The Classical World

May 30, 2016
In this quirky, confusing, and pedantic introduction to classical history, Spivey (The Ancient Olympics) focuses on various cities of antiquity. For Spivey, classical civilization’s defining unit is the city and its guiding principle is “love of humankind,” or philanthropia. He examines cities such as Troy, Athens, Sparta, Rome, and Constantinople. Troy, for example, embodies the “renewable strength of civilization.” Athens, often exalted for its democratic constitution, operated on a slave economy and was more oligarchy than democracy. Spivey inexplicably pauses in the middle of his survey to examine Greek and Roman philosophy, marking the teachings of certain philosophers (including Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucretius) as the high point of classical civilization, but he mistakenly calls Plato a “proto-feminist” while failing to recognize that women played a very secondary role in Plato’s ideal republic. In the end, Spivey refuses to examine the role of what he calls the “rubbish” of everyday life—including documents such as wills and contracts—in favor of his own highly idealized view of civilization, which apparently doesn’t include such “rubbish.” There are numerous excellent introductory surveys of the classical world that are broad and rewarding; regrettably, this is not one of them. Agency: Head of Zeus (U.K.).

Starred review from May 1, 2016
A grand "traverse of classical civilization."For this book, Spivey (Classical Art and Archaeology/Cambridge Univ.; Greek Sculpture, 2013, etc.) defines the classical period from around 800 B.C.E. to 400 C.E. The Greeks thought of those who were civilized as "bread eaters"--i.e., they lived in a community, raised and milled grain, and had a rule of law. Troy, a model of renewable strength, begins Spivey's story. Homer, whose audience wanted a way to record and remember his work, turned to the Phoenicians to form an alphabet. The height of Greece's glory was the mid-fifth-century B.C.E., when Cleisthenes' constitutional changes gave power (kratos) to the people (demos). At the same time, Sparta, the antithesis of Athens, a militaristic state, guarded against democracy, with egalitarian distribution of land and a ban on currency. Unlike the Roman Empire that followed, there was no path to citizenship. While Herodotus' history is anecdotal and great fun, Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War was the first to present nonpartisan history writing. Spivey points to contributions from each period, all the way to today's model of the classical civilization, including Justinian's codification of laws, one of its central elements. The philosophers are given their due for developing scientific argument and deductive thinking. Socrates is the intellectual hero, while his student Plato never approved of democracy. His student Aristotle carried that learning to Macedon and Alexander the Great. Alexander's successors, the Ptolemies, founded Alexandria, with its ceaseless industry of learning and significant library. Just one of the delightful aspects of this book is the author's penchant to throw in Greek and/or Latin sources for many of our words. He also provides countless telling details about each period in a way that makes ancient history feel fresh and invigorating. Anyone with the slightest curiosity about ancient classics will love this book. Shelve next to the work of Mary Beard.

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May 15, 2016

In this study of the foundations of the Western world's classical ideals, historian Spivey (classical art, Cambridge Univ.; The Ancient Olympics) addresses his topic by centering each chapter on one of nine cities, with the named metropolis acting as a focal point to discuss major events and concepts of Greek and Roman civilization, and a tenth chapter, "Utopia," exploring philosophy and the sciences. This conceit works well in some sections but results in unevenness in others; while the segments on Athens and Sparta nicely balance the topical locales and their relation to wider historical concerns, "Syracuse" wanders from its city and discussion of Greek colonization into a lengthy section on Olympia and the Olympic games. The chapter on Pergamon is markedly short. Spivey's descriptions of historical facts and personages read smoothly, but his reliability is sometimes undercut by startling errors, such as naming Ares and not Eris as the instigator of the mythological Judgment of Paris. VERDICT A serviceable overall look at Graeco-Roman history and its ideals, hampered in its aims by a scattered focus and noticeable slips in detail.--Kathleen McCallister, Tulane Univ., New Orleans

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