Meditations
A New Translation
Written by Marcus Aurelius
Translated by Gregory Hays

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: May 6, 2003
Price: $10.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6825-5 (0-8129-6825-5)

A series of spiritual exercises filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behavior, Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus’s insights and advice—on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others—have made... Read more >

Memory and the Mediterranean

Written by Fernand Braudel

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 3, 2002
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-70399-7 (0-375-70399-3)

A grand sweep of history by the late Fernand Braudel—one of the twentieth century’s most influential historians—Memory and the Mediterranean chronicles the Mediterranean’s immeasurably rich past during the foundational period from prehistory to classical antiquity, illuminating nothing less than the bedrock of our civilization and the very origins of Western culture.

Essential... Read more >

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
Why the Greeks Matter
Written by Thomas Cahill

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: July 27, 2004
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-49554-7 (0-385-49554-4)

In the fourth volume of the acclaimed Hinges of History series, Thomas Cahill brings his characteristic wit and style to a fascinating tour of ancient Greece.

The Greeks invented everything from Western warfare to mystical prayer, from logic to statecraft. Many of their achievements, particularly in art and philosophy, are widely... Read more >

Alexander the Great

Written by Paul Cartledge

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 1, 2005
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7919-3 (1-4000-7919-5)

Paul Cartledge, one of the world’s foremost scholars of ancient Greece, illuminates the brief but iconic life of Alexander (356-323 BC), king of Macedon, conqueror of the Persian Empire, and founder of a new world order.

Alexander’s legacy has had a major impact on military tacticians, scholars, statesmen, adventurers, authors, and... Read more >

The Spartans
The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece
Written by Paul Cartledge

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: August 10, 2004
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7885-1 (1-4000-7885-7)

“Cartledge brings [the Spartans] to life again with verve, style, and great trivia.” —Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Sparta has often been described as the original Utopia—a remarkably evolved society whose warrior heroes were forbidden any other trade, profession, or business. As a people, the Spartans were the living exemplar of such core values as... Read more >

Thermopylae
The Battle That Changed the World
Written by Paul Cartledge

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 6, 2007
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7918-6 (1-4000-7918-7)

In 480 B.C., the mighty Persian king Xerxes led a massive force to the narrow mountain pass called Thermopylae, anticipating no significant resistance in his bid to conquer Greece. But the Greeks, led by Leonidas and a small army of Spartan warriors, took the battle to the Persians and nearly halted... Read more >

Cicero
The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician
Written by Anthony Everitt

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: May 6, 2003
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-75895-9 (0-375-75895-X)

“All ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher combined.”
—John Adams

Brilliant, voluble, cranky, a genius of political manipulation but also a true patriot and idealist, Cicero was Rome’s most feared politician, one of the greatest lawyers and statesmen of all times. Machiavelli, Queen Elizabeth, John Adams and... Read more >

Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome

Written by Anthony Everitt

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: September 14, 2010
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7814-8 (0-8129-7814-5)

Born in A.D. 76, Hadrian lived through and ruled during a tempestuous era, a time when the Colosseum was opened to the public and Pompeii was buried under a mountain of lava and ash. Acclaimed author Anthony Everitt vividly recounts Hadrian’s thrilling life, in which the emperor brings a century of... Read more >

The History of Sexuality
An Introduction
Written by Michel Foucault

Format: Trade Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 14, 1990
Price: $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-72469-8 (0-679-72469-9)

In the History of Sexuality (Volume1) Foucault traces the history of sexuality in Europe from the Classical period to modern times in terms of shifts in the control of sexual practices.  He offers a brilliant analysis of how the merely "unlawful" became the "un-natural," relating this change to his theory of power/knowledge... Read more >

The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2
The Use of Pleasure
Written by Michel Foucault

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 14, 1990
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-394-75122-1 (0-394-75122-1)

In this second volume of his history of sexuality, Foucault analyzes an array of ancient Greek texts on eroticism as he tries to answer basic questions about the West's perception of sexual experience as a moral issue, and why the other appetites of the body, such as hunger, and collective concerns... Read more >

The History of Sexuality, Vol. 3
The Care of the Self
Written by Michel Foucault

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 28, 1988
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-394-74155-0 (0-394-74155-2)

Foucault takes us into the first two centuries of our own era, into the Golden Age of Rome, to reveal a subtle but decisive break from the classical Greek vision of sexual pleasure.  He explores the whole corpus of moral reflection among philosophers (Plutarch, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca) and physicians of the... Read more >

Aladdin's Lamp
How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World
Written by John Freely

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 9, 2010
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-27783-1 (0-307-27783-6)

Aladdin’s Lamp is the fascinating story of how ancient Greek philosophy and science began in the sixth century B.C. and, during the next millennium, spread across the Greco-Roman world, producing the remarkable discoveries and theories of Thales, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, Galen, Ptolemy, and many others. John Freely explains... Read more >

The Closing of the Western Mind
The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason
Written by Charles Freeman

Format: Trade Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 8, 2005
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3380-5 (1-4000-3380-2)

A radical and powerful reappraisal of the impact of Constantine’s adoption of Christianity on the later Roman world, and on the subsequent development both of Christianity and of Western civilization.

When the Emperor Contstantine converted to Christianity in 368 AD, he changed the course of European history in ways that continue to... Read more >

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Written by Edward Gibbon
Edited by Hans-Friedrich Mueller
Illustrated by Gian Battista Piranesi
Introduction by Daniel J. Boorstin

Format: Trade Paperback, 1312 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: August 12, 2003
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-75811-9 (0-375-75811-9)

PLEASE NOTE: This paperback edition will not be available until August, 2003.

This new abridgement retains the full scope and structure of Gibbon's narrative, but in a compass accessible to any interested reader.

"It was Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amid the ruins of the Capitol, while... Read more >

Out of the Flames
The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World
Written by Lawrence Goldstone and Nancy Goldstone

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: September 2, 2003
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-7679-0837-5 (0-7679-0837-6)

Out of the Flames is an intriguing account of Michael Servetus' polemical masterpiece, Christianismi Restituto (1553), which ultimately cost him his life—and then took on a life all its own. Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone follow the travails of this banned book, deftly weaving the historical and religious happenings of each period... Read more >

Rome and Jerusalem
The Clash of Ancient Civilizations
Written by Martin Goodman

Format: Trade Paperback, 640 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 11, 2008
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-72613-2 (0-375-72613-6)

A magisterial history of the titanic struggle between the Roman and Jewish worlds that led to the destruction of Jerusalem.

Martin Goodman—equally renowned in Jewish and in Roman studies—examines this conflict, its causes, and its consequences with unprecedented authority and thoroughness. He delineates the incompatibility between the cultural, political, and religious beliefs... Read more >

Rome and Jerusalem
The Clash of Ancient Civilizations
Written by Martin Goodman

Format: Hardcover, 624 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: October 23, 2007
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-41185-4 (0-375-41185-2)

A magisterial history of the titanic struggle between the Roman and Jewish worlds that led to the destruction of Jerusalem.

In 70 C.E., after a four-year war, three Roman legions besieged and eventually devastated Jerusalem, destroying Herod’s magnificent Temple. Sixty years later, after further violent rebellions and the city’s final destruction, Hadrian... Read more >

A War Like No Other
How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
Written by Victor Hanson

Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: September 12, 2006
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6970-2 (0-8129-6970-7)

One of our most provocative military historians, Victor Davis Hanson has given us painstakingly researched and pathbreaking accounts of wars ranging from classical antiquity to the twenty-first century. Now he juxtaposes an ancient conflict with our most urgent modern concerns to create his most engrossing work to date, A War Like... Read more >

Persian Fire
The First World Empire and the Battle for the West
Written by Tom Holland

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: June 12, 2007
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-27948-4 (0-307-27948-0)

In the fifth century B.C., a global superpower was determined to bring truth and order to what it regarded as two terrorist states. The superpower was Persia, incomparably rich in ambition, gold, and men. The terrorist states were Athens and Sparta, eccentric cities in a poor and mountainous backwater: Greece.

The... Read more >

Rubicon
The Last Years of the Roman Republic
Written by Tom Holland

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: March 8, 2005
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7897-4 (1-4000-7897-0)

In 49 B.C., the seven hundred fifth year since the founding of Rome, Julius Caesar crossed a small border river called the Rubicon and plunged Rome into cataclysmic civil war. Tom Holland’s enthralling account tells the story of Caesar’s generation, witness to the twilight of the Republic and its bloody transformation... Read more >

Helen of Troy
The Story Behind the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
Written by Bettany Hughes

Format: Trade Paperback, 512 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 9, 2007
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7600-0 (1-4000-7600-5)

As soon as men began to write, they made Helen of Troy their subject. Hesiod, a poet born around 700BC and one of the first named authors in history, called her ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’ and the description endured. Even though there exists no contemporary representation of her... Read more >

The Hemlock Cup
Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life
Written by Bettany Hughes

Format: Trade Paperback, 528 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 14, 2012
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7601-7 (1-4000-7601-3)

Winner of the Norton Medlicott Award
From the celebrated British author and historian: a brilliant new book combining historical inquiry and storytelling élan to paint an unprecedentedly vivid portrait of Socrates and the Golden Age of classical Athens.

We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did; in... Read more >

Travels with Herodotus

Written by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: June 10, 2008
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7878-3 (1-4000-7878-4)

From the renowned journalist comes this intimate account of his years in the field, traveling for the first time beyond the Iron Curtain to India, China, Ethiopia, and other exotic locales.

In the 1950s, Ryszard Kapuscinski finished university in Poland and became a foreign correspondent, hoping to go abroad – perhaps to... Read more >

Travels with Herodotus

Written by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: June 5, 2007
Price: $25.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-4338-5 (1-4000-4338-7)

From the master of literary reportage whose acclaimed books include Shah of Shahs, The Emperor, and The Shadow of the Sun, an intimate account of his first youthful forays beyond the Iron Curtain.

Just out of university in 1955, Kapuscinski told his editor that he’d like to go abroad. Dreaming no farther... Read more >

Travelling Heroes
In the Epic Age of Homer
Written by Robin Lane Fox

Format: Trade Paperback, 496 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 9, 2010
Price: $21.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-76386-4 (0-679-76386-4)

The myths of the ancient Greeks have inspired us for thousands of years. Where did the famous stories of the battles of their gods develop and spread across the world? The celebrated classicist Robin Lane Fox draws on a lifetime’s knowledge of the ancient world, and on his own travels, answering... Read more >