This book is a nice introduction to Antiquity for general history enthusiasts in the tradition of Robin Lane Fox.

Ancient Greece is a perennial topic that crops up in history, literature, and science. Ancient Greece was the lynch pin of interactions from the East and the West. toward each other. However, most readers do not grasp the role ancient Greece played in the formation of modern society. In Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens, Robin Waterfield seeks to remedy that lack of context.

Robin Waterfield opens with a discussion of Archaic Greece - in other words, the Greece before Homer where the megalithic tombs that earlier archeologists thought belonged to Agamemnon and Odysseus and their ilk. He covers the founding of Athens and Sparta and the growth of the aristocracy. Then there are chapters on the Persian Wars. The next major period of Greek history is the Classical Time with the Peloponnesian War, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle along with the Western Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily. The Classical Period ends with the conquest of Greece by Phillip and Alexander of Macedon which ushers in the Hellenistic Period. This is the time of Greek expansion across the former Persian empire all the way to India and south into Egypt. The time of the Successors is a specialty of Waterfield who really shines in highlighting how this period really set the stage for Greek thought and culture flooding the world.

In Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens, Waterfield presents a very readable political history of ancient Greece while also providing chapters on Greek religion, art, literature and social constructs in context. It is appreciated that the Hellenistic period got equal treatment to the Archaic and Classical periods.

This book made it to my Did Not Finish (DNF) list. The promotional materials made it sound like this historical reference would weave a story about ancient Greece as magical and enchanting as the country itself. However, when I began reading, it laid out facts and numbers just like a standard history textbook. That was quite a disappointment, and I couldn't get through it.

Waterfield is very well known in scholarly circles for this translations from Greek and his other works, but this history seems to be aimed more at the general, but interested, reader. I recommend it highly.

The history is written in a clear narrative style; the author takes time to explain why he considers a new history of classical Greece to be important and necessary; the content neglects nothing of importance, but never gets bogged down in too much detail. I especially enjoyed the sections on the decline of Greece in the Fourth Century and beyond, as first the Macedonians and then Rome slowly wore away at the independence of the Greek city-states. This loss of political freedom ironically led to an explosion in the spread of Hellenism, first in the middle east and then in western Europe. 'Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit'.

Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens is an excellent overview of ancient Greek history. Robin A. H. Waterfield has written an engaging and accessible book that introduces the reader to the major periods and players of ancient Greece. I particularly enjoyed the chapters that focused on women, sexuality, and family life (chapter 13) and on social life and intellectual culture (chapter 23). I really like the recommended reading list that corresponds to each chapter of the book - making it easy to find specific, topical information.

written with lucidity and immense intelligence, based on information the author is familiar with but which he presents in fresh ways - a new history of ancient times! wow. He raises question early on - why do we need a new history of Greece - and elucidates - even the concept of Greece 'citizenship' is parsed out in intriguing ways. later chapters move on the 'usual' timeline but with fresh elements - it is also terrifically readable and characterises some of the important ancient Greek figures very well. really great value.

Many famous academics, scripters, theorists, conquerors, leaders of assembly, monarchs, mathematicians and athletes originated from Greece (also locally called Hellas). Tragedies typically came from there such as wars between the city-states (polis) and invasion by the powerful foreign nations.

Democracy was invented by the Athens’ assembly, however, it was not really a democracy and compared with modern communist China and unelected EU commissioners. Oligarchies have existed since the dawn of civilisation.

There are many Greek words in our English vocabulary such as strategy (strategos) and economy (oikosnomia) etc. Today’s jury system in our Crown Courts originated in Greece, although there was no judge, and verdicts are still being upheld by the majority of jurors.

It is really incredible that our modern civilisations remain based on the Greek model, and later the Roman system, for the last three thousand years. I hope Robin Waterfield will write about Rome or Egypt!

Caesar13

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Thanks to Net Galley and Oxford University Press for a pre-published copy in exchange for an honest review.
I first read about the ancient Greeks in my early teens and so I came to this volume expecting a refreshing review of what I knew! Wrong - this is not the filtered history of my youth this is a well researched thorough re-assessment of who the Greeks were and what we owe owe them in our less honourable age. From our standard perspective and thanks to excellent historians like Robin Waterfield we have grown used to knowing what happened in the past - of course we don't but we flatter ourselves that we are well informed. Robin Waterfield has produced a brilliant summary of the Greeks covering 700 years in just over 500 pages which will help bridge our ignorance and guide us into a reinterpretation of the Greeks. When I reached the end I had to resist the urge to go straight back to the beginning and read it again. I will but I'll save it for Christmas and a log fire to really plumb the depths of this fascinating account. I'm too old to start academic studies but this definitely gives me the urge and I will start to plan a voyage and trek around Greece just to reinforce the volume buy viewing the landscape. Thank you Robin Waterfield

This is a good general survey of the Greeks, from the archaic period through to the Hellenistic period under Rome. Waterfield knows the sources, literary and material, and makes his points clearly about the inbuilt biases that we need to be aware of. He covers the Greek world in a broad way, so cultural issues including a brief chapter on the lives of women, as well as politics and warfare.

All the same, this is not a thrilling read - it favours clarity over literary elegance and stylistic panache. It references the standard literary works and includes some nice examples of how to 'read' material culture in the form of statues, for example, but doesn't engage deeply with the current state of scholarship.

Given the familiarity and limitations, I would recommend this to A level students and undergraduates wanting an overview of the Greek world, possibly general readers who don't mind a textbook approach.