Creativity of Crete - City States and the Foundations of the Modern World (Paperback)

Crete is famous for its Minoan civilization, which by 1200BC had come to an end. It is far less well known that less than 600 years later, Crete pioneered the idea of the 'city-state' and developed it for longer than anywhere else in the ancient Greek world. Thought by Homer to have numbered up to one hundred, even the whereabouts of many of the cities at the heart of these tiny states is now unknown. This original book describes 65 sites from the Classical (500-330 BC) and Hellenistic (330-67 BC) periods and argues that the achievements of the city-states should be more adequately recognized. If codes of law existed elsewhere at an earlier date, none developed the rule of law before Cretan city-states. While ancient Athens famously developed a form of democracy, Cretan city-states created constitutions and elected assemblies that gave rise to another variant of democracy. Although the Greeks did not invent coinage, it was adopted with great enthusiasm in Crete and by the late fourth century BC the island possessed more than forty mints producing interchangeable coins. Aristotle recognized that Crete was ideally sited to exploit trading opportunities, and this book provocatively argues that the rule of law, representative democracy and a monetary system enabled it to do so. The wealth this trading generated attracted the interest of Rome whose invasions between 69 and 67 BC brought an end to the island s independence. Written for the general reader with an interest in Mediterranean civilizations, archaeology, classics or ancient history, the text includes a unique gazetteer summarizing the literature on 65 archaeological sites, together with appropriate maps and coordinates.

General

Imprint:	Signal Books Ltd
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	October 2011
First published:	October 2011
Authors:	Malcolm Cross
Dimensions:	234 x 155 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	299
ISBN-13:	978-1-904955-95-5
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE Books > Humanities > History > European history > General Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Archaeology by period / region > European archaeology > Classical Greek & Roman archaeology Books > History > European history > General Books > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE
LSN:	1-904955-95-9
Barcode:	9781904955955

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!