Texts in Context: The Triumph of Hellas
The preposterous victory of the Greeks over the Persians is, in a sense, the beginning of a self-consciously Western civilization.
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Texts in Context
Texts in Context: The Beginning of the Graeco-Persian War
Now we enter upon the “storied” parts of ancient history. A word seems in order, then, about stories; and so do a couple of stories.
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Texts in Context: Timeline of the Early Iron Age
Texts in Context:Timeline of the Early Iron Age By Gabriel Blanchard Several dates below are approximate and/or conjectural; some that are especially uncertain are noted with a question
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Texts in Context: Warriors and Wits
On the eve of the Persian invasion, let us look more closely at Athens and its opposite number, Sparta.
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Texts in Context: A Cry From the East
Or rather, two cries. A revolution in intellectual culture was followed by a revolt, and that revolt was only a hint of the great drama soon to play out on the Hellene stage.
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Texts in Context: The Age of the Tyrants
Archaic Greece saw the politics and culture of their society bloom, to a degree easily equalling the Late-Medieval Renaissance.
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Texts in Context: The Four Corners of the Round Earth
We pause for a moment, in our tracing of Western history, to glance at everybody else’s history.
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Texts in Context: A Rosy-Fingered Dawn
Texts in Context:A Rosy-Fingered Dawn By Gabriel Blanchard The Dark Age of the post-Bronze-Age Ægean is obscure to historians, but what happened next is far less so …
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Texts in Context: Darkness on the Mountains
Texts in Context:Darkness on the Mountains By Gabriel Blanchard Here we turn from “the contemplative Sphinx” and “garden-girdled Babylon”1 to a small, enigmatic people, as few in number
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Texts in Context: Irons in the Fire
The stage is now set for the Early Iron Age, much of which could be likened to a statue with a golden head, a silver chest, a bronze belly …
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