Sumptuously illustrated in color and packed with information, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece is now available for the first time in paperback. Offering fresh interpretations of classical Greek culture, the book devotes as much attention to social, economic and intellectual aspects as to politics and war. Paul Cartledge and his team of contributors ask what it was like for an ordinary person to partake in "the glory that was Greece." They examine the influences of the environment and economy; the experience of workers, soldiers, slaves, peasants and women; and the roles of myth and religion, art and culture, and science and education. This is a cultural history from the bottom up, which lays bare the far-reaching linguistic, literary, artistic and political legacy of ancient Greece, and seeks justification for Shelley's claim that "we are all Greeks."

"We are all Greeks..."

"Whatever, in fact, is modern in our life we owe to the Greeks. Whatever is an anachronism is due to medievalism."

"The focus on achievements at all class and cultural levels provides an unusually well-rounded, in-depth focus on Greek culture."

"...no one reading this book will fail to appreciate the complexity of ancient Greece as a society, a competitive, high achieving, innovative world....We have grown up in our understanding of Greeks since the nineteenth century and this book shows how much. A fine achievement."

"...this is a good tool for intro survey courses."

"...a thoughtful portrait of the cultural history of ancient Greece for the general reader...this is an interesting and handsome book that might bring new students to the field with its updated approach to an ancient culture."

"A beautiful addition to the Cambridge Illustrated History series."

"This is an original and insightful work. Its authors have lucidly synthesized the results of a generation of creative scholarship, and restored the voices of many groups that were often left out of more traditional Greek histories."

Paul Cartledge is Professor in Greek History in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge and is Fellow and Director of Studies in Classics at Clare College, Cambridge. He is the author of several books about ancient Greece, including Spartan Reflections (California, 2001), Hellenistic and Roman Sparta (Routledge, 2001) and Sparta and Lakonia (Routledge, 2002).