The Greeks: A Great Adventure - Isaac Asimov

Written by Isaac Asimov
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No nation in history has left the world such a heritage as the Greeks. It seems scarcely credible that so sparse a people, settled on the rocky islands and peninsulas of the Aegean Sea, could have accomplished so much; but they excelled and whatever they set their hands to, warfare or politics, art or athletics, literature or philosophy. They added a new dimension to the human spirit: their ideals, their heroes have become our own.

This book begins more than four thousand years ago when semi-civilized tribes from the Balkan Peninsula came into contact with the high culture of ancient Minoan Crete and embarked on the great adventure that was to send Greek armies on campaigns from the pillars of Hercules to the Himalayas and put Greek rules on the thrones of Persia, Egypt, and Sicily; an adventure that was to make Athens the very symbol of civilization and Sparta of selfless heroism.

The triumphant climax came in the Golden Age of Athens; but that is far from the end of the story, for Greece continued as tutor to the Roman Empire and finally, at Constantinople, as the last preserver of the Ancient World. Not until 1453 was that great center of wisdom and learning finally destroyed.

Rich in detail and bold in its sense of the sweep of history, this book can’t help but infect the reader with the author’s own enthusiasm and admiration for the glory that was Greece.