Roderick Beaton > Quotes

“The fate of Melos was by no means the only atrocity recorded by Thucydides”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“This is why, when the Greeks adapted this system for their own use, they called it the ‘alphabet’.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“The sun first catches the tops of the pyramids of Giza, which are already some fifteen hundred years old.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“the distant origin of the Greek language may reach all the way back to the beginning of the period that we call the Neolithic, or New Stone Age.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“when Greek subjects of the Ottoman Empire raised the flag of revolution”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“The name means ‘hot gates’, referring to a fortified position which contained thermal springs.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“the urban space was dominated by the imposing rock known as the Acropolis”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“Others may have been burnt alive.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“The war lasted ten years, so the story goes.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“Ares personified war, Dionysus the emotions and intoxication, Hermes trickery.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“But five years later, the Romans were back. This time it was the Seleucid king Antiochus III (the Great),”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“A dynastic alliance with Epiros would neutralise a potential threat to his rear while he was away campaigning in Asia.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“There was never a political entity of that name until 1821,”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“the last great dynasty of Byzantine emperors, the Palaiologoi, to rule from Constantinople.8”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“Constantinople had been saved, and with it the Greek-speaking Roman Empire.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“in broad daylight in the centre of Rome.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“Greek slowly emerged—distinct from others of the Indo-European group and incorporating elements”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“The basic technology of writing had been known for at least two thousand years already—nothing new about that.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“The Turkish commanders agreed to surrender in return for a guarantee of safety, signed by Alexios himself,”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“This meant there was nothing the Spartans could do to prevent their enemies from being supplied by sea.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“Heraclius became the first ruler of a ‘Roman’ empire to revive the long-disused Greek word for ‘king’, basileus.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“already more than a thousand years old before anyone ever lived on this bare stretch of desert shore.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“the first scientists and the first mathematicians.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“At the time of Constantine’s deathbed baptism in 337, the overwhelming majority of his subjects were still pagans.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“THE EYES OF THE UNIVERSE’ 630–1018”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“by leaving out the vowels, it had the great advantage of reducing the number of signs to just over twenty.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“It has always been the way of the world that the weaker is kept down by the stronger.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“But then Cyrus was killed in a battle on the banks of the Euphrates in 401 BCE.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“The Minoans at this time had spread their influence right across the southern Aegean.”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History

“In the years 416 and 415 BCE, Athens had recovered sufficiently to embark on two of the most notorious episodes of the war”
― Roderick Beaton, The Greeks: A Global History