The book begins with the personality and achievements of Alexander the Great, and continues with the military and political violence of the successor-kingdoms that fought over his inheritance. This era saw many important developments: a shift from the oral to the written; a move from the public to the private and a new individualist ethos; a huge growth in slavery, and therefore a glut of slave-labour which destroyed the incentive to innovate; a growing gap between rich and poor; a growing taste for luxury.
Author Biography
Peter Green was born in Britain in 1924. In the Second World War he served in Burma and afterwards studied classics at Cambridge University. After working as a journalist and writing historical novels, he taught classics in Athens until 1971, when he became Professor of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1997 he became Emeritus Professor of Classics at Austin. He has been Visiting Professor at various universities in the USA.
Reviews
"This professor of classics is not afraid to take a view" -- Ross Leckie TIMES
