Roman Social History

Ancient Greece first coined the concept of democracy, yet almost every major ancient Greek thinker - from Plato and Aristotle onward - was ambivalent toward or even hostile to democracy in any form. The explanation for this is quite simple: The elite perceived majority power as tantamount to a dictatorship of the proletariat. In ancient Greece, there can be traced not only the rudiments of modern democratic society but the entire Western tradition of antidemocratic thought.

In this, his first book, Nietzsche developed a way of thinking about the arts that unites the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus as the central symbol of human existence. Although tragedy serves as the focus of this work, music, visual art, dance, and the other arts can also be viewed using Nietzsche's analysis and integration of the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The Birth of Tragedy stands alongside Aristotle's Poetics as an essential work for all who seek to understand poetry and its relationship to human life.

El Banquete forma parte de los Diálogos, legado literario y filosófico de Platón. Esta obra se desarrolla en un banquete al que van invitados importantes, entre ellos Sócrates. Erixímaco propone que cada uno de los presentes haga un discurso en alabanza del Amor, de Eros, y de ahí se derivan los siete discursos que lo componen y es así que el amor se hace presente desde diferentes puntos de vista.

Ever familiar and instructive, Davis shows why the ancient tales of gods and heroes, from Mount Olympus to Machu Picchu, from ancient Rome to the icy land of the Norse, continue to speak to us today, in our movies, art, language, and music. For mythology novices and buffs alike, and for anyone who loves a good story, Don't Know Much About Mythology is a lively and insightful look into the greatest stories ever told.

Meditations is former US President Bill Clinton's favorite book. This audio consists of a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor AD 161-180, setting forth his ideas on Stoic philosophy.

Hippias of Elis travels throughout the Greek world practicing and teaching the art of making beautiful speeches. On a rare visit to Athens, he meets Socrates, who questions him about the nature of his art. Socrates is especially curious about how Hippias would define beauty. They agree that beauty makes all beautiful things beautiful, but when Socrates presses him to say precisely what he means, Hippias is unable to deliver such a definition.

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, Christopher Taylor explores the life of Socrates and his philosophical activity, before looking to the responses his philosophical doctrines have evoked in the centuries since his betrayal and execution at fellow Athenian hands.

The Trial and Death of Socrates presents the trial and subsequent execution of Socrates in 399 BCE. Socrates was tried on the basis of two ambiguous charges: corrupting the youth and impiety. “Euthyphro”, one of Plato's early dialogues, takes place during the weeks leading up to Socrates' trial. “Apology” is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defends himself against the charges of being a man "who corrupted the young, refused to worship the gods, and created new deities".

If you want to discover the captivating life of Tiberius, then pay attention.... Compared with the preceding rulers, Julius Caesar and Augustus, the name does not ring out with the same fame and pomposity. Shakespeare wrote no plays about Tiberius; his name does not echo in the history books with the same awe-inspiring prominence. Even his successors, Caligula and Nero, are more famous than he was.

In 1799, a French Army officer was rebuilding the defenses of a fort on the banks of the Nile when he discovered an ancient stele fragment bearing a decree inscribed in three different scripts. So begins one of the most familiar tales in Egyptology - that of the Rosetta Stone and the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. This book draws on fresh archival evidence to provide a major new account of how the English polymath Thomas Young and the French philologist Jean-François Champollion vied to be the first to solve the riddle of the Rosetta.

Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from AD 161 to 180, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the Meditations in Koine, Greece as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement.

For millennia, Stoicism has been the ancient philosophy that attracts those who seek greatness, from athletes to politicians and everyone in between. And no wonder: its embrace of self-mastery, virtue and indifference to that which we cannot control has much to offer those grappling with today's chaotic world. But who were the Stoics? In this book, Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman offer a fresh approach to understanding Stoicism through the lives of the people who practised it.

"Live each day as if it were your last." Written in Greek by the only Roman emperor who was also a philosopher, without any intention of publication, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations offers a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe.

Roma comenzó como un reino, prosperó como república, conquistó vastos territorios cuando era un imperio y se convirtió en la Ciudad Santa durante la Edad Media. Incluso hoy en día, Roma sigue intrigándonos con su rica historia, arquitectura, arte, literatura, religión, leyes y lengua. Los abundantes hallazgos arqueológicos de Roma y sus alrededores no son más que un fragmento de lo que fue la ciudad.

In The Republic, Plato tackles the big issues of the state and the individual: how the state should be ruled, and by whom; and the way the individual should lead his life - and why. The lively quality of the dialogue can be clearly appreciated in this new translation by Tom Griffith.

In Lessons in Stoicism, philosopher John Sellars weaves together the key ideas of the three great Roman Stoics - Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius - with snapshots of their fascinating lives, to show us how their ideas can help us today. In vivid prose, Sellars shows how the works of these three Stoics have inspired people ever since, speaking as they do to some of the perennial issues that face anyone trying to navigate their way through life.

The Republic is a classic work by an ancient Greek philosopher Plato. There is one of the most famous dialogues of Plato about the arrangement of the state structure and the essence of the state (contemporary for Plato, of course, but also important nowadays because the whole modern so called "European civilisation" is based, first of all, on ancient schemes). The structure of Plato's dialogue is similar to others. Socrates and Glaucon are coming back to Athens from Piraeus. They are stopped by Polemarchus who invites them to visit him and talk.

All effective debaters, whether they know it or not, employ Aristotle's 3 basic principles of effective argument that form the spine of Rhetoric. In Poetics, Aristotle draws a dramatic distinction between poetry and history. This collection also includes Aristotle's body of work that has come to be identified as Logic.

The Roman civilization is probably the single most important civilization in the history of the planet. Its expansion defined Europe. Its constitution shaped societies from Russia in the east to the United States and Latin America in the west. Not even its conquerors were immune to the superior Roman culture. In this new captivating history book, you’ll learn all you need to know about Roman institutions and politics.

Plato is perhaps the most significant philosopher who has ever lived, and The Republic, composed in Athens in about 375 BC, is widely regarded as his most famous dialogue. Its discussion of the perfect city and the perfect mind laid the foundations for Western culture and, for over 2,000 years, has been the cornerstone of Western philosophy.