The Cambridge Ancient History Plates to Volume 4

This book of plates can be used either as a companion to Volume IV or as an independent, illustrated account of the period, and of the evidence of Greek civilization and culture as it encountered the Persian empire and struggled for its freedom. Detailed commentary accompanies a full pictoral survey of the art and archaeology of the Persian empire and its provinces, from Tthrace to India. The section on Greece concentrates on late Archaic Athens, immediately before the Persian wars, and considers cultural progress as evidence of various aspects of Greek life and society. The fortunes of the Western Greek colonial area and of the Etruscan and Italic peoples are similarly treated. The volume concludes with a study of the invention of coinage and its use throughout Greece and Persia.

This volume complements the publication of the second edition of the text volume of The Cambridge Ancient History Volume IV, but can also be used as an independent, illustrated account of the period (c. 525 to 479 BC), and of the evidence for the life and arts of Greeks and Persians in the years when they first crossed swords with one another, and the freedom of Greece was at stake. It presents a full pictorial survey, with detailed commentary, of the art and archaeology of the Persian empire and its provinces, from Thrace to India. The section on Greece concentrates on Athens of the late Archaic period, immediately before the Persian Wars, with consideration of progress in the arts and of the archaeological evidence for various aspects of Greek life and society. The fortunes of the Western Greek, colonial area and of the Etruscan and Italic peoples are similarly treated, and the volume ends with a study of the invention of coinage and its use in Greece and the Persian empire. This book should be consulted by ancient historians, archaeologists and art historians and also by the general reader interested in the ancient world.

List of maps; Acknowledgements for photographs; Preface; Abbreviations; 1. The Persian empire P. R. S. Moorey; 2. The Greek world John Boardman; 3. The west R. J. A. Wilson and David Ridgway; 4. Coinage M. Jessop Price.