The Classical Greeks

This is quite similar to The Rise of the Greeks in that it is broken in to disjointed chapters covering certain areas. This one is made up of chapters about influential people as opposed to geographic city-states. This one was more enjoyable to read and very informative. A great reference to keep on a shelf as well, as I can see myself going back periodically to reread the chapter on, say, Dionysius I and II of Syracuse and their battles against Carthage on Sicily. Grant has written basically a trilogy of this type of book. Rise of the Greeks is the first, this is the second and From Alexander to Cleopatra is the third, and they comprise a nice outline of Greek history spanning several centuries, and from many viewpoints.

The prolific Grant herein describes nearly forty leading lights of the Greeks to state that ancient history is not possible without them. This is not exactly the "great man" view of history as he points out in a preface but it does approximate his thesis.