As panoramic as it is learned, this is ancient history for our globalized world.
Tom Holland, author ofDynastyandRubicon
Twenty-five-hundred years ago, civilizations around the world entered a revolutionary new era that overturned old order and laid the foundation for our world today. In the face of massive social changes across three continents, radical new forms of government emerged; mighty wars were fought over trade, religion, and ideology; and new faiths were ruthlessly employed to unify vast empires. The histories of Rome and China, Greece and India-the stories of Constantine and Confucius, Qin Shi Huangdi and Hannibal-are here revealed to be interconnected incidents in the midst of a greater drama.
InAncient Worlds,historian Michael Scott presents a gripping narrative of this unique age in human civilization, showing how diverse societies responded to similar pressures and how they influenced one another: through conquest and conversion, through trade in people, goods, and ideas.
An ambitious reinvention of our grandest histories,Ancient Worldsreveals new truths about our common human heritage.
A bold and imaginative page-turner that challenges ideas about the world of antiquity.
Peter Frankopan, author ofThe Silk Roads
Michael Scott is an Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the author of
Delphi,
Delphi and Olympia,
Space and Society in the Greek and Roman Worlds, and
From Democrats to Kings. Scott has written and presented a range of television and radio programs for National Geographic, History Channel, Nova, and BBC.
[An] impeccably researched and authoritative study of the world 500BC to AD300.... Scott's scholarly but accessible style manages to make this sweeping saga enthralling throughout, as he traces the stories of everyone from Hannibal to Confuciul£$