Ancient Greece

Bronze juror’s identification ticket, Greek, fourth century BC. Rogers Fund, 1907, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Power and Populism in Ancient Greek Courts

In ancient Greece the ‘least dangerous’ branch of government – the courts – wielded serious political power.

A white marble Roman head of Plato, 3rd century AD.

‘Plato of Athens’ by Robin Waterfield review

Well-researched and attractively written, Plato of Athens: A Life in Philosophy by Robin Waterfield grapples with a life that left few records.

Achilles tending Patroclus wounded by an arrow, identified by inscriptions on the upper part of the vase.

‘Homer and His Iliad’ by Robin Lane Fox review

Homer and His Iliad by Robin Lane Fox is a masterly survey of the Iliad, its majesty, its pathos and its unparalleled progression from wrath to pity.

The Computer in the Aegean

The Antikythera Mechanism is ingenious, intricate and highly sophisticated. But what is it?

Epaminondas saves the life of Pelopidas during the siege of Mantinea 385 BC, from Ward and Lock’s Illustrated History of the World, c.1882 © akg-images/UIG/Universal History Archive.

No Army? No Problem

Defending the Home Front in Ancient Greece.

Page from the Theodore Psalter in Greek script by Theodore of Caesarea, 1066.

Plato to NATO

The spread of Hellenic ideas from Greece to the world.

The Battle of Salamis, 19th-century engraving © akg-images.

Salamis: the Battle that Made History

The victory of the Greeks over Persia in 480 BC was more than just a landmark in naval warfare. It shaped the way the past is understood.

Fallen Idols

In the ancient world, statues were not symbols of virtue and could take revenge on those who attacked them.

The Discovery of Sparta

Warriors in red cloaks battling against the odds at Thermopylae is the image usually associated with Sparta. But a richer and more contentious tale lies in the ancient city’s stones.

Thebes: The Forgotten City

The city of Thebes was central to the ancient Greeks’ achievements in politics and culture. For many centuries it has been largely – and often deliberately – forgotten.