Syracuse in Antiquity: History and Topography

by Richard J. Evans

Syracuse was the largest and most powerful of all the cities established by the Greeks in Sicily. Its history, often violent but always colourful, is recounted by both Greek and Roman historians, its coinage is justly famous, and its extensive remains continue to fascinate visitors to the city. The object of this work is to retell aspects of the history of Syracuse, with particular reference to the topography of the city and its surrounding countryside. In order to acquaint or re-acquaint the reader with the impressive architectural monuments of Syracuse and to contextualise these in their geographical environment, comprehensive use is made of visual material contained in an accompanying CD.

178 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2009

About the author

Richard J. Evans is one of the world's leading historians of modern Germany. He was born in London in 1947. From 2008 to 2014 he was Regius Professor of History at Cambridge University, and from 2020 to 2017 President of Wolfson College, Cambridge. He served as Provost of Gresham College in the City of London from 2014 to 2020. In 1994 he was awarded the Hamburg Medal for Art and Science for cultural services to the city, and in 2015 received the British Academy Leverhulme Medal, awarded every three years for a significant contribution to the Humanities or Social Sciences. In 2000 he was the principal expert witness in the David Irving Holocaust Denial libel trial at the High Court in London, subsequently the subject of the film Denial. His books include Death in Hamburg (winner of the Wolfson History Prize), In Defence of History, The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power, and The Third Reich at War. His book The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914, volume 7 of the Penguin History of Europe, was published in 2016. His most recent books are Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History (2019) and The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination (2020). In 2012 he was knighted for services to scholarship.