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Examining artefacts such as the fragment of terracotta frieze from the ‘king’s house’ in the Forum and archaic inscriptions and ‘cross-questioning’ Roman authors, Wiseman searches for ‘usable evidence’ about pre-literary Rome and arrives at the Roman republic, ‘Year One’. No jacket.

Cats, birds and crocodiles are among the animals mummified in quantity by the ancient Egyptians and deposited as votive offerings. With contributions from 19 experts, this collection of illustrated essays details animals’ role in Egyptian religion and traces both the British fascination with such artefacts and the recent development of innovative techniques for studying them.

After the death of Alexander the Great and the fragmentation of his empire, the east Mediterranean world was controlled by the so-called Successor States. The authors analyse the complex conflicts and rivalries among these states during the final decades of the 3rd century BCE – the last generation before Roman intervention in the region – as well as considering Hellenistic military systems and the tactics used in major land and sea battles.

In 376 CE, under attack by the Huns, the Goths took the radical step of crossing the Danube and, with Emperor Valens’ agreement, settling in Thrace, within the protection of Rome, their former enemy. The arrangement was short lived: in 378 CE, the Goths, led by Fritigern, inflicted a stinging defeat on the Roman army, with the emperor himself among the dead. Coombs-Hoar’s history describes in detail the events leading up to this crucial battle, the battle itself and its aftermath.

The intelligent, politically astute Cleopatra captivated both Caesar and Antony, two of the most powerful Romans of her age, and continues to fascinate us today. Watterson describes the events of the Egyptian queen’s life, examines how she came to symbolize the danger of female influence to Rome’s safety and traces the development of the Cleopatra legend in art and in drama for stage and screen. The book’s appendices present extensive excerpts from ancient sources.

The Carthaginian general Hannibal (247–183 BCE) won an enduring place in the popular imagination through his audacious expedition across the Alps with a contingent of elephants. But what were his motivations and why did his long campaign against Rome end in tragic failure? Combining evidence from ancient sources with his own experience of Hannibal-related sites, Prevas analyses the enigmatic personality and unconventional tactics of the commander whom Napoleon considered ‘the most daring of all men’. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Egypt’s Middle Kingdom (c.2030–1650 BCE) brought new developments in religious beliefs, political systems and artistic conventions. This volume comprises essays by an international team of scholars, covering such topics as the court and royal women, Egypt’s expanding relations with foreign lands and the themes of Middle Kingdom literature. Nearly 300 examples of the period’s art are featured; they demonstrate how artists were adapting older forms and iconography in work of great subtlety and originality.

Some ancient Egyptian queens, including Nefertiti, wife of the radical reformer Akhenaten, and Hatshepsut, who rose from the position of a conventional consort to that of female pharaoh, are still renowned today. These women are set alongside lesser-known queens in this collection of biographies, which reveals their uniquely varied roles and their importance across 3,000 years of their country’s history. The book also features timelines, genealogical tables and photographs of sites and artefacts.

The history of ancient Israel is here told through the biographies of 83 leaders, from the founder Abraham (c.1450 BCE) and his son Isaac to Herod Agrippa, who died in 44 CE when the region was under Roman occupation. Seeking to reveal the historical figures behind the familiar names and traditional stories, Rogerson discusses debates about the accuracy and interpretation of the biblical accounts and the insights provided by other ancient texts and archaeological discoveries. Off-mint.

Professor Billows explores the career of Philip II of Macedon and the powerful state and army which his son Alexander inherited; and after a brief review of Alexander’s conquests, examines the decades following his death and the development of the Hellenistic empires.

What would it have been like to live in Ancient Egypt? In this book one of the world’s most acclaimed Egyptologists imagines a year in the life of a government official and his family. Organized according to the three agricultural seasons that structured Egyptian lives – inundation, planting and harvesting – the family’s story illustrates aspects of their everyday lives and customs, their experience of the educational, medical and legal professions and their preparations for the afterlife.

It was while planning a cycling expedition along the Via Heraklea, the legendary route of Hercules from the western tip of the Iberian Peninsula to the Alps, that Graham Robb discovered a precise pattern of towns and holy places based on astronomical and geometrical measurements: the three-dimensional 'Middle Earth' of the Celts. This volume describes his historical treasure hunt, revealing the lasting influence of the Druids, and looking afresh at the 'protohistory' of Europe.

Described by the TLS as ‘a masterly summary’, this is a classic study of the earliest Greek trading posts and colonies. Boardman explains what archaeology has revealed about the Greeks’ travels as far afield as southern Egypt and northern Spain; he also highlights how much Greek arts and culture owed to foreign influences. This fourth edition features an extra chapter on recently discovered evidence and fresh theoretical approaches to the interpretation of this important period of European history.

The intricate artwork and vibrant mythology of the Celts make their culture a source of particular fascination, which continues to be fuelled by new archaeological discoveries. This overview of ancient Europe discusses the Celts' mysterious origins, their complex society and their vigorous survival even after conquest by the Romans. Previously published as The Ancient World of the Celts (1998).

Roman propaganda helped to create the common perception of Northern Europe’s early warriors as disorganized, uncultured savages. However, as this book shows, there is abundant evidence for the use of innovative technologies and sophisticated strategic thinking in societies across the region. To shed light on the centuries before written records, Wileman analyses such monuments as the Bronze Age hillforts at Maiden Castle in Dorset and Alesia in France together with archaeological finds, from ancient weapons to rock art depicting scenes of battle.

Coins can provide valuable information about social, economic and political life in ancient Greece and this introductory survey focuses on their circulation and use as it traces the development of the Greek coinage from its introduction in the 7th century BCE to the late Hellenistic period. Photographs of over 300 coins illustrate types from across the Greek world. First published in 1988.

This volume presents one of the most important parts of Cassius Dio’s Roman History: Books 53–55.9, covering Augustus’ reign from the constitutional settlement of 28/27 BCE to 6/5 BCE. Translated, with introductions and commentary, by JW Rich. Slightly off-mint and no jacket.

Roman glass from sites in Scotland north of Hadrian’s Wall is a key material for studying the impact of Rome on Iron Age Scotland. Although only fragments remain – the complete conical jug from Turriff is a rare find – they are evidence of prestigious objects, symbolic of an elite’s privileged lifestyle, wealth and power. This volume presents a scholarly, meticulously detailed study of all such glass found on indigenous sites and dating from 1 to 400 CE.

Nam C Kim explores the origins of civilization in the Red River Delta of Vietnam and, in particular, the Co Loa settlement which was once the political capital of an ancient culture.

From the 3rd to the 13th centuries, while Europe was deep in the Dark Ages, the Maya of Central America were creating astonishing buildings and sculptures, and charting the movements of the stars. This magnificent volume pairs an absorbing, authoritative history of their rise and fall, political intrigues and armed conflicts, with stunning photos of their surviving legacy, including the magnificent temples at Uxmal, Tikal, Palenque and Chichén Itzá, where their final flowering was extinguished by the Toltecs.

The naval battle at Actium, when the future emperor Augustus defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra, was perhaps the most significant military engagement in Roman history. Yet many details of exactly what happened on that September day continue to elude scholars. This study of the literary and historical sources offers a fresh examination of the evidence, with close analysis of hitherto unconsidered allusions to Actium in the description of an equestrian engagement in Book Eleven of Virgil’s Aeneid.

Ranging from Egypt and the Mediterranean world to South Asia and China, this volume surveys the history and culture of each of the major imperial powers that held sway in the ancient world between 1600 BCE and 500 CE. As well as accessible accounts by a team of eminent scholars, the book features sections quoting texts written by inhabitants of the empires and is illustrated with maps, timelines and images showing such splendid artistic achievements as Sasanian silver and Roman mosaics.

Ancient Greek science and philosophy began in the sixth century BCE in the wealthy city of Miletus in Asia Minor, where Thales and Anaximander proposed theories about the nature of the universe. This sweeping history of the Greek scientific tradition follows the chain of knowledge from these early physicists, through such thinkers as Aristotle and Archimedes, to the twilight of the classical age, the transmission of Greek ideas to the Islamic world and their revival in Europe during the Renaissance.

Even during his lifetime, Julius Caesar was a legendary figure, not least because his own writings were carefully designed to enhance his image. Complementing Southern’s other engaging biographies of late-Republican figures, this new account of Caesar’s life and death sheds light on the man behind the legend through careful examination of contemporary sources. The book reveals how he surmounted each difficulty with ‘a combination of determination, quick thinking, opportunism and, more often than not, a certain amount of luck’.

Ancient Greek myth tells of ferocious female warriors called Amazons who lived near the Black Sea and slaughtered their male children. Could the story reflect a real matriarchal society, or perhaps a women-only religious cult? This book follows the author’s quest for the evidence, not only in ancient texts and artistic depictions but also in archaeological discoveries such as the graves of Iron-Age women buried with arrows, swords and armour.

The first prose history in European civilization, Herodotus’ great work traces the growth of the Persian Empire and its great conflict with the Greeks, up to the defeat of Xerxes in 480–79 BCE. Read by David Timson. Unabridged.

Ancient Romans often treated animals in ways that we consider cruel, but in many respects their attitudes were similar to our own. Ferris proposes ‘a way to understand Roman culture through analysing the society’s relationship with animals’. Using literary, visual and archaeological evidence, he shows how animals were kept for farm work and as household pets; how they were slaughtered for food, as sacrifices and as public entertainment; and how Romans presented animals in mythology and as attributes of deities.

Viriathus – the humble shepherd who became leader of the Lusitanians – inflicted many humiliating reverses on theoretically superior Roman forces. Renowned during his lifetime, he has been unfairly neglected by modern historians, so Silva here presents for Anglophone readers the insights of recent Portuguese research and uses his own military expertise to inform his analysis of Viriathus’ guerrilla tactics. The final chapter traces the ancient leader’s transformation into a Portuguese national hero after his story was rediscovered in the Renaissance.

Volume 3 in the Swedish Rock Art Series, this collection of 14 illustrated papers examines forms and expressions of Bronze Age imagery – including rock art, petroglyphs and decorated bronze axes – across an area stretching from Scandinavia to the Iberian Peninsula.

Alexander the Great conquered the known world in the fourth century BCE, but it was the achievements of his father, Philip II of Macedon, that laid the foundations of his success. This collection of essays, originally presented at a symposium at the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, explores aspects of this pivotal period in classical history from the rulers' interest in the Olympic Games to the modern reconstruction of Philip II's skull, discovered in 1977.

Hadrian’s Wall and the Great Wall of China are world famous, but they are not exceptional phenomena. This impressively researched volume shows how, throughout history and across the globe, societies have built such barriers to reinforce their control over territory. Illustrated with numerous photographs and specially commissioned maps, the book ranges from Mesopotamia to Kievan Rus to examine their construction and strategic function, and identifies a recurrent theme: the separation of nomadic peoples from areas of settled agriculture.

Intended as first introductions for students new to a subject, each of these guidebooks gives an overview of the fundamental principles of a subject area in an accessible format and jargon-free language.

Intended as first introductions for students new to a subject, each of these guidebooks gives an overview of the fundamental principles of a subject area in an accessible format and jargon-free language.

Intended as first introductions for students new to a subject, each of these guidebooks gives an overview of the fundamental principles of a subject area in an accessible format and jargon-free language.

In short essays, each of these volumes focuses on the 50 essential writers, movements, works or themes in disciplines ranging from ancient history to modern media studies.

Classical Athens, a community of just 200,000 citizens, not only gave birth to some of antiquity's greatest geniuses but also created the world's first democracy, raising political issues that remain relevant today. Complementing his account of The Rise of Rome, Everitt surveys the Athenian achievement, from the early centuries of kings and tyrants, through the democratic revolution and the city's intellectual and artistic flowering in the age of Socrates and Pericles, to its decline with the growth of Macedon.

This survey of 100 historical characters from antiquity sets the generals and rulers known from Roman annals alongside more humble figures, such as the slaves, gladiators, actors and courtesans whose careers are recorded in inscriptions, or a teenage girl whose poetry has survived. Complemented by more than 200 illustrations, their stories give a glimpse of the people behind the rise and fall of Rome and illuminate what it meant to be a Roman citizen.

This handsomely produced abridgement of Gibbon's great work features 28 of the original 71 chapters, with a precis of the remainder. Illustrated with Piranesi's engravings of Rome as Gibbon saw it, the volume also includes additional explanatory notes complementing the author's own and translating those 'licentious passages' which he left 'in the obscurity of a learned language'. Gilt-edged pages and silk marker.