The Life of Greece: A History of Greek Civilization from the Beginnings, and of Civilization in the Near East from the Death of Alexander, to the Roman Conquest

The second volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize–winning series, The Life of Greece: The Story of Civilization, Volume 2 chronicles the history of ancient Greek civilization. Here Durant tells the whole story of Greece, from the days of Crete's vast Aegean empire to the final extirpation of the last remnants of Greek liberty, crushed under the heel of an implacably forward-marching Rome. The dry minutiae of battles and sieges, of tortuous statecraft of tyrant and king, get the minor emphasis in what is preeminently a vivid recreation of Greek culture, brought to the reader through the medium of supple, vigorous prose. In this masterful work, readers will learn about: • the siege of Troy • the great city-states of Athens and Sparta • the heroes of Homer's epics • the gods and lesser deities of Mount Olympus • the teachings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle • the life of Alexander the Great