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Reviews
The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer
gijs's review
4.0
Serviceable overview containing all the usual suspects, in the usual order; bit too one-fact-after-another up until classical Greece, where things get more varied and interesting.
bkoser's review
4.0
Kudos to Susan Wise Bauer. Summarizing known human history from the beginning to Constantine into 777 pages is a big and difficult project. She achieved her goal of a readable, concise history.
However, there are some problems with the project. First, history of humans is usually interesting; history of humanity is usually boring. The criticism of the Great man theory of history is largely correct, but history should be a story, and stories are about people, not forces or population trends. The problem is that for much of ancient history, we don't know much about the people. For example, Chinese history doesn't get interesting until the dynasties started.
Second and related, the little we do know of ancient people is often repetitive. The Assyrian kings mostly blur together. Most of the early nations are indistinguishable to this layman.
(The Egyptians are the exception: their early national history and customs are interesting and get less so as their power declined.)
If I were teaching someone ancient history, I would give them a timeline with brief sketches of the nations and not even try for in-depth until Greece.
So the author accomplished her goal, but I question the value of that goal.
- Contrary to its name, The Fertile Crescent was not a lush paradise. If it were easy to grow crops there, farmers would not have had to develop agriculture.
- Urartu (empire in modern Turkey/Georgia) had beacon fires like Gondor.
- Ecbatana was a Median city built on a mountain 6000 feet above sea level. It was surrounded by seven walls painted seven different colors.
- For it's first 500 years, Sparta had two kings, both claiming descent from the legendary brothers who founded the city.
- The words "draconian" and "drastic" come from Draco who first recorded Athenian laws. The punishment for all crimes was death.
- The chronologies of the biblical books Kings, Chronicles, and Jeremiah remain unresolved.
- Carthage was founded by Jezebel's great-niece Elissa.
- Cyrus the Great was Nebuchadnezzar's great nephew by marriage.
- The proverbially rich Croesus ruled Sardis, capital of Lydia.
- Horatius held the bridge across the Tiber into Rome alone against invaders. When his comrades destroyed the bridge behind him, he swam the Tiber to safety in full armor. Immortalized by McCauley's "Lays of Ancient Rome".
- Stonehenge was built over 2000 years.
- In India, priests outranked kings and warriors.
- The three sects of Hinduism were (are?) the Way of Action, the Way of Knowledge, and the Way of Devotion.
- Yueh was a Chinese state.
- Jesuits Latinized "Kong Fuzi" to "Confucius".
- Confucius and Sun Tzu were roughly contemporary.
- The oldest existing map is of Babylon circa 500 BC.
- Aristotle tutored Alexander
- Pyrrhus (of "pyrrhic victory") instead of top teeth had one bone all the way across his mouth, grooved to look like teeth. Also had a magical big toe that could heal sickness.
- Carthage was the major naval power of the Mediterranean. A Carthaginian ship ran aground near Rome. The Romans took it apart to learn shipbuilding and built ships while practicing rowing on land. They built a navy which was captured by Carthage. Then they built another, and within two years their navy equaled Carthage, winning them the first Punic War.
- Cato the Elder ended every senate speech on any topic with, "In conclusion, Carthage should be utterly destroyed."
- The Ch'in Dynasty was the first, giving China its name. The second dynasty, the Han, started during Sulla's lifetime and lasted until Elagabalus was Emperor of Rome (40 years after Marcus Aurelius, 60 years before Diocletian).
- Han Dynasty eunuchs formed clans by adopting sons who inherited their wealth.
3.5 stars
However, there are some problems with the project. First, history of humans is usually interesting; history of humanity is usually boring. The criticism of the Great man theory of history is largely correct, but history should be a story, and stories are about people, not forces or population trends. The problem is that for much of ancient history, we don't know much about the people. For example, Chinese history doesn't get interesting until the dynasties started.
Second and related, the little we do know of ancient people is often repetitive. The Assyrian kings mostly blur together. Most of the early nations are indistinguishable to this layman.
(The Egyptians are the exception: their early national history and customs are interesting and get less so as their power declined.)
If I were teaching someone ancient history, I would give them a timeline with brief sketches of the nations and not even try for in-depth until Greece.
So the author accomplished her goal, but I question the value of that goal.
- Contrary to its name, The Fertile Crescent was not a lush paradise. If it were easy to grow crops there, farmers would not have had to develop agriculture.
- Urartu (empire in modern Turkey/Georgia) had beacon fires like Gondor.
- Ecbatana was a Median city built on a mountain 6000 feet above sea level. It was surrounded by seven walls painted seven different colors.
- For it's first 500 years, Sparta had two kings, both claiming descent from the legendary brothers who founded the city.
- The words "draconian" and "drastic" come from Draco who first recorded Athenian laws. The punishment for all crimes was death.
- The chronologies of the biblical books Kings, Chronicles, and Jeremiah remain unresolved.
- Carthage was founded by Jezebel's great-niece Elissa.
- Cyrus the Great was Nebuchadnezzar's great nephew by marriage.
- The proverbially rich Croesus ruled Sardis, capital of Lydia.
- Horatius held the bridge across the Tiber into Rome alone against invaders. When his comrades destroyed the bridge behind him, he swam the Tiber to safety in full armor. Immortalized by McCauley's "Lays of Ancient Rome".
- Stonehenge was built over 2000 years.
- In India, priests outranked kings and warriors.
- The three sects of Hinduism were (are?) the Way of Action, the Way of Knowledge, and the Way of Devotion.
- Yueh was a Chinese state.
- Jesuits Latinized "Kong Fuzi" to "Confucius".
- Confucius and Sun Tzu were roughly contemporary.
- The oldest existing map is of Babylon circa 500 BC.
- Aristotle tutored Alexander
- Pyrrhus (of "pyrrhic victory") instead of top teeth had one bone all the way across his mouth, grooved to look like teeth. Also had a magical big toe that could heal sickness.
- Carthage was the major naval power of the Mediterranean. A Carthaginian ship ran aground near Rome. The Romans took it apart to learn shipbuilding and built ships while practicing rowing on land. They built a navy which was captured by Carthage. Then they built another, and within two years their navy equaled Carthage, winning them the first Punic War.
- Cato the Elder ended every senate speech on any topic with, "In conclusion, Carthage should be utterly destroyed."
- The Ch'in Dynasty was the first, giving China its name. The second dynasty, the Han, started during Sulla's lifetime and lasted until Elagabalus was Emperor of Rome (40 years after Marcus Aurelius, 60 years before Diocletian).
- Han Dynasty eunuchs formed clans by adopting sons who inherited their wealth.
3.5 stars
poxav's review
4.0
Definitely an insightful page-turner. My only complaint is that it ends pretty abruptly. Considering how deep the book went into Rome in its last section (probably sacrificing more time it could have used to cover Parthia/the Sassanids/China/India/etc.), I had expected the book to end with the fall of Rome. An initial section discussing what constitutes ancient history (and perhaps challenging traditional Eurocentric views on historical eras) would have given a bit more context to the end of this otherwise well-planned narrative.
kaylecorey's review
5.0
What screams 'Holidays' more than a nearly 900 page tome on history spanning from Mesopotamia to the Roman Empire? This book was a welcome respite from being bombarded by modern holiday cheer, and sincerely one of the most interesting pieces of nonfiction I've read in quite some time. BCE society is so often described in impersonal terms, with dates and facts but no personification of the residents. Bauer did an excellent job of humanizing people of whom there is little anthropological information available, making the history of people thousands of years removed from ourselves feel accessible.
An important note about this book is its structure. It moves through time periods, not through groups. So at times, it can feel jumpy going from Egypt to Rome to China to Greece. Keeping people and periods straight is quite difficult, and I found myself having to go back more than once to make sure I understood the when and where of the content I was reading. It is an incredible comprehensive book, and I think the structure was the right choice. Fitting over 5000 years of history into a single book is a lot of ground to cover.
As a child who frequently read her history textbooks for fun, I loved this book. It is a perspective rarely found in the relaying of ancient history, and one that feels infinitely more human than the detached dates and maps found in the history books of my formal education. This is a must read for anyone with interests in any ancient civilization, but especially Sumerian, Arcadian/Greek, and Egyptian.
An important note about this book is its structure. It moves through time periods, not through groups. So at times, it can feel jumpy going from Egypt to Rome to China to Greece. Keeping people and periods straight is quite difficult, and I found myself having to go back more than once to make sure I understood the when and where of the content I was reading. It is an incredible comprehensive book, and I think the structure was the right choice. Fitting over 5000 years of history into a single book is a lot of ground to cover.
As a child who frequently read her history textbooks for fun, I loved this book. It is a perspective rarely found in the relaying of ancient history, and one that feels infinitely more human than the detached dates and maps found in the history books of my formal education. This is a must read for anyone with interests in any ancient civilization, but especially Sumerian, Arcadian/Greek, and Egyptian.
ashedryden's review
4.0
It reads well but I kept wishing for more context, which isn’t what a survey is really about
saltypiratewench's review
Hard to follow in audio at this time in my life, but I may try again. Might need to read stuff like this in a physical book so I can easily flip back and forth.
seeker42's review
I had other interests to pursue. I may return to it at a later date.
jacobshane's review
4.0
I greatly enjoyed this overview of the ancient world. This book, although a large book, was an easy read and I felt unable to put the book down. I also enjoyed that the author decided to incorporate history from all over the world. I learned quite a bit about societies and civilizations that I haven't studied before.