A History of the Classical World

The Story of Ancient Greece and Rome

By: Elizabeth Wyse

Narrated by: Sofia Engstrand

This fascinating guide chronicles the rise and fall of ancient Greece and Rome and its cultural influence today.

From palace-based societies in Minoan Crete to the Germanic invasion of Rome, it tells the story of these classical civilizations, covering their political development, the rise of the city state and the growth of their empires.

Also included are insights into the architectural, artistic and cultural impact of early Greece and Rome and vignettes of key political and cultural figures.

©2022 Arcturus Holdings Limited (P)2024 Arcturus Publishing & ID Audio

Good book for beginners.

Good explanation of the classical world for people interested in the topic. Just don't expect an analysis, since its focus is on the numbers and dates. Recommended for people who know little of the Classical Era.

Wonderful book!

The information was absolutely entertaining. There was lots of information I was unaware of. The narrator did a wonderful job as well.

Simple, but easy to listen to

This is not a detailed history. This is the history that is a broad overview with very little details and very little nuance.

It is broadly accurate, although as I said, lacking nuance. It is an excellent starting place for learning about the ancient Greeks and Romans. It is not designed for people who are looking for detailed histories.

I did think it was a little unfair to some of the Roman emperors, because, again, it was a broad view and there was very little nuance, so it just basically panned the Roman emperors as evil nutcase tyrants instead of explaining why they might be evil nutcase tyrants or that some of it is political propaganda that painted them as such.

Overall, though, it's a good book for what it is. A broad overview.

Not meant to be an audiobook

I listened to the audiobook which I was given for a fair review. The description for this book primarily talks about the illustrations which were obviously not in the audio version. The History summary is good for covering quite a wide swath of time (from Minoan to the Fall of Rome) but the place it takes it for more of a casual history crowd of which the illustrations that go along with it would make much more sense. I did learn a bit from the book mainly because of the author's focus on the culture side to these ancient cultures which is refreshing since most of these type of summaries can be caught up in dates and conquest.