The Life of Greece

The Story of Civilization, Volume 2

By: Will Durant

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

The second volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize - winning series The Story of Civilization. Volume 2 chronicles the history of ancient Greek civilization. Here Durant tells the whole story of Greece from the days of Crete's vast Aegean empire to the final extirpation of the last remnants of Greek liberty, crushed under the heel of an implacably forward-marching Rome. The dry minutiae of battles and sieges, of tortuous statecraft of tyrant and king, get minor emphasis in what is preeminently a vivid recreation of Greek culture, brought to the listener through the medium of supple, vigorous prose.

In this masterful work, listeners will learn about:

• The siege of Troy
• The great city-states of Athens and Sparta
• The heroes of Homer's epics
• The gods and lesser deities of Mount Olympus
• The teachings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
• The empire of Alexander the Great

©1966 Will Durant (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

masterpiece!

a must read, Will Durant's labor of love educated and moved me. the detail is stunning, the perspective is enlightening, the epilogue is made of the kind of stuff for which I read.

Outstanding listen - Narration is excellent

Outstanding listen. This is a long book, but it never felt like a chore. Durant has a way of taking you beyond dates and events and placing you inside the life of a civilization—how the Greeks thought, governed, created, and ultimately unraveled. My biggest takeaway is that Greece didn’t really “fall.” It transferred. Greek philosophy, art, science, and political ideas were absorbed into Rome and carried forward into what became Western civilization. That shift alone made the book worth it for me. The philosophical sections are deep, and at first I wondered why he spent so much time there. By the end, it made perfect sense. The Greeks didn’t just study philosophy—they lived it. The narration is excellent—clear, steady, and well-paced. This isn’t a casual listen, but if you stick with it, the payoff is real. Highly recommended.

"A big book, is a big evil" - Callimachus.

This one, however, is worth the effort. Will Durant is a scholar of the first order, who clearly loves history.

Approachable and Enjoyable

The content is fantastic and the narration is fine. Enjoy this audiobook and the others in the series!

details

it did not adequately credit Eastern civilizations contribution to Greek civilization. specifically that off Babylonian Persian and Indian.