"Informed, informative and thoroughly enjoyable . . .

A book that brings the past back to life."-Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads "Interesting and rewarding read"-Guy de la Bedoyere, BBC History Magazine "Spawforth's book stands out in a crowded field of histories of Greece and Rome for its liveliness and wit"-Daisy Dunn, Literary Review The magnificent civilization created by the ancient Greeks and Romans is the greatest legacy of the classical world. However, narratives about the "civilized" Greek and Roman empires resisting the barbarians at the gate are far from accurate. Tony Spawforth, an esteemed scholar, author, and media contributor, follows the thread of civilization through more than six millennia of history.

His story reveals that Greek and Roman civilization, to varying degrees, was supremely and surprisingly receptive to external influences, particularly from the East. From the rise of the Mycenaean world of the sixteenth century B.C., Spawforth traces a path through the ancient Aegean to the zenith of the Hellenic state and the rise of the Roman empire, the coming of Christianity and the consequences of the first caliphate. Deeply informed, provocative, and entirely fresh, this is the first and only accessible work that tells the extraordinary story of the classical world in its entirety.