During the three centuries from 800 to 500 B.C., the Greek world evolved from a primitive society--both culturally and economically--to one whose artistic products dominated all Mediterranean markets, supported by a wide overseas trade. In the following two centuries came the literary, philosophical, and artistic masterpieces of the classic area. Vital to this advance was the development of the polis, a collective institution in which citizens had rights as well as duties under the rule of law, a system hitherto unknown in human history. In this study, the first systematic exploration of the forces that created the political framework of Greek civilization, Chester Starr shows how the Greeks emerged form a Homeric world of individuals to the polis of 500 B.C. The age-old conflict between the self-serving demands of human beings and the less vocally-expressed needs of the community serves as the backbone of Starr's interdisciplinary analysis of the rise of the polis.

This work traces the emergence of Rome as the ruler of the western world. These are narrative essays in the history of our tradition from the time of the ancient Greeks and Hebrews to the present day.

A timely reassessment of the vital social, cultural, and political role of the aristocrat in Greek society, this book by distinguished historian Chester G. Starr provides a concise portrait of the upper classes and their way of life. Arguing that the influence of the aristocrat on ancient Hellenic civilization is undervalued by both modern Western and Marxist scholars, Starr takes a close look at the social spectrum of ancient Greece, examining the consequences of the aristocrats' domination of the ancient polis, their involvement in the patronage of the arts, and their impact on the structure of religion and on the ancient Greeks' visual perception of their pantheon of gods. In a final chapter, Starr concludes that the influence of the aristocratic ideal did not end when ancient civilization flickered out, but rather was reborn in the Renaissance and has had powerful effects on the course of modern Western history.

Additional Authors Are Raymond Stearns And Theodore Hammerow. Cartography By Willis R. Heath. Edited By Fred Harvey Harrington. In Two Volumes. Volume 1, To 1500; Volume 2, 1500 To Present.

When the great citadel of Mycenae, then the center of the Aegean world, went up in flames about 1100 B.C., what followed was a "dark age" that left no written records. But rich archaeological records show conclusively that there was a radical discontinuity between Mycenaean-Minoan culture and Greek civilization. Chester G. Starr argues that true Greek civilization was swiftly and spontaneously generated in a remarkably autonomous renaissance during the two centuries from 850 to 650 B.C. Supporting his thesis with archaeological evidence previously unavailable to historians, he offers a masterly reconstruction of an obscure and important period of Greek history.