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Nemesis
Alcibiades was one of the most dazzling figures of the Golden Age of Athens. A ward of Pericles and a friend of Socrates, he was spectacularly rich, bewitchingly handsome and charismatic, a skilled general, and a ruthless politician. He was also a serial traitor, infamous for his dizzying changes of loyalty in the Peloponnesian War. Nemesis tells the story of this extraordinary life and the turbulent world that Alcibiades set out to conquer. David Stuttard recreates ancient Athens at the height of its glory as he follows Alcibiades from childhood to political power. Outraged by Alcibiades’ celebrity lifestyle, his enemies sought every chance to undermine him. Eventually, facing a capital c...
Looking at Medea
Euripides' Medea is one of the most often read, studied and performed of all Greek tragedies. A searingly cruel story of a woman's brutal revenge on a husband who has rejected her for a younger and richer bride, it is unusual among Greek dramas for its acute portrayal of female psychology. Medea can appear at once timeless and strikingly modern. Yet, the play is very much a product of the political and social world of fifth century Athens and an understanding of its original context, as well as a consideration of the responses of later ages, is crucial to appreciating this work and its legacy. This collection of essays by leading academics addresses these issues, exploring key themes such as revenge, character, mythology, the end of the play, the chorus and Medea's role as a witch. Other essays look at the play's context, religious connotations, stagecraft and reception. The essays are accompanied by David Stuttard's English translation of the play, which is performer-friendly, accessible yet accurate and closely faithful to the original.
Phoenix
A vivid, novelistic history of the rise of Athens from relative obscurity to the edge of its golden age, told through the lives of Miltiades and Cimon, the father and son whose defiance of Persia vaulted Athens to a leading place in the Greek world. When we think of ancient Greece we think first of Athens: its power, prestige, and revolutionary impact on art, philosophy, and politics. But on the verge of the fifth century BCE, only fifty years before its zenith, Athens was just another Greek city-state in the shadow of Sparta. It would take a catastrophe, the Persian invasions, to push Athens to the fore. In Phoenix, David Stuttard traces Athens’s rise through the lives of two men who spea...
Greek Mythology
The Greek myths have a universal appeal, reaching far beyond the time and physical place in which they were created. But many are firmly rooted in specific settings: Thebes dominates the tragedy of Oedipus; Mycenae broods over the fates of Agamemnon and Electra; Knossos boasts the scene of Theseus's slaying of the Minotaur; Tiryns was where Heracles set out from on each of his twelve labours. Here, the reader is taken on a tour of 22 destinations in Greece and Turkey, from Mount Olympus to Homer's Hades, recounting the tales from Greek mythology and the history associated with each, evoking their atmosphere and highlighting features that visitors can still see today. Drawing on a wide range of Classical sources, with quotations newly translated by the author and freshly illustrated with specially commissioned drawings, this book is both a useful visitor's guide to famous sites connected with Greek mythology and an enthralling imaginative journey for the armchair traveller.
Euripides Danae and Dictys
Euripides' Danae and Dictys are two of the most important and influential treatments of a popular tragic myth-cycle, which is unrepresented among extant plays. Moreover, they are early treatments of major Euripidean plot-patterns that anticipate and illuminate more familiar works in the corpus, both extant and fragmentary. This is the first full-scale study of the two plays, which sheds light on plot-patterns, key themes and aspects of Euripidean dramatic technique (e.g. his rhetoric, imagery, stagecraft), as well as matters of reception and transmission of both tragedies, by taking into account newly related evidence. The cautious recovery of the two lost plays based on the available evidence and the detailed commentary on their fragments seek to complement our knowledge of Euripidean drama by contributing to an overview and more comprehensive picture of the dramatist's technique, as the extant corpus represents only a small portion of his oeuvre.
AD410
Engaging account of the Barbarian sack of Rome.
The Romans Who Shaped Britain
A biographical history of the Romans who conquered and dominated Britain, based on the latest archaeological evidence and original source material. Here are the stories of the people who built and ruled Roman Britain, from the eagle-bearer who leaped off Caesar’s ship into the waves at Walmer in 55BC to the last cavalry units to withdraw from the island under their dragon standards in the early fifth century AD. Through the lives of its generals and governors, this book explores the narrative of Britannia as an integral and often troublesome part of Rome’s empire, a hard-won province whose mineral wealth and agricultural prosperity made it crucial to the stability of the West. But Britannia did not exist in a vacuum, and the authors set it in an international context to give a vivid account of the pressures and events that had a profound impact on its people and its history. The authors discuss the lives and actions of the Roman occupiers against the backdrop of an evolving landscape, where Iron Age shrines were replaced by marble temples and industrial-scale factories and granaries sprang up across the countryside.
Looking at Lysistrata
In Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the women of Athens, fed up with the war against Sparta, go on a sex strike and barricade themselves into the acropolis to persuade their husbands to vote against the war. It is the most often performed of all Aristophanes' comedies. It is also, perhaps, the most misunderstood. This collection of essays by eight leading academics - written for sixth-form students and the general public alike - sets the play firmly in its historical and social context, while exploring Aristophanes' purpose in writing it and considering the responses of modern audiences and directors. The collection has been assembled and edited by David Stuttard, whose energetic new performing version of the play is included in this volume. Contributors include: Alan Beale; Edith Hall; Lorna Hardwick; James Morwood; Martin Revermann; James Robson; Alan H. Sommerstein; Michael Walton.
Parthenon
The Parthenon is one of the world's most iconic buildings: today, its silhouette symbolizes Greece. Built on the rocky acropolis of Athens in the aftermath of the devastating invasion of Xerxes, the Parthenon was part temple to Athene, part war memorial, part treasure trove of some of the most outstanding art of its age. Parthenon: Power and Politics on the Acropolis takes the reader through the dramatic story of the conception and creation of the Parthenon, setting it against a turbule nt historical background and rooting the building firmly in the real and mythological landscape of Athens. Written as a pacy, narrative history, the text features a cast of memorable characters, including The...
31 BC
On 2 September 31 BC, two superpowers, Egypt and Rome, met head-on for the first and last time in history. The outcome was the Battle of Actium, which would change the course of history and lead directly to the foundation of the Roman Empire. In a compelling new chronicle, brought vividly to life with expressive anecdotes and moving eye-witness accounts, 31 BC explores the chain of events that culminated in the fall of Egypt. A sequel to the popular AD 410: the Year that Shook Rome, 31 BC reveals the tragic romance between Antony and Cleopatra, boldly characterising the central charismatic personalities of the time. Illustrated with evocative locations and iconic objects from the British Museum and elsewhere, 31 BC: Antony, Cleopatra and the Fall of Egypt is a dramatic story of a defining moment in history, retold with excitement and vigour from the Egyptian standpoint.
