His death at the age of thirty-two spelled the end of that unity.The story of Alexander's conquest of the Persian empire is known to many readers, but the dramatic and consequential saga of the empire's collapse remains virtually untold. It is a tale of loss that begins with the greatest loss of all, the death of the Macedonian king who had held the empire together. With his demise, it was as if the sun had disappeared from the solar system, as if planets and moons began to spin crazily in new directions, crashing into one another with unimaginable force.Alexander bequeathed his power, legend has it, 'to the strongest,' leaving behind a mentally damaged half brother and a posthumously born son as his only heirs. In a strange compromise, both figures, Philip III and Alexander IV, were elevated to the kingship, quickly becoming prizes, pawns, fought over by a half-dozen Macedonian generals. Each successor could confer legitimacy on whichever general controlled him.At the book's center is the monarch's most vigorous defender; Alexander's former Greek secretary, now transformed into a general himself. He was a man both fascinating and entertaining, a man full of tricks and connivances, like the enthroned ghost of Alexander that gives the book its title, and becomes the determining factor in the precarious fortunes of the royal family.James Romm, brilliant classicist and storyteller, tells the galvanizing saga of the men who followed Alexander and found themselves incapable of preserving his empire. The result was the undoing of a world, formerly united in a single empire, now ripped apart into a nightmare of warring nation-states struggling for domination, the template of our own times.

    Walk in the steps of Socrates, test the acoustics of the amphitheater of Epidavros, and set sail for Santorini: with Rick Steves on your side, Greece can be yours!Inside Rick Steves Greece: Athens & The Peloponnese you'll find: Comprehensive coverage for spending a week or more exploring Greece Rick's strategic advice on how to get the most out of your time and money, with rankings of his must-see favorites Top sights and hidden gems, from the Parthenon and the Agora to the small towns and beaches of the Peloponnesian Peninsula How to connect with culture: Go back in time at the National Archaeological Museum, sample olives and feta in the Mediterranean sunshine, or sip ouzo at a local taverna Beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps with Rick's candid, humorous insight The best places to eat, sleep, and relax Self-guided walking tours of lively neighborhoods and incredible museums Detailed maps for exploring on the go Useful resources including a packing list, a Greek phrase book, a historical overview, and recommended reading Over 500 bible-thin pages include everything worth seeing without weighing you down Complete, up-to-date information on Athens, Nafplio, Epidavros, Mycenae, Olympia, Patra, Kardamyli, the Mani Peninsula, Sparta, Mystras, Delphi, Hydra, Mykonos, Delos, Santorini, and more Make the most of every day and every dollar with Rick Steves Greece: Athens & the Peloponnese. Spending a week or less in the city? Check out Rick Steves Pocket Athens!

    Victoria Hislop, internationally bestselling author of The Island and The Return, has written a wonderfully evocative and enthralling saga enriched by deep emotion and sweeping historical events, from fire to civil war to Nazi brutality and economic collapse. The Thread is historical fiction at its finest, colorful and captivating with truly unforgettable characters--a novel that brilliant captures the energy and life of this singular Greek city.

    John Chrysostom was born in Antioch in the year 349 AD. His father died soon after his birth and he was raised by his deeply pious mother. Under her influence St. John became devout as well, and took to studying scripture under the guidance of the bishop of Antioch who would later be the one to baptize him.St. John was drawn to become a monk, and when he mother died he withdrew to the wilderness. There he wrote a number of works on the ascetic life. After a number of years he went to a cave to live in complete silence. He lasted for two years until his health declined and he was forced to come back into the world. He was ordained a priest in 386, and eventually earned the name, 'Chrysostom' (Golden-Mouthed) for his brilliant sermons. He was known for his love of scripture, and many of his sermons were compiled into commentaries.In 397 he was chosen to be the bishop of Constantinople, which was perhaps the most important Christian office of its day. Although an extremely busy position, he nevertheless continued his literary output in the form of sermons, which he delivered in the great church, Hagia Sofia. Unfortunately his often fiery sermons did not sit well with the royal court. He was banished from the city once by the empress. Then a second time the empress had him removed and forcibly walked to a remote location. St. John did not survive the journey and died on Sept. 17, 407.St. John Chrysostom left a tremendous mark on the Christian church. His liturgy is celebrated by Eastern Orthodox Christians almost every Sunday, and his homilies are considered by many to be the best every produced.This collection brings together the full range of his extant works in the English language. The following works are provided:1. Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew2. Homilies on Acts3. Homilies on Romans4. Homilies on First Corinthians5. Homilies on Second Corinthians6. Homilies on Ephesians7. Homilies on Philippians8. Homilies on Colossians9. Homilies on First Thessalonians10. Homilies on Second Thessalonians11. Homilies on First Timothy12. Homilies on Second Timothy13. Homilies on Titus14. Homilies on Philemon15. Commentary on Galatians16. Homilies on the Gospel of John17. Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews18. Homilies on the Statues19. No One Can Harm the Man Who Does Not Injure Himself20. Two Letters to Theodore After His Fall21. Letter to a Young Widow22. Homily on St. Ignatius23. Homily on St. Babylas24. Homily Concerning "Lowliness of Mind"25. Instructions to Catechumens26. Three Homilies on the Power of Satan27. Homily on the Passage "Father, if it be possible . . ."28. Homily on the Paralytic Lowered Through the Roof29. Homily on the Passage "If your enemy hunger, feed him."30. Homily Against Publishing the Errors of the Brethren31. First Homily on Eutropius32. Second Homily on Eutropius (After His Captivity)33. Four Letters to Olympias34. Letter to Some Priests of Antioch35. Correspondence with Pope Innocent I36. On the Priesthood

    A whole spring lamb spit-roasting over an open fire greets diners, and the menu offers familiar dishes like dolmades, avgolemono soup, and lamb moussaka along with more unusual Greek dishes such as deep fried smelt, watermelon and feta salad, and grilled octopus. Through its use of fresh seasonal ingredients, Kokkari brings a refined, cosmopolitan sensibility to a beloved Mediterranean culinary tradition. Its owners and chefs are proud to have ushered in a new era of appreciation for vibrant Greek flavors. Now they invite you to try some of their favorite dishes at home, and wish you a Greek bon appetit: kali orexi!

    Its very name evokes images of almost superhuman courage, endurance, and fighting spirit. But until now, the story of what happened at Marathon has been told exclusively through the narrow viewpoint of specialists in antiquity. In this eye-opening new book, acclaimed journalist Jim Lacey, both a military historian and a combat veteran, takes a fresh look at Marathon and reveals why the battle happened, how it was fought, and whether, in fact, it saved Western civilization.Lacey brilliantly reconstructs the world of the fifth century B.C. leading up to the astonishing military defeat of the Persian Empire by the vastly undermanned but determined Greek defenders. Using the seminal work of Herodotus as his starting point, Lacey reconstructs the tactical and strategic scenario of the battle, including how many combatants each side might have used and who actually led the Greeks. He also disputes the long-repeated myths of Athenian inexperience and effete Persian arrogance.With the kind of vivid detail that characterizes the best modern war reportage, Lacey shows how the heavily armed Persian army was shocked, demoralized, and ultimately defeated by the relentless assault of the Athenian phalanx, which battered the Persian line in a series of brutal attacks. He reveals the fascinating aftermath of Marathon, how its fighters became the equivalent of our “Greatest Generation,” and challenges the view of many historians that Marathon ultimately proved the Greek “Western way of war” to be the superior strategy for fighting—and winning—battles to the present day. Immediate, visceral, and full of new analyses that defy decades of conventional wisdom, The First Clash is a superb interpretation of a conflict that indeed made the world safe for Aristotle, Plato, and our own modern democracy. But it was also a battle whose legacy and lessons have often been misunderstood—perhaps, now more than ever, at our own peril.

    One is a prince of Sparta , destined to rule this ancient Greek state, the other a slave, or helot, who serves the young prince. In the harsh training camps, or agoges, where boys are groomed to become the great warriors of Spartan fame, their skills are honed and brutally tested. Only citizens may aspire to the warrior's Red Cloak, and one of the tests is the annual crypteia, or hunting of the helots.A beautiful and mysterious young Sibyl speaks of an uprising of the slaves. The Oracles warn of a deadly conflict between two ruling factions. Evil forces will challenge the two boys and test their loyalties, as secret truths about their own identities are revealed.

    They've studied Greek, done their research, and have a simple goal: to set up a small natural cosmetics business and live happily ever after. But the Greek Gods have other ideas, and before long the couple find themselves snarled in a web of lies and incompetence, their dream slipping hopelessly out of reach. In Greece, connections are everything. But will the efforts of their friends-the proud and complicated Dr. Yiannis; Takis, the island's chess-playing, motorcycle-riding Adonis; and Iliana, the mayor's gentle daughter-be enough to help them overcome their difficulties before their slim finances run out and they're forced to abandon their dream? Comic and tragic by turns, Aegean Dream is a compelling tale of love, resilience, and the power of friendship. A charming window on the daily life of a Greek island and the spirit of its people, this book also provides hard insights into the broken institutions that would soon shake the entire global economy.- What’s it really like to live on a tiny Greek island?- Why is the Greek economy so messed up?- What IS "The Secret"?...and what do mysterious skulls, Russian prostitutes, President Bush the elder, and Pierce Brosnan have to do with it all?Dario Ciriello's 'Aegean Dream'. All story. All true.

    Tall, thin, gangly, and extremely myopic, Maria Christina lives in the shadow of her sister, who is considered a goddess in the village. Less evident is Maria Christina's adoration for her sister's husband, the handsome and accomplished village doctor. Fate intervenes when Maria Christina's dull life is abruptly interrupted by the onslaught of the Second World War and the overlapping Greek Civil War. Being the only western gate into the country, her village becomes a strategic location in both wars, which forces her to emerge from her cocoon and into the center of the turmoil. The crisis affects the fate of three generations, all of whom experience the peril of those years in different ways, changing not only the community and Maria Christina's destiny, but also redefining the role of women in society.

    47 pages of summaries and analysis on Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis.This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.

    A World War II P.O.W., Henry is as cunning as he is charming, and at 84 years of age, he fits right in with his fellow passengers. The cruising yacht Vesper is anchored off the Greek island of Thera, in the caldera of an ancient volcano when Henry comes aboard. An Egyptian federal agent was onboard to guard a valuable Minoan cup, but the agent was murdered and the cup, stolen. With the help of a Nicaraguan soap opera star, a New Age spiritualist, and a blind pickpocket, Henry draws on skills honed in a Nazi prison camp to track down a killer who might have his own reasons for taking this particular cruise, reasons unrelated to the sumptuous meals, delightful shipboard activities, and exciting ports of call.12 million people take a cruise each year. Most have fun. Some die.Henry Grave investigates.

    But Egyptians are shocked when they discover Anubis, god of the dead, is killing men working on the Pharos Lighthouse. The evidence is inexplicable. The victims’ bodies have no wounds and the killer’s tracks are enormous animal prints. Egyptians believe the jackal-headed god doesn’t want the new lighthouse built. Into this unearthly scene steps Archimedes, a new student with extraordinary skills in mechanics and science. He is there to attend the School of Alexandria and credits Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, for blessing him with the wisdom half of her powers. The pharaoh, desperate to get his lighthouse built, asks Archimedes to use his exceptional abilities to solve the crimes that only a vengeful god could commit and a12-year-old genius can unravel. But Archimedes believes the murderer is more corporeal than spiritual and has to tread carefully when he applies the cold logic of Greek science in a sultry, mystical world of Egyptian culture. When Archimedes uses an ancient Egyptian scroll to put him on the trail of the killer, he also finds another god returned from the dead. Now Archimedes is going to need Athena’s war skills.

    These were years filled with high adventure, intrigue, passion, assassinations, dynastic marriages, treachery, shifting alliances, and mass slaughter on battlefield after battlefield. And while the men fought on the field, the women, such as Alexander's mother Olympias, schemed from their palaces and pavilions.Dividing the Spoils serves up a fast-paced narrative that captures this turbulent time as it revives the memory of the Successors of Alexander and their great contest for his empire. The Successors, Robin Waterfield shows, were no mere plunderers. Indeed, Alexander left things in great disarray at the time of his death, with no guaranteed succession, no administration in place suitable for such a large realm, and huge untamed areas both bordering and within his empire. It was the Successors--battle-tested companions of Alexander such as Ptolemy, Perdiccas, Seleucus, and Antigonus the One-Eyed--who consolidated Alexander's gains. Their competing ambitions, however, eventually led to the break-up of the empire. To tell their story in full, Waterfield draws upon a wide range of historical materials, providing the first account that makes complete sense of this highly complex period.Astonishingly, this period of brutal, cynical warfare was also characterized by brilliant cultural achievements, especially in the fields of philosophy, literature, and art. A new world emerged from the dust and haze of battle, and, in addition to chronicling political and military events, Waterfield provides ample discussion of the amazing cultural flowering of the early Hellenistic Age.

    The Greek Communist Party relocated half of them to orphanages in Eastern Europe, while their adversaries in the national government placed the rest in children’s homes elsewhere in Greece. A point of contention during the Cold War, this controversial episode continues to fuel tensions between Greeks and Macedonians and within Greek society itself. Loring M. Danforth and Riki Van Boeschoten present here for the first time a comprehensive study of the two evacuation programs and the lives of the children they forever transformed.Marshalling archival records, oral histories, and ethnographic fieldwork, the authors analyze the evacuation process, the political conflict surrounding it, the children’s upbringing, and their fates as adults cut off from their parents and their homeland. They also give voice to seven refugee children who poignantly recount their childhood experiences and heroic efforts to construct new lives in diaspora communities throughout the world. A much-needed corrective to previous historical accounts, Children of the Greek Civil War is also a searching examination of the enduring effects of displacement on the lives of refugee children.

    It emerged during the Archaic period when Greeks founded coastal city states and trading stations in ever-widening horizons from the Ukraine to Spain. No center directed theirdiffusion: mother cities were numerous and the new settlements (colonies) would often engender more settlements. The Greek center was at sea; it was formed through back-ripple effects of cultural convergence, following the physical divergence of independent settlements. The shores of Greece arelike hems stitched onto the lands of Barbarian peoples (Cicero). Overall, and regardless of distance, settlement practices became Greek in the making and Greek communities far more resembled each other than any of their particular neighbors like the Etruscans, Iberians, Scythians, or Libyans. Thecontrast between center and periphery hardly mattered (all was peri-, around), nor was a bi-polar contrast with Barbarians of much significance. Should we admire the Greeks for having created their civilization in spite of the enormous distances and discontinuous territories separating their independent communities? Or did the salient aspects of their civilization form and crystallize because of its architecture as a de-centralized network?This book claims that the answer lies in network attributes shaping a Small Greek World, where separation is measured by degrees of contact rather than by physical dimensions.

    However, thanks to new physical evidence discovered in the past half-century and the construction ofOlympias, a full-scale working model of an Athenian trieres (trireme) by the Hellenic Navy during the 1980s, we now have new insights into the evolution of naval warfare following the death of Alexander the Great. In what has been described as an ancient naval arms race, the successors of Alexanderproduced the largest warships of antiquity, some as long as 400 feet carrying as many as 4000 rowers and 3000 marines. Vast, impressive, and elaborate, these warships of larger form--as described by Livy--were built not just to simply convey power but to secure specific strategic objectives. Whenthese particular factors disappeared, this Macedonian model of naval power also faded away--that is, until Cleopatra and Mark Antony made one brief, extravagant attempt to reestablish it, an endeavor Octavian put an end to once and for all at the battle of Actium. Representing the fruits of morethan thirty years of research, The Age of Titans provides the most vibrant account to date of Hellenistic naval warfare.

    His story has many more episodes than those of other heroes, concerning his life and death as well as his battles with myriad monsters and other opponents. In literature, he appears in our earliest Greek epic and lyric poetry, is reinvented for the tragic and comic stage, and later finds his way into such unlikely areas as philosophical writing and love poetry.　 In art, his exploits are amongst the earliest identifiable mythological scenes, and his easily-recognisable figure with lionskin and club was a familiar sight throughout antiquity in sculpture, vase-painting and other media. He was held up as an ancestor and role-model for both Greek and Roman rulers, and widely worshipped as a god, his unusual status as a hero-god being reinforced by the story of his apotheosis. Often referred to by his Roman name Hercules, he has continued to fascinate writers and artists right up to the present day.In Herakles, Emma Stafford has successfully tackled the ‘Herculean task’ of surveying both the ancient sources and the extensive modern scholarship in order to present a hugely accessible account of this important mythical figure. Covering both Greek and Roman material, the book highlights areas of consensus and dissent, indicating avenues for further study on both details and broader issues. Easy to read, Herakles is perfectly suited to students of classics and related disciplines, and of interest to anyone looking for an insight into ancient Greece’s most popular hero.

    Includes Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates. "I for one prefer reading Diogenes Läertius. [His is] the only critique of a philosophy that is possible and that proves something." — Friedrich Nietzsche

    Zach, the eldest, is determined to live the North American dream, complete with a gorgeous wife, a beautiful home and a successful career in high finance. Costa, charismatic and rebellious, has chosen a different path. A high school drop out, he uses his street knowledge to maneuver through life. Zach and Costa are poised to begin their lives as adults when an expected knock at the door of the their sprawling suburban home shocks the Manos family into a new reality. Forcibly removed from their home and all their possessions seized, each member of the Manos family must now find his or her own way to pick up the pieces of a shattered family existence and forge ahead. While Costa buries himself in work in Toronto, Zach, now disillusioned with his life in Canada, returns to the land of his family's origins. In the tiny and idiosyncratic rural village in Greece, Zach embarks on a journey of self-discovery that will lead him to unearth the truth about his roots, his family's homeland, and the horrible string of crimes perpetrated throughout the world of the Greek Diaspora. With the help of an old family friend with a mysterious past, Zach and his family begin to unravel the tangled web of misdeeds to its source. Together, in a quest for justice, they orchestrate a shocking revenge upon those who had considered themselves too high to fall.

    . . stands apart in a number of key ways. Virtually all of the translations, which are of very high quality, are new for this volume. . . .     "Each of the introductions to the individual speeches is accompanied by a convenient outline, entitled ‘Key Information', of the important details about the dispute; this feature will be particularly welcome to undergraduates and other beginners, for whom Athenian forensic speeches often present at first glance a welter of soap opera-like complexity. In the summary that precedes Against Neaera, for example, the subheadings include 'Speaker', Supporting Speaker', 'Defendant', ‘Other Individuals' (particularly helpful), ‘Action', 'Penalty' and ‘Date'. Having this information collected in one handy location is very useful indeed.     "One minor yet remarkably useful feature is that [Wolpert and Kapparis] have placed all cross-references to speeches included in the collection in bold typeface. This allows the reader to know immediately whether he need only flip the pages to see the passage in question or must reach for another volume. It is hoped that this will encourage busy undergraduates to take the trouble to follow up a cross-reference.     "The introduction truly shines. Without getting bogged down in debatable minutiae, it provides a remarkably detailed and clear account of the law and oratory of ancient Athens. Divided into five sections, it begins with an account of Athenian legal development from the Draconian and Solonian periods to the fourth century. It then tackles Athenian politics and society, the court system (a particularly helpful section), the Attic orators (with a substantial biographical sketch of each orator whose speeches appear in the volume), and rhetorical technique and style. The introduction could even be used in a course where no speeches are read but students need to be given a quick, solid initiation into the legal culture of the classical period." --Classical Review