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Index
Cover
Author biography
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: GREEK AND LATIN LANGUAGES
The Greek language: from Alpha to Omega
History
The alphabet
Not an iota of difference
A quick trip to Honolulu
The grammar basics (in any language)
Nouns: the cases
Latin noun declensions
Gender stereotypes in Latin grammar
Verbs
Everyone’s speaking the same language
The Greek grammar basics
The ‘the’
Nouns
Verbs
Greek and Latin: quod erat demonstrandum
Ancient words for modern meanings
The roots of modern words
CHAPTER 2: CLASSICAL HISTORY
Greek and Roman history in a nutshell
The Bronze Age: Minoans and Mycenaeans
The dawn of democracy
The Macedonian Empire: Alexander the Great
The beginnings of Rome: Romulus and Remus
The Roman kingdom: 753 to 510 BC
The Roman Republic: 510 to 27 BC
What’s in a name?
Roman law
The Romans and the Greeks
Slavery
The Roman Empire: 27 BC to AD 476
The fall of the Roman Empire: AD 476 to 1453
Greek historians: Herodotus, Thucydides, Josephus
Herodotus
Thucydides
Josephus
CHAPTER 3: AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK LITERATURE
Homer
Background
Homeric Greek
How to recite 30,000 lines of poetry
So who was he?
The Iliad
Background
Who’s who
Getting ready for war
Greek victory
Achilles and Patroclus
What’s it all about, then?
The Odyssey
Background
Setting up the story
The Cyclops
Odysseus returns home
Some useful muses
‘The Tenth Muse’
What’s it all about, then?
Greek tragedy: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides
Background
Aeschylus: The Oresteia
Sophocles: Oedipus Rex
Euripides: Electra
CHAPTER 4: AN INTRODUCTION TO LATIN LITERATURE
Virgil: The Aeneid
Background
Aeneas’s journey
The Trojan Horse
Aeneas and Dido
War with the Italians
What’s it all about, then?
Roman poetry: Catullus, Horace, Ovid
Catullus
Horace
Ovid
CHAPTER 5: PHILOSOPHY
The Pre-Socratic philosophers: What is everything?
Background
The early philosophers
What the flux?
Zeno’s paradoxes
What’s it all about, then?
Socrates and Plato
Background
What is ‘good’?
The Republic
CHAPTER 6: ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE
The Parthenon
What was it?
Optical illusions
Losing your marbles
Knowing your columns
Doric order
Ionic order
Corinthian order
The Colosseum
Background
What was it used for?
Rome’s biggest sports arena
Some very clever features
CHAPTER 7: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Pythagoras
Philosophy
Mathematics
Pythagoras’s influence
Humble pi
Notable inventions ahead of their time
The death ray
The alarm clock
The vending machine
Automatic doors
Scholar and inventor
Construction
How did they get that up?
Central heating and heated swimming pools
The water pump
Flushing toilets
Glass
Urban planning
So was there anything the ancients couldn’t do, or didn’t invent?
One last great invention from classical times . . .
Another humble pie . . .
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
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