Simon Price (2)

After reading two of the Penguin History of Europe volumes, which were bad and quite bad, why did I pick up this one? Honestly, because they're well designed and I love series. Luckily, this was much better than the other two. It's not in depth at all, but that's fine; that's the type of thing I want from books like this. It's well written, which is hardly a given these days even for supposedly accessible history writing. And it has a cogent argument: those who look to ancient Greece or Rome show more for some sort of fixed starting point of history or Europeanness or tradition or whatever are engaged on a fool's errand. Price and Thonemann show that the pre-classical civilizations, and the Greeks and Romans, were always looking backwards to justify their actions or existence. People still do it today: x is good/valuable/right because it's what our forefathers did. Well, that's nonsense. As if that wasn't good enough, P & T also manage to split the difference between "There are no facts, only interpretations" and "Only facts matter, interpretations are meaningless" by making sure they explain the facts as well as how those facts were interpreted at the time and since. Their section on pre-classical civilizations was particularly interesting, as were the smattering of pages about the Celts and other north of the alps types. My only caveat is that this might be a tough read if you don't know something about the period already; lots of names whiz by. show less

The Birth of Classical Europe’s wide-angle-lens view of classical influence in European history looks out in all directions, making the book something more than simply a general history of some 2,500 years in and around the Mediterranean Sea. The book is written to be comprehensive, rather than controversial, but one of its most important themes lends a depth of clarity to its ambitious subject that is usually absent in general overviews: the theme of cultural memory and identity:


This book show more offers (among other things) a historical study of memory, which does not draw a simple line between the ‘true’ and the ‘false’ memory claims of the past. All history is an act of remembering, an attempt by the historian to preserve the memory of the past by putting it on record . . . But the historian cannot (or should not) claim to be the simple guardian of the objective truth. History is, at least in part, a constructed artifact, the product of intellectual, social and political pressures.


In other words, it doesn’t really matter if the Romans were not, literally, descended directly from Aeneas of Troy. It does matter that they believed themselves to be, for that belief informed their national character.


Price and Thonemann keep this consideration of cultural memory and identity to the fore as they discuss a historical timeline for the rise of classical civilization that has already been well established. Their style is readable and conversational, but their continued focus on memory, on how the ancients regarded their own past, brings a kind of illumination to periods and events that even classical scholars would find useful and intriguing. Read full review. show less

The Birth of Classical Europe: A History from Troy to Augustine is a fantastic overview of Mediterranean and broader European history. One advantage of reading modern books on history is you have the latest thoughts coming from recent archaeology, technological development, discoveries about languages and migrations, etc.

I have read Freeman's Egypt, Greece, and Rome (my review) so this book was a good refresher for events but did a better job helping me understand the overall historical show more contexts of the Mediterranean and Asia Minor (Anatolia) during the time period covered. Whereas Freeman tended to categorize his chapters by looking at art, war, technology, and religion separately, Price and Thonemann weave them together as a whole. You can't understand what we know about, say, the Punic Wars without looking at who recorded the stories and the context they were writing in. Price and Thonemann also look more at what modern archaeology tells us about the lives and development. There are also several inset boxes that explain the significance of an event or writing in modern history-- whether it be what influenced Machiavelli or Dante's writings, Shakespeare, the U.S.'s Founding Fathers, or Nazi Germany's inspirations.


We start in the areas of Mycenae, whose inhabitants also settled in Crete, blending with a native culture that was growing and continue with the development of Classical Greece, then through the later Greek periods. Not too much time is spent on Philip and Alexander's Macedonian conquests. We then look at the rise of Rome while also looking at the civilizations that existed in mainland Europe (Gaul) and Britain, Carthage (North Africa), Persia, and Syria. The book concludes by looking at Christianity in the early Roman empire, and the increasing divide between East and West (Greek-speakers vs. Latin speakers). It concludes with a look at St. Augustine, which having just read Confessions I found helpful to put him in a greater context. Augustine is truly a post-Roman, a Latin speaker living in a Roman colony, highly educated in the classics and trying to reconcile those classics and Roman history with biblical history. If you want a general history of Europe and the Mediterranean with plenty of peeks at details without going too deep, then this is your book.

I greatly enjoyed it and give it 5 stars. show less

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the title, this book largely ignores any of the early history of Europe that is not directly related to that of Rome or Greece. This is disappointing. However, 'the Birth of Classical Europe' provides a succinct and enjoyable history of the foundation of civilisation in the Mediterranean, the rise of the Greek city states and the war with Persia, Alexander the Great and the emergence of Rome.

In my opinion, the authors place too much emphasis on how the peoples show more of the region defined their own identities and this is made more frustrating when some significant events are given very scant coverage indeed, for example the Roman destruction of Carthage is covered in half a page. There is also very little mention of the nearby Egyptians.

In summary, a good read but you'll have to look elsewhere if pre-Roman British and Northern European history interests you too. show less