A fun read on Greece (rare indeed). Entertaining and fast paced. I plan to read it again. ( )

Not sure if Hamilton "idealizes" the intense love of Freedom which is claimed to have emerged, if it did, so strongly in the Peloponnesian Peninsula. Herodotus reports a Greek saying to a Persian: "You do not know what freedom is. If you did, you would fight for it with bare hands if you no weapons." [17] Not sure if the Greeks were the only exception to a history that claims there was only "universal slavery" in 500 BC. Did they meet a Scythian? A Bedouin?
No Index. Easy reading. Incredibly inspiring..."freedom" after all.
Hamilton's basic research is unimpeachable and well-witted.
She concludes with a chapter on Plutarch, placing him where his "lives" are most important -- in their times. As Plutarch saw that the oracles were failing -- in times of change, all see it -- he states that the Delphic priestess spoke under the influence of the vapor in the cave. Neither was divine. And "God is not a ventriloquist." [205]
Hamilton takes what we know about Plutarch -- and we know much because he was a prolific writer -- and applies it to what we do not know. For example, we have virtually nothing about the personal lives of Plato and Aristotle. Hamilton compares Marcus Arelius.
Finally, Hamilton asks a loaded question about Christian Religion. Christianity was first addressed to Greeks. The Gospels are in Greek (and Aramaic). And yet, extraordinarily, with two paths laying open to her, the Church bent its way to Rome.