Ancient Greece: The Definitive Visual History

by D.K. Publishing

Embark upon a lavish visual journey through ancient Greece – from its rise and fall to its lasting legacy throughout the Western world.

Spanning more than 3,000 years, Ancient Greece explores the tumultuous history of this glorious empire in vivid detail – from its Minoan and Mycenaean origins to the apogee of the warring city-states of Athens and Sparta, and from the death of its most charismatic leader, Alexander the Great, to its ultimate defeat by Rome.

Sumptuous photography and authoritative, engaging text cover every facet of life in ancient Greece, from art, entertainment, and schools of thought to politics, medicine, and war, while the myths and religious beliefs of the ancient culture are explored and explained in depth.

Greece’s military and political power shines through in fascinating maps of its legendary battles. The buried palaces and Athenian agoras where Plato and Socrates discussed philosophy are brought back to life with stunning CGI artworks. And the stories of everyone from ordinary citizens to lawmakers and the first Olympic athletes are retold through eyewitness accounts and original artefacts.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

Published April 15, 2025

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Alex Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.2/5. Although the pictures were beautiful and the way of explaining all of Greek History was well thought out, this personally isn't what I enjoy out of a book. I read Sapiens a few months back and kept telling myself I can't read another broad book of history ever again. This was until I got into my history phase yet again and thought it would be cool to read a book about one of the most influential regions of all time, with pictures as well! How fun does that sound?!?! I honestly didn't have to much fun throughout the entirety of this book other than the 20 ish pages I annoted about:
- The Phaistos Disk (for some reason)
- "Dawn of the God" or Olympians (about mythology and the origins of it in the 18th century, honestly pretty interesting stuff given how old this belief was)
- The Illiad and Odyssey (This was brought up in the book The Secret History and I read the Odyssey in 10th grade literature class)
- Philosphers in 600BCE~ (Self explanatory some of the goats were on this page like Democritus and Heraclitus: "No one ever steps in the same river twice...")
- Sappho (Origins of lesbians from her poetry of Lesbos, pretty interesting fun fact)
- Athenian Democracy (How it worked and the origins)
- Enslavement (12 Year a Slave movie has me feeling for slavery recently, and boy was it prevalent in Greek history)
- Invasion of Xerxes (KING LEONIDAS THE GOAT, need to read something about him)
- Socrates (GOAT)
- The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Didn't know this existed and wow it's beautiful)
- The Rise of Macedonia (Philip II and Alexander the Great is great stuff)
- Alexander's Conquests (Doing all of what he did from 18-32 is absurd)
- Alexander Mosiac in Pompeii against Darius the III (Didn't know this was there when I visited, great stuff)
- The Ptolemaic Kingdom (The lineage of Ptolemies is thought provoking, didn't know how influential he was on Egypt for millennia to come)
- The Ptolemaic Decrees (The Rosetta Stone explained)
- Alexandria (I mean I have to read something about this soon)
- Pyrrhus of Epirus (He was a prominent figure in Greece and the term "Pyrrhic victory" meaning-a victory almost more costly than defeat.)
- Roman Rule (I just read Rubicon and many historical figures were brought up)
- Byzantine Greece (Basically had a grasp on Europe, Africa, and the Middle East)
With all of this being said I want to dive in to Spartan history, Alexandria, and King Leonidas. Solid preface to what I want to read in the future!

[PottWab Regional Library]

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