Whatever Strabo’s motivation may have been in expressing this negative opinion of the effects of his own culture, that he did it reminds us that ancient Greeks prided themselves on their freedom of speech. For them, the crucial component of freedom of speech was being able to say things to people that you know they will not be happy to hear. This seems to me a concept worth remembering because it is liberating for those willing to do the demanding work of investigating sources, which is the effort that earns them the standing to express judgments worth listening to, because their conclusions will then come from thoughtful and humble reflection about evidence. Doing this work also entitles them to disagree as forthrightly as possible with the conclusions of others that seem mistaken. Many fascinating and enduring questions remain to ask and try to answer about the accomplishments and the failures of the ancient Greeks. That fact should encourage, not discourage, readers to begin to go deeper on their own, competing freely and energetically with Strabo, with me, and with every other author they read on ancient Greece, in reaching and expressing their own persuasive and significant conclusions about a history whose impact lives on in so many ways.
SUGGESTED READINGS
ANCIENT TEXTS
The extensive collection of the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press) provides editions of ancient texts in the original Greek and Latin with facing English translations; some are listed here. The other editions listed are English translations only, when they are available, as these editions can be less expensive than bilingual ones. When the standard title of an author’s ancient work as cited in the text differs from the title of the translation listed here, that standard title is given at the end of the translation entry to make clear where readers can find that particular work.
Aeschines. Aeschines. Trans. Chris Carey (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2000); includes Orations.
Aeschylus. Oresteia. Trans. Christopher Collard (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
———. The Persians and Other Plays. Trans. Alan H. Sommerstein (London: Penguin Books, 2010).
Alcaeus. See Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (1996); includes fragments.
Alcidamas. The Works and Fragments. Trans. J. V. Muir (London: Bristol Classical Press, 2001).
Alcman. See Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (1996).
Anaxagoras. See The First Philosophers (2000).
Anyte. See Sappho’s Lyre (1991).
Apollonius of Rhodes. Jason and the Golden Fleece (The Argonautica). Trans. Richard Hunter (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Appian. Roman History. Trans. Horace White. 4 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1912–1913); includes The Syrian Wars.
Archilochus. See Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (1996); includes fragments.
Aristophanes. Lysistrata and Other Plays. Trans. Alan H. Sommerstein. Rev. ed. (London: Penguin Books, 2002); includes The Acharnians, Lysistrata, and The Clouds.
———. The Birds and Other Plays. Trans. David Barrett and Alan H. Sommerstein (London: Penguin Books, 2003); includes The Birds, The Knights, The Assemblywomen, Peace, and Wealth.
———. Frogs and other Plays; includes The Wasps, The Poet and the Women, and The Frogs. Trans. David Barrett and Shomit Dutta (London: Penguin Books, 2007).
Aristotle. The Complete Works. Ed. Jonathan Barnes. 2 vols. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984); includes Constitution of the Athenians, Politics.
———. Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy. Trans. J. M. Moore. New ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010); includes Aristotle’s Constitution of the Athenians and Xenophon’s Constitution of the Spartans.
Arrian. The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander (Anabasis Alexandrou). Trans. Pamela Mensch (New York: Pantheon Books, 2010); includes Anabasis.
Athenaeus. The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae). Trans. S. Douglas Olsen. 8 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006–2012).
Atthidographers. The Story of Athens: The Fragments of the Local Chronicles of Attika. Trans. Philip Harding (London: Routledge, 2008).
Callimachus. The Poems of Callimachus. Trans. Frank Nisetich (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Chrysippus. See The Stoics Reader (2008).
Clement. Miscellanies. The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325. Vol. 2 Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994; a reprint of the 1885–1897 edition), pp. 299–567.
Critias. See The Older Sophists (1972), pp. 241–270.
Curtius Rufus, Quintus. The History of Alexander. Trans. John Yardley. Rev. ed. (London: Penguin Books, 2004).
Democritus. See The First Philosophers (2000).
Demosthenes. Demosthenes. Various translators. 7 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1930–1949); includes Orations.
———. Demosthenes, Speeches 1–17. Trans. Jeremy Trevett (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2011).
Didymus. Didymos on Demosthenes. Trans. Philip Harding (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006).
Diodorus Siculus. Library of History. Trans. C. H. Oldfather. 12 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933–1967).
———. The Persian Wars to the Fall of Athens: Books 11–14.34 (480–401 BCE). Trans. Peter Green (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2010).
Diogenes Laertius. Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Trans. R. D. Hicks. 2 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972).
Dissoi Logoi [Double Arguments]. See The Older Sophists (1972).
Epic of Creation. See Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts (1969), pp. 60–99.
Epicurus. The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia. Trans. Brad Inwood and L. P. Gerson (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1994).
Euclid. Elements. Trans. Thomas L. Heath. 2nd ed. (New York: Dover, 1956).
Euripides. Euripides. Trans. David Kovacs, Christopher Collard, and Martin Cropp. 7 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994–2008); includes Medea.
———. Fragments: Aegeus-Meleager. Trans. Christopher Collard and Martin Cropp. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008); includes Melanippe the Captive.
Excerpta de insidiis. No English translation is available. The Greek text can be found in Excerpta historica iussu Imp. Constantini Porphyrogeniti confecta. Ed. C. de Boor. Vol. 3. (Berlin: Weidmann, 1905), available online as a free e-book on Google Books.
The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists. Trans. Robin Waterfield (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Fragments of Old Comedy. Trans. Ian C. Storey. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011).
Gorgias. See The First Philosophers (2000); The Older Sophists (1972).
Greek Elegiac Poetry: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries B.C. Trans. Douglas E. Gerber. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999).
Greek Lyric. Trans. David A. Campbell. 5 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982–1993).
Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation. Trans. Andrew M. Miller (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1996).
Hecataeus. Brill’s New Jacoby. An online resource available by paid subscription, with Greek text and English translation: http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-jacoby; no printed English translation is available.
The Hellenistic Philosophers. Vol. 1: Translations of the Principal Sources, with Philosophical Commentary; Vol. 2: Greek and Latin Texts with Notes and Bibliography. Ed. A. A. Long and D. N. Sedley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); includes fragments of Zeno’s The Republic.
Hellenistic Poetry: An Anthology. Trans. Barbara Hughes Fowler (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990).
Herodotus. The Histories. Trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt. Ed.
John Marincola. Rev. ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1996).
Hesiod. Theogony and Works and Days. Trans. Martin West (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
Hippocrates. Hippocratic Writings. Trans. J. Chadwick et al. New ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1983).
Homer. The Iliad of Homer. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. New ed. Introduction and Notes by Richard Martin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).
———. The Odyssey of Homer. Trans. Richmond Lattimore (New York: HarperCollins, 1999).
The Homeric Hymns. Trans. Michael Crudden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Horace. The Complete Odes and Epodes. Trans. David West (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).
Isaeus. Isaeus. Trans. Michael Edwards (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2007); includes Orations.
Isocrates. Isocrates I. Trans. David Mirhady and Yun Lee Too (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2000).
———. Isocrates II. Trans. Terry L. Papillon (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2004).
Justin, Cornelius Nepos, and Eutropius. Trans. John Selbey Watson (London: H. G. Bohn, 1853).
Leucippus. See The First Philosophers (2000).
Libanius. Orations. No English translation of Oration 25 is available.
Lucian. Selected Dialogues. Trans. C. D. N. Costa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); includes Timon.
Lysias. Lysias. Trans. S. C. Todd (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2000); includes Orations.
Menander. The Plays and Fragments. Trans. Peter Brown (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Mimnermus. See Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (1996); includes fragments.
Moiro. See Sappho’s Lyre (1991).
Nicolaus of Damascus. Brill’s New Jacoby. An online resource available by paid subscription, with Greek text and English translation: http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-jacoby; no printed English translation is available. See also Excerpta de insidiis.
Nossis. See Sappho’s Lyre (1991).
The Older Sophists: A Complete Translation by Several Hands of the Fragments in Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker edited by Diels-Kranz with a New Edition of Antiphon and Euthydemus. Ed. Rosamund Kent Sprague (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1972).
Palatine Anthology. The Greek Anthology. Trans. W. R. Paton. 5 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925–1927).
Pausanias. Guide to Greece. Trans. Peter Levi. 2 vols. (London: Penguin Books, 1971).
Philemon. The Fragments of Attic Comedy After Meineke, Bergk, and Kock. Trans. J. M. Edmonds (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1957–1961).
Pindar. See Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (1996); includes Olympian Odes.
Plato. The Collected Dialogues. Ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971); includes Apology, Crito, Gorgias, Protagoras, The Republic, Statesman, Symposium, Theatetus.
Pliny. Natural History. Trans. H. Rackham. 10 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967–1975).
Plutarch. The Age of Alexander: Ten Greek Lives. Trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert and Timothy E. Duff. Rev. ed. (London: Penguin Books, 2011); includes Alexander.
———. On Sparta. Trans. Richard J. A. Talbert (London: Penguin Books, 2005); includes Agis and Cleomenenes, Lycurgus, and Xenophon’s Constitution of the Spartans.
———. Greek Lives. Trans. Robin Waterfield (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); includes Cimon, Lycurgus, Pericles, Solon.
———. Rise and Fall of Athens. Nine Greek Lives. Trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert (London: Penguin Books, 1960); includes Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Solon.
———. Moralia. Trans. Frank Cole Babbitt. 15 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956–1969).
Pollux. Onomasticon. No English translation is available. A nineteenth-century edition of the Greek text, Iulii Pollucis Onomasticon ex recensione Immanuelis Bekkeri (Berlin: F. Nikolai, 1846), is available online as a free e-book on Google Books.
Polybius. The Histories. Trans. Robin Waterfield (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Posidippus. The Fragments of Attic Comedy After Meineke, Bergk, and Kock. Trans. J. M. Edmonds (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1957–1961).
Protagoras. See The First Philosophers (2000); The Older Sophists (1972).
Pseudo-Aristotle. Oeconomica. See Aristotle, The Complete Works (1984).
Pyrrho. See Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (1972).
Sappho. See Sappho’s Lyre (1991); Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (1996); includes fragments.
Sappho’s Lyre: Achaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece. Trans. Diane Rayor (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991).
Solon. See Greek Elegiac Poetry (1999); Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation (1996); includes fragments.
Sophocles. Electra and Other Plays. Trans. David Raeburn (London: Penguin Books, 2008).
———. The Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. Robert Fagles. Rev. ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1984).
Stobaeus. Anthology. No English translation is available. A nineteenth-century edition of the Greek text, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologium. 5 vols. Ed. Curtius Wachsmuth and Otto Hense (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884–1912), is available online as a free e-book on Google Books.
The Stoics Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia. Trans. Brad Inwood (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2008); includes fragments of Zeno’s The Republic.
Strabo. Geography. Trans. Horace Leonard Jones. 8 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960–1970).
Theocritus. Idylls. Trans. Anthony Verity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Theognis. See Greek Elegiac Poetry (1999); includes Theognidea.
Theophrastus. Characters (with Herodas: Mimes, and Sophron and Other Mime Fragments). Trans. Jeffrey Rusten. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003).
Theopompus. Brill’s New Jacoby. An online resource available by paid subscription, with Greek text and English translation: http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-jacoby; no printed English translation is available.
Thucydides. The Landmark Thucydides. Trans. Richard Crawley. Rev. ed. (New York: Free Press, 1996); includes The Peloponnesian War.
Tyrtaeus. See Greek Elegiac Poetry (1999); includes fragments.
Vitruvius. Ten Books on Architecture. Trans. Ingrid D. Rowland (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Xenophanes. See The First Philosophers (2000).
Xenophon. Xenophon. Various translators. 7 vols. Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953–1968); includes Anabasis, Hellenica, Memorabilia, Symposium.
———. Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy. Trans. J. M. Moore. New ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010); includes Aristotle’s Constitution of the Athenians and Xenophon’s Constitution of the Spartans.
Zeno of Citium. See The Stoics Reader (2008).
COLLECTIONS OF SOURCES
These books collect translations of ancient sources arranged either according to chronological period or historical topic.
Austin, Michel. The Hellenistic World from Alexander to the Roman Conquest. A Selection of Ancient Sources in Translation. 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Crawford, Michael, and David Whitehead. Archaic and Classical Greece: A Selection of Ancient Sources in Translation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
Davison, Claire Cullen. Pheidias: The Sculptures and Ancient Sources (London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2009).
Dillon, Matthew, and Lynda Garland. Ancient Greece: Social and Historical Documents from Archaic Times to the Death of Alexander. 3rd ed. (London: Routledge, 2010).
Emlyn-Jones, C. J. The Ionians and Hellenism: A S
tudy of the Cultural Achievement of Early Greek Inhabitants of Asia Minor (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980).
Irby-Massie, Georgia L., and Paul T. Keyser. Greek Science of the Hellenistic Era: A Sourcebook (London: Routledge, 2002).
Kearns, Emily. Ancient Greek Religion: A Sourcebook (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
Lefkowitz, Mary R., and Maureen B. Fant. Women’s Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation. 3rd ed. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).
Pollitt, J. J. The Art of Ancient Greece: Sources and Documents (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
Pritchard, James B. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. 3rd ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969).
Rhodes, P. J. The Greek City-States: A Source Book. 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Rhodes, P. J., and Robin Osborne. Greek Historical Inscriptions: 404–323 BC (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Robinson, Eric W. Ancient Greek Democracy: Readings and Sources (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004).
Rusten, Jeffrey, ed. The Birth of Comedy: Texts, Documents, and Art from Athenian Comic Competitions, 486–280. Trans. Jeffrey Henderson (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).
Samons, Loren J. Athenian Democracy and Imperialism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
MODERN STUDIES
Modern scholarship on the history of ancient Greece is vast, international, and multilingual. This limited selection presents works in English related to topics in the narrative of this book. Readers should not assume that these works are the last word on the subjects they discuss, or that I necessarily agree with their conclusions. The discussions and bibliographies in the more-recent studies in the list can provide pointers to earlier scholarship, much of which remains valuable and worth consulting but is not listed here due to space considerations.
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