Introduction

Ⅰ The Homeric age

1 The spread of civilisation:the past in the present-from neolithic tribalism to the first cities-the Minoans

2 The Greeks:the Mycenaeans-Dark-Age Greece-the Greek language-the Greek alphabet-Bronze-Age society and culture-Mycenaean religion

3 Homer and epic poetry:the background-the Iliad-the Odyssey-Hesiod

Ⅱ Greece in the fifth century BC

4 From Archaic to early-Classical Greece:Athens-Sparta-the Persian Wars-women,resident foreigners,and slaves-colonisation

5 Religion,the arts,education,and books:religious beliefs and practices-architecture-painting-sculpture-music-education,literacy,and books

6 Lyric poetry:Pindar and his predecessors:the lyric-Sappho and Anacreon-Pindar

7 Sophocles and Athenian drama:tragedy-the three tragedians-Aeschylus-Sophocles-Euripides-Aristophanes and comedy

8 Herodotus and Greek history:Greek historians-Herodotus and the Persian Wars-Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War-Xenophon and the Persian Expedition

9 Plato and philosophy:the pre-Socratics-Socrates-Plato-Aristotle

Interchapter:the Hellenistic age Alexander's empire and its successors-language and society-the visual arts-literature-history-philosophy and science-scholarship and libraries

Ⅲ Late-Republican and early-Imperial Rome

10 The expansion of Rome:from city-state to superstate-the Latin language-Roman names

11 Republic and Empire:conquest abroad,strife at home-politics and society-religion

12 Maintaining the state:economics and technology-the Roman army

13 The arts:painting,sculpture,and architecture-drama:Plautus,Terence,Seneca-education,books,and libraries

14 Cicero:rhetoric and philosophy-the legacy of Greece:rhetoric,philosophy-Cicero-Seneca

15 Virgil:from pastoral to epic-Theocritus and pastoral poetry-Virgil-the Eclogues-the Georgics-the Aeneid-Virgil's reputation and influence

16 Horace:epigram,lyric,and satire-Catullus-Horace-Juvenal