyptian art over a period of more than 3,000 years. Almost all of the artifacts have been drawn from the Museum's permanent exhibitions; many are among the finest examples of their kind to have survived from antiquity. Handsomely produced, this book reveals these objects—including sculpture, relief, papyri, hieroglyphic writing, jewelry, painting, cosmetic objects, and items of funerary equipment—as a means of extraordinary artistic expression rather than simply as historical documents. The book and the exhibit, which will travel to eight U.S. cities over the course of three years, provide a remarkable opportunity to explore the creative genius of one of the world's most extraordinary civilizations.Eternal Egypt features the unique and innovative aspects of art from each period, as well as characteristic styles, forms, and genres. Edna Russmann, one of the world's leading authorities on ancient Egyptian art and curator of the exhibition, offers a wide-ranging and authoritative introductory essay that covers archaism, portraiture, and stylistic innovation in Egyptian art. The text also relates the history of the British Museum collection of Egyptian antiquities, showing how these exquisite art works came together. Each piece in the exhibition is given a separate explanatory entry in the book. With its superb color photographs and accessible yet informative text, Eternal Egypt marks a substantial step forward in scholarly understanding of its subject, embodying the results of the very latest research and containing many new and original insights and observations. It will be a must read for anyone with a passion for ancient Egypt.Published in association with the American Federation of Arts by arrangement with the British Museum Press

Dictionary of Ancient & Medieval Warfare


Matthew Bennett - 2001
    A comprehensive guide to the battles, commanders, tactics, formations, fortifications, and weapons of war in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and Japan from ancient times to the 16th century.

The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine


Patricia Southern - 2001
    Yet the intervening years have traditionally been seen as a period of crisis. The 260s saw the nadir of Imperial fortunes, with every frontier threatened or overrun, the senior emperor imprisoned by the Persians, and Gaul and Palmyra breaking away from central control. It might have been thought that the empire should have collapsed - yet it did not.Pat Southern shows how this was possible by providing a chronological history of the Empire from the end of the second century to the beginning of the fourth; the emergence and devastating activities of the Germanic tribes and the Persian Empire are analysed, and a conclusion details the economic, military and social aspects of the third century 'crisis'.

Chauvet Cave


Jean-Marie Chauvet - 2001
    Inside, they picked out traces of colour on the cave walls: pictures of a mammoth, a huge bear, rhinoceroses and lions.

Sparta


Michael Whitby - 2001
    and the great rival of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries. Michael Whitby presents essays on key aspects of Spartan history and society, by some of the leading classicists in the world, such as Paul Cartledge, Anton Powell, and Stephen Hodkinson.

Constantine and the Christian Empire


Charles Matson Odahl - 2001
    Odahl has written a fascinating account of the life and reign of the first Christian emperor of the Roman world.Drawing on over a quarter of a century of research on sources relevant to the period and retracing the journeys made by Constantine across Europe and around the Mediterranean basin, this up-to-date biography provides students with a comprehensive knowledge of literary sources and research into the archaeology of the Constantinian era, and enables a more rounded and accurate portrait than has previously been available.Illustrated with ninety-two photographs and eight maps, Constantine and the Christian Empire is the standard work on the man and his life for scholars, students, and all those interested in Roman imperial, early Christian, and Byzantine imperial history.

The Battle of Red Cliffs from Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Young Learners Classic Readers)


Luo Guanzhong - 2001
    He wants to control all of China. But there are strong generals in the south who are ready to fight him. The problem is that Cao Cao’s army is very large. How can the smaller army in the south fight him? They need a clever man to lead them. Zhou Yu believes Zhuge Liang might be that man. But can Zhuge Liang be trusted? The fate of China may be decided as the armies meet to battle at Red Cliffs.

The Chinese Classics. With A Translation, Critical And Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, And Copious Indexes: Volume 1. Confucian Analects, The Great Learning, And The Doctrine Of The Mean


James Legge - 2001
    Second edition, revised

Rock Art and Ruins for Beginners and Old Guys


Albert B. Scholl Jr. - 2001
    It shows a real understanding of the earliest inhabitants of North America, who populated the Southwest from approximately 8000 B.C. to AD 1300. The author gives detailed directions to rock art and ruin sites, which were left behind by these inhabitants, in the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. The book is beautifully illustrated with 23 full color photographs and 46 black and white photographs. There are seventeen chapters on rock art sites, seven chapters on practical information such as food/cooking, camping, day hiking, photography, conditioning, etc. and three introductory chapters on prehistory and the different theories concerning the emergence and disappearance of the these archaic people, who are sometimes called the "Anasazi". The book is educational, practical and humorous.

The Proof of the Gospel; Two Volumes in One


Eusebius - 2001
    B. Lightfoot ranked Eusebius's Preparation for the Gospel and Proof of the Gospel together as ""probably the most important apologetic work of the Early church.""

The Parthenon Frieze [With CDROM]


Jenifer Neils - 2001
    This study by classical archaeologist and art historian Jenifer Neils breaks new ground by considering all aspects of this complex and controversial monument. Although the frieze has been studied for over two hundred years, most scholarship has sought an overall interpretation of the iconography rather than focusing on the sculpture's visual language, essential for a full understanding of the narrative. Neils' study not only decodes the language of the frieze, but also analyzes its conception and design, style and content, as well as its impact on later art. Unusual for its wide-ranging approach to the frieze, this book also brings ethical reasoning to bear on the issue of its possible repatriation as part of the on-going Elgin Marble debate. As one of the foremost examples of the high classical style and the finest expression of mid-fifth century Athenian ideology, the Parthenon frieze is without doubt one of the major monuments of western civilization, and as such deserves to be understood in all its dimensions. The accompanying CD-ROM contains a virtual reality Macromedia Director movie of the complete frieze, based on the plaster casts in the Skulpturhalle in Basel, Switzerland. Developed by Rachel Rosenzweig of the Department of Greek and Roman Art of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the casts are arranged in conformity with Neils' reconstruction and enable the user to view them in succession, as if walking around the Parthenon. The CD-ROM requires a computer running either MAC OS 8.01 or later, or Windows 95 or later.

He Is Alive!


Helen C. Haidle - 2001
    Retells the Bible story of the events of Holy Week and the Easter season, from the raising of Lazarus to Jesus's appearances to His disciples that proved to them that He was not dead but alive.