Cleopatra: A Biography by Duane W. Roller

$15.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Few personalities from classical antiquity are more familiar yet more poorly grasped than Cleopatra (69-30 BC), Queen of Egypt. The subject of a vast repertory of post-antique popular culture and also a significant figure in literature, art, and music, Cleopatra herself is surprisingly little known and generally misunderstood. Even in the years immediately after her death her memory was condemned by those who defeated her. The image of Cleopatra as an unfit ruler and wanton seductress who destroyed the careers of two of Rome's greatest generals-an image first created by Octavian's propaganda campaign-informs the later portrayals of her on stage and screen. Cleopatra was an accomplished diplomat, administrator, linguist (she was probably the first Ptolemy ruler to learn Egyptian), and author, who, until her very last years, skillfully managed her kingdom in the face of a deteriorating political situation and increasing strength and hostility from Rome. The fact that the wealthy and pivotally placed kingdom of Egypt held out so long against Roman conquest is due primarily to the formidable skills of its last Ptolemaic Queen. Although she is the subject of a vast bibliography, she can be unfairly represented as a person whose physical needs determined her political decisions. Some of the most unbiased data from her own era, the repertory of art and coinage produced while she was alive, are too frequently ignored. In Cleopatra, Duane Roller has written the definitive biography of the Queen, not as a figure in popular culture or even in the arts and literature of the last five hundred years, but as the last Greek Queen of Egypt. In addition to providing an engaging narrative of the Queen's life, the author carefully contextualizes Cleopatra in the revolutionary events of the first century BCE. He highlights the important heritage of the Ptolemies, rulers in Egypt since the death of Alexander the Great three hundred years earlier, and the growing involvement of Rome in North Africa and the Middle East, culminating in Octavian's annexation of Egypt in 30 BCE. Roller also considers Cleopatra's various predecessor Queens, who are often ignored but were fascinating personalities in their own right, and her descendents: although Cleopatra was seen as "the last of the Ptolemies" her daughter and grandson ruled in Africa for another 70 years and created a Ptolemaic government-in-exile at Mauretanian Caesarea. The result is the most complete and authoritative portrait of the life and times of this perennially fascinating figure. ...Show more

The Lost Treasures of Troy by Caroline Moorehead

$20.00 NZD

Category: Ancient History | Reading Level: very good

In spring 1945, the Red Army entered Berlin. Not far from the Reichs Chancellery was the Berlin Zoo with an anti-aircraft tower. Inside were crates containing Heinrich Schliemann's famed collection of gold from the lost city of Troy, King Priam's riches - gold diadems with leaf and flower pendants, gold bottles, gold earrings and 9000 gold rings and buttons - one of the most complete and valuable finds ever made by an archaeologist. On June 3rd the crates were despatched to Moscow by military aircraft. And there they and their contents vanished. ...Show more

The World of Herotodus by Aubrey de Selincourt

$30.00 NZD

Category: Ancient History | Reading Level: very good

The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature by Paul Harvey (ed.)

$20.00 NZD

Category: Literature | Reading Level: very good

Horace's Complete Works by Horace

$15.00 NZD

Category: Latin Literature | Series: Everyman's Library 515 | Reading Level: very good

Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

$20.00 NZD

Category: Ancient History | Reading Level: very good

30-second Ancient Egypt: The 50 Most Important Achievements of a Timeless Civilisation Each Explained in Half a Minute by Peter Der Manuelian

$14.00 NZD

Category: Ancient History | Series: 30-Second | Reading Level: very good

We've all heard of pyramids, hieroglyphs and Cleopatra, but how much do you really know about ancient Egypt? Why was the Nile integral to the unification of Egypt? What is the mystery surrounding Queen Hetephere's tomb? What did the Amarna Letters reveal? What did the ancient Egyptians eat and drink? 30 -Second Ancient Egypt presents a unique insight into one of the most brilliant and beguiling civilizations, where technological innovations and architectural wonders emerge among mysterious gods and burial rites. Each entry is summarized in just 30 seconds using nothing more than two pages, 300 words and a single picture. From royal dynasties and Tutankhamun's tomb, to hieroglyphs and mummification, interspersed with biographies of Egypt's most intriguing rulers, this is the quickest path to understanding the 50 key ideas and innovations that developed and defined one of the worlds great civilizations. ...Show more

Valley of the Kings by John Romer

$14.00 NZD

Category: Ancient History | Reading Level: very good

Account of one of the world's richest archaeological sites.

Breaking the Maya Code by Michael D. Coe

$25.00 NZD

Category: Ancient History | Reading Level: very good

The third edition of this classic book takes up the thorny question of when and where the Maya script first appeared in the archaeological record, and describes efforts to decipher its meaning on the extremely early murals of San Bartolo. It includes iconographic and epigraphic investigations into how t he Classic Maya perceived and recorded the human senses, a previously unknown realm of ancient Maya thought and perception.There is now compelling documentary and historical evidence bearing on the question of why and how the "breaking of the Maya code" was the achievement of Yuri V. Knorosov--a Soviet citizen totally isolated behind the Iron Curtain--and not of the leading Maya scholar of his day, Sir Eric Thompson. What does it take to make such a breakthrough, with a script of such complexity as the Maya? We now have some answers, as Michael Coe demonstrates here. ...Show more

The Aeneid by Virgil

$12.00 NZD

Category: Latin Literature | Reading Level: very good

"The Aeneid" of Virgil (70-19 B.C.) describes the legendary origin of the Roman nation. It tells of the Trojan prince Aeneas, who escaped, with some followers, after Troy fell, and sailed to Italy. Here they settled and laid the foundations of Roman power. The Aeneid is a poet's picture of the world, wh ere human affairs are controlled byhuman and superhuman influences. It is a literary epic inspired by Virgil's love of his native Italy and his sense of Rome's destiny as a civilized ruler of nations. This translation by W.F. Jackson Knight aims to preserve the range, vitality, and music of the original. ...Show more

Histories by Herodotus

$12.00 NZD

Category: Ancient History | Series: Wordsworth Classics of World Literature | Reading Level: very good

Translated with Notes by George Rawlinson. With an Introduction by Tom Griffith. Herodotus (c480-c425) is 'The Father of History' and his Histories are the first piece of Western historical writing. They are also the most entertaining. Why did Pheidippides run the 26 miles and 385 yards (or 42.195 kilom etres) from Marathon to Athens? And what did he do when he got there? Was the Battle of Salamis fought between sausage-sellers? Which is the oldest language in the world? Why did Leonidas and his 300 Spartans spend the morning before the battle of Thermopylae combing their hair? Why did every Babylonian woman have to sit in the Temple of Aphrodite until a man threw a coin into her lap, and how long was she likely to sit there? And what is the best way to kill a crocodile? This wide-ranging history provides the answers to all these fascinating questions as well as providing many fascinating insights into the Ancient World. ...Show more

Makers of Rome by Plutarch

$15.00 NZD

Category: Ancient History | Reading Level: very good