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This is an accessible and up-to-date account of the Jews during the millennium following Alexander the Great's conquest of the East. Unusually, it acknowledges the problems involved in constructing a narrative from fragmentary yet complex evidence and is, implicitly, an exploration of how this might be accomplished. Moreover, unlike most other introductions to the subject, it concentrates primarily on the people rather than issues of theology and adopts a resolutely unsentimental approach to the subject. Professor Schwartz particularly demonstrates the importance of studying Jewish history, texts and artefacts to the broader community of ancient historians because of what they can contribute to wider themes such as Roman imperialism. The book serves as an excellent introduction for students and scholars of Jewish history and of ancient history.
The economics of imperialism, its political background and institutional frameworks, the material benefits it conferred, the ideologies of ruler and ruled - these are some of the more important aspects of imperialism discussed in this volume. In presenting the evidence for ancient imperialims and suggesting concepts and methods of interpretation these articles, which are the work of the Cambridge University Research Seminar in Ancient History, range from New Kingdom Egypt and Carthage, through the classical Greek world of Athens and Sparta, to Macedonia and Rome. This book will be particularly useful to ancient historians but should also interest historian of other periods as well as students of politics.
The Achaemenid Persian Empire, at its greatest territorial extent under Darius I (r.522–486 BCE), held sway over territory stretching from the Indus River Valley to southeastern Europe and from the western Himalayas to northeast Africa. In this book, Matt Waters gives a detailed historical overview of the Achaemenid period while considering the manifold interpretive problems historians face in constructing and understanding its history. This book offers a Persian perspective even when relying on Greek textual sources and archaeological evidence. Waters situates the story of the Achaemenid Persians in the context of their predecessors in the mid-first millennium BCE and through their successors after the Macedonian conquest, constructing a compelling narrative of how the empire retained its vitality for more than two hundred years (c.550–330 BCE) and left a massive imprint on Middle Eastern as well as Greek and European history.
The Middle Helladic period has received little attention, partially because of scholars' view of it as merely the prelude to the Mycenaean period and partially because of the dearth of archaeological evidence from the period. In this book, Helène Whittaker demonstrates that Middle Helladic Greece is far more interesting than its material culture might at first suggest. Whittaker comprehensively reviews and discusses the archaeological evidence for religion on the Greek mainland, focusing on the relationship between religious expression and ideology. The book argues that religious beliefs and rituals played a significant role in the social changes that were occurring at the time. The arguments and conclusions of this book will be relevant beyond the Greek Bronze Age and will contribute to the general archaeological debate on prehistoric religion.
The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic examines all aspects of Roman history and civilization from 509 to 49 BC. The key development of the republican period was Rome's rise from a small city to a wealthy metropolis, which served as the international capital of an extensive Mediterranean empire. These centuries produced a classic republican political culture, closely associated with the growth of a world empire. They also witnessed the slow disintegration of republican government under the relentless and combined pressure of external commitments, growing internal dissension, and the boundless ambition of successful military leaders. In the second edition of this Companion volume, distinguished European, Canadian, and American scholars present a variety of lively current approaches to understanding the political, military, and social aspects of Roman history, as well as its literary and visual culture. The second edition includes a new introduction, three new chapters on population, slavery, and the rise of empire, and updated bibliographies and maps.
Thucydides famously declared his work to be 'a possession for all time', and so it has proved to be, as each age and generation has seen new things to admire in it and take from it. In the last hundred years, Thucydides has been interpreted and invoked in support of many different positions in politics, political theory and international relations. Geoffrey Hawthorn offers a new and highly original reading, one that sees him as neither simply an ancestor nor a colleague but as an unsurpassed guide to a deeper realism about politics. In this account, Thucydides emerges as sensitive to the non-rational and the limits of human agency, sceptical about political speech, resistant to easy generalisations or theoretical reductions, and opposed to any practical, moral or constitutional closure in politics. The book will be of interest to students of politics and classics.
The actual practice of the Romans with regard to property and investment must be distinguished from the formal rules of the emperors and the moralistic generalizations of the ancient writers. With this in mind the Cambridge Research Seminar in Ancient History spent two years examining various aspects of Roman property, investigating individual topics in greater detail than has been attempted before. The studies which make up this volume deal with Roman investment in property - scale and concentration of holdings, rural and urban property, methods of exploitation and how this was organized, and the extent of marginal lands. The editor has formed the volume into a coherent unit by eliminating excessive duplication and overlapping between chapters. The book is of particular value to specialists in ancient history, economic and social history and in Roman law, but also contains materials of interest to medieval and agrarian historians.