Book description
An original and unique work of reference which breaks new ground by
treating for the first time the classical era of the Old World as a
whole. Never before have the key peoples and events of Greece, Rome,
Persia, India, and China been encompassed in a single volume, despite
the fact their civilizations had much in common and laid the
foundations of present-day Europe and Asia.
Aurthur Cotterell asserts that for too long Greece and Rome have
been regarded as the classical world and its study isolated from even
the major powers that confronted the Greeks abd Romans in Iran and
India. Today we are more aware of the complex interrelations that once
existed between the Greeks and the Persians, the Macedonians and the
Indians, the Romans and both the persians and the Sasanians. The
persistent isolation of China, on the other hand, cut off by mountains
and deserts from india, makes the claassical experience ther so useful
for comparison and contrast. The virtual absence of slavery in China
is but one of its startling features.
Arthur Cotterell now combines a career in education and training
after school with an extensive interest in other civilizations. His
previous books include
The Minoan World, A Dictionary of World
Mythology, The Penguin Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations, The First
Emperor of China, China: A History, East Asia: From Chinese Predominance
to the Rise of the Pacific Rim, Origins of European Civilization and The
Penguin Encyclopedia of Classical Civilizations.
