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The Greek Experience of India provides substantial scholarship on a topic that has not received a general treatment in English since Jean W. Sedlar's 1980 study India and the Greek World. Stoneman, who is the leading authority on the Alexander Romance and this historic text's diffusion throughout Eurasia, is the ideal scholar to write this book. He treats the interaction of Greek and Indian culture in three sections: "First Impressions" discusses the knowledge of India available to Alexander's generation; "Megasthenes' Description of India" deals with the evidence for the most important Hellenistic account of India; finally, "Interactions" examines possible Greek influence on Indian philosophy and art. Although the core of the book is the author's 150-page analysis of the fragments of Megasthenes's Indica (the most thorough such analysis in English), his insights range widely, covering the origin of Indian scripts, the Indian epic, philosophical dialogue, and Buddhist art. Particularly valuable are his inclusion of the works of Indian scholars in his discussions and his balanced evaluation of the controversies over claims for extensive Greek influence on Indian culture.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates and above.

Local history in any era is the least plowed field of historiography, perhaps nowhere more than in the ancient world. Thomas (Oxford), whose previous work on ancient literacy is foundational, has deepened the furrow with Polis Histories, Collective Memories and the Greek World. Focusing on polis (and island and ethnos) histories, Thomas examines the changing but substantial role of Greek city-states as political entities, the sociogeographic aspects of Hellenic identity, and how historiography itself plays a role in Greek community, connection, and self-conception. She deftly wields the sparse scholarship along with a panoply of ancient sources: prose, poetry, inscriptions, iconography, and, most impressively, Jacoby's monumental collection (https://brill.com/view/db/bnjo) of fragmentary historical works. Thematic sections lead into a substantial set of geographic cases. One of her many striking conclusions is that the ethnohistorical tradition begun by Herodotus was not replaced by Thucydides and his successors, but lived on in a rich tapestry of historical works from individual poleis, islands, and regions. Thomas has carefully sowed seeds in the growing field of city-state studies. The result is a vital addition to the canon of ancient Greek historical prose and essential reading for all scholars.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

"The Roman Empire did not fall. It moved." This straightforward observation lies at the heart of Kaldellis's book. Yet it flies in the face of accepted historical tradition, which essentially invented "Byzantine" civilization. The inhabitants of the eastern empire emanating from Constantinople (formerly the Greek colony of Byzantion) did not refer to themselves as Byzantine but rather Roman, and knew their domains as Romania, or "Romanland." The epithet "Byzantine" arose out of Western conceit, as a way to "other" the East. And so Kaldellis (Ohio State Univ.) demands radical rethinking of long-held beliefs, mustering extensive evidence in support of his argument and simultaneously tracing the roots of Roman denialism. Along the way he examines the nature of "empire" itself and probes questions of ethnicity in cosmopolitan Byzantium, finding ethnicity to be a trait more engendered through culture than through birth. This is sophisticated scholarship seeking to bring Byzantine studies into the mainstream of historical thought. It deserves, and will no doubt receive, a wide audience. The text is supplemented with two maps documenting evolving ethnic distributions, as well as extensive notes, bibliography, and index.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Though derived from ancient Near Eastern precursors, the symposion, literally a "drinking together," became one of the most quintessentially Greek institutions. And Oxonian Oswyn Murray is the scholar most closely associated with the development of "sympotic studies." This volume brings together 28 of his most significant contributions to the subject over four decades, collected from an array of venues. Presented thematically rather than chronologically in five sections, these range from the history of scholarship, to the origins of the symposion, to its varied manifestations in the Greek world (e.g., iconography, practices, war, violence, love, law, death, etc.), its Roman legacy, and the overarching "history of pleasure." Illustrations include 19 accompanying the original papers, 12 newly reproduced color plates, and another 11 drawings specially commissioned for the present work. Murray's original text and notes have been modified only occasionally to bring them up to date, and are accounted for in a comprehensive bibliography. Separate indexes are devoted to primary literary sources, vases, and subjects and names. Anyone interested in a tradition that permeates nearly every level of classical culture--and maintains a vigorous afterlife--would be well advised to turn to this primer in "drinking Greek style."Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates and above.

Time and its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire is an important contribution to ancient intellectual history: the first comprehensive study of the origin of era dating--the practice of dating events by reference to a chronologically fixed reference point, as in the BC/AD dating system. Kosmin (Harvard) argues that era dating was invented in the third century BCE by the government of the Seleucid Empire and revolutionized attitudes toward time throughout the Near and Middle East. The book is divided into two parts, each containing three chapters. The first part--"Imperial Present"--analyzes the historical context of the invention of era dating, its impact on governmental practice, and the new attitude toward the Seleucid dynasty it fostered. The second section--"Indigenous Past and Future"--traces Indigenous reactions to the new system in the form of universal histories of past glories, apocalyptic visions of future liberation, and dreams of renewing pre-Seleucid governmental forms. This text is particularly notable for its lucid argumentation and its expert use of a wide range of relevant sources, including classical, Babylonian, and Jewish.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates and above.