---
product_id: 15892876
title: "Classics: A Very Short Introduction"
price: "HK$293"
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reviews_count: 10
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---

# Classics: A Very Short Introduction

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## Description

desertcart.com: Classics: A Very Short Introduction: 8601404271625: Beard, Mary, Henderson, John: Books

Review: A classical education - The timeline at the end of this book gives a clue to the authors' approach. It starts at c800-500 BCE ("Early Greece"), ends at 1995 with the publication of this book, and includes entries like "1959 Ben Hur film starring Charlton Heston". It is about Classics as a subject, about how the Classical world has been viewed and interpreted over the years, and how it continues to impact today's world. In other words, it is more about the nature and significance of Classics as a discipline than about specific Classical topics. That makes it an excellent introduction for someone embarking on such a study. The Further Reading section at the end is something of a letdown, being just an unhelpful list of titles. See Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction, by Helen Morales, for an example of how a Further Reading section should be done. In fact, the Morales book should be seen as a companion volume to the present one. But this is a well written and entertaining exploration of a fascinating subject, full of valuable insights. Read this first and then the Morales book. [PeterReeve]
Review: For those who know little about the Classics and tend to think of it as an arcane, intimidating subject - It has been more than forty years since I took any courses in Greek or Latin or the history of Greece or Rome. With a son graduating next week with a B.A. in the Classics, I thought I should honor him and brush up on my own now very patchy, superficial understanding of the Classics. So I read this installment in Oxford's "Very Short Introduction" series. I thought it would be an introductory survey of the highpoints of Ancient Greek and Roman culture -- such as Homer, Sophocles, Plato, and the Parthenon; and Virgil, Plutarch, Marcus Aurelius, and the Pantheon. It is quite different, in a thoughtful and provocative -- although not altogether satisfying -- way. Authors Mary Beard and John Henderson are both professors of Classics at Cambridge, so they know their subject. CLASSICS, their book, is not donnish, however. It is a "big picture" book. It touches on a wide variety of disciplines and activities involved in expanding and refining knowledge of the classical world. As opposed to the landmarks of architecture, sculpture, poetry, and theater, the book is inclined towards matters of economics, sociology, and historiography. A sense of the wide-angle lens through which the authors view their subject is conveyed in these sentences from early in the book: "'Classics' is a subject that exists in [the] gap between us and the world of the Greeks and Romans. The questions raised by 'Classics' are the questions raised by our distance from 'their' world, and at the same time by our closeness to it, and by its familiarity to us. * * * The aim of 'Classics' is not only to 'discover' or 'uncover' the ancient world * * *. Its aim is also to define and debate 'our' relationship to that world. " CLASSICS does not operate exclusively on a macro-level, however. The authors often supply interesting examples of their larger points or themes. For instance, slavery. They write that "there can be no explanation for anything in the classical world, from mining to philosophy, from building to poetry, that does not take account of the presence of slaves." And in the next paragraph they refer to a legal rule that was of particular interest to me, as a retired trial lawyer: many societies have barred slaves or others who were not "full citizens" from giving evidence in court; in Rome, slaves could not give evidence unless they did so under torture; in other words, their testimony was admissible ONLY if it were elicited under torture. In many ways, CLASSICS will be beneath all who have even a modicum of knowledge about the subject. (Such as my son, although for him the book might offer some welcome reassurance as to the continued relevance of his major.) But for those who know very little about the Classics and tend to think of it as an arcane, intimidating subject, the book is worth reading.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #171,630 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #86 in Ancient & Classical Literature #110 in Ancient & Classical Literary Criticism (Books) #4,010 in Classic Literature & Fiction |
| Customer Reviews | 4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars (275) |
| Dimensions  | 7.03 x 0.38 x 4.43 inches |
| Edition  | New Ed |
| ISBN-10  | 0192853856 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0192853851 |
| Item Weight  | 2.31 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Part of series  | Very Short Introductions |
| Print length  | 160 pages |
| Publication date  | June 15, 2000 |
| Publisher  | Oxford University Press |

## Images

![Classics: A Very Short Introduction - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81+qQiJz4JL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A classical education
*by P***E on November 21, 2010*

The timeline at the end of this book gives a clue to the authors' approach. It starts at c800-500 BCE ("Early Greece"), ends at 1995 with the publication of this book, and includes entries like "1959 Ben Hur film starring Charlton Heston". It is about Classics as a subject, about how the Classical world has been viewed and interpreted over the years, and how it continues to impact today's world. In other words, it is more about the nature and significance of Classics as a discipline than about specific Classical topics. That makes it an excellent introduction for someone embarking on such a study. The Further Reading section at the end is something of a letdown, being just an unhelpful list of titles. See Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction, by Helen Morales, for an example of how a Further Reading section should be done. In fact, the Morales book should be seen as a companion volume to the present one. But this is a well written and entertaining exploration of a fascinating subject, full of valuable insights. Read this first and then the Morales book. [PeterReeve]

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ For those who know little about the Classics and tend to think of it as an arcane, intimidating subject
*by R***N on May 11, 2016*

It has been more than forty years since I took any courses in Greek or Latin or the history of Greece or Rome. With a son graduating next week with a B.A. in the Classics, I thought I should honor him and brush up on my own now very patchy, superficial understanding of the Classics. So I read this installment in Oxford's "Very Short Introduction" series. I thought it would be an introductory survey of the highpoints of Ancient Greek and Roman culture -- such as Homer, Sophocles, Plato, and the Parthenon; and Virgil, Plutarch, Marcus Aurelius, and the Pantheon. It is quite different, in a thoughtful and provocative -- although not altogether satisfying -- way. Authors Mary Beard and John Henderson are both professors of Classics at Cambridge, so they know their subject. CLASSICS, their book, is not donnish, however. It is a "big picture" book. It touches on a wide variety of disciplines and activities involved in expanding and refining knowledge of the classical world. As opposed to the landmarks of architecture, sculpture, poetry, and theater, the book is inclined towards matters of economics, sociology, and historiography. A sense of the wide-angle lens through which the authors view their subject is conveyed in these sentences from early in the book: "'Classics' is a subject that exists in [the] gap between us and the world of the Greeks and Romans. The questions raised by 'Classics' are the questions raised by our distance from 'their' world, and at the same time by our closeness to it, and by its familiarity to us. * * * The aim of 'Classics' is not only to 'discover' or 'uncover' the ancient world * * *. Its aim is also to define and debate 'our' relationship to that world. " CLASSICS does not operate exclusively on a macro-level, however. The authors often supply interesting examples of their larger points or themes. For instance, slavery. They write that "there can be no explanation for anything in the classical world, from mining to philosophy, from building to poetry, that does not take account of the presence of slaves." And in the next paragraph they refer to a legal rule that was of particular interest to me, as a retired trial lawyer: many societies have barred slaves or others who were not "full citizens" from giving evidence in court; in Rome, slaves could not give evidence unless they did so under torture; in other words, their testimony was admissible ONLY if it were elicited under torture. In many ways, CLASSICS will be beneath all who have even a modicum of knowledge about the subject. (Such as my son, although for him the book might offer some welcome reassurance as to the continued relevance of his major.) But for those who know very little about the Classics and tend to think of it as an arcane, intimidating subject, the book is worth reading.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly Recommended
*by S***Y on March 1, 2015*

Great but be warned you don't need this well written little book if you already have or intend getting Mare Beard's "Confronting the Classics" as it seems to be condensed from that excellent book. That being said it is a lovely, well wri tten member of a great series of " Introductions.

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