Ancient Greeks

by Morton Smith

Explores the political structure, art, and culture of Greece from the eleventh to the third century B.C.

158 pages, paper

First published June 30, 1960

Reviews

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than I expected; short, very readable, and quite frank about the shortcomings of the Greeks as well as their brilliance. I've read several different histories of the ancient Greeks so wasn't particularly expecting anything new, but found Smith's take on things refreshing. The final chapter on "Dissemination", i.e. the survival of Hellenistic culture after the end of the Attic empire, hasn't been covered in any other surveys of this period, and so was especially interesting.