Sir John Edwin Sandys (1844-1922) was a highly esteemed Classical scholar known primarily for his History of Classical Scholarship and editions of various Classical texts. This biography, first published in 1933 and written by fellow Classicist N. G. L. Hammond, reproduces some of Sandys' correspondence and the diaries he kept during his many voyages around the Mediterranean. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Sandys' legacy and the history of classical scholarship.

Plutarch and Arrian have contributed more than any other ancient authors to our picture of Alexander the Great, but since they wrote four or more centuries after his death the value of what they said depends upon the sources of information on which they themselves drew. In this 1993 book the attempt is made to define and to evaluate those sources in a detailed study, analysing the historians' works section by section and comparing them with other accounts of the same episodes. This volume completes Professor Hammond's study of the five Alexander-historians begun with Three Historians of Alexander the Great (Cambridge University Press, 1983) and lays a basis for work in this area.

Our knowledge of Alexander the Great is derived from the widely varying accounts of five authors who wrote three and more centuries after his death. The value of each account can be determined in detail only by discovering the source from which it drew, section by section, whether from a contemporary document, a memoir by a companion of Alexander, a hostile critique or a romanticizing narrative. In this book the three earliest accounts are studied in depth, and it becomes apparent that each author used more than one source, and that only occasionally did any two of them or all three use the same source for an incident or a series of incidents. This book will be of value to ancient historians and of interest also to those studying Alexander the Great.

Plutarch and Arrian have contributed more than any other ancient authors to our picture of Alexander the Great, but since they wrote four or more centuries after his death the value of what they said depends upon the sources of information on which they themselves drew. In this 1993 book the attempt is made to define and to evaluate those sources in a detailed study, analysing the historians' works section by section and comparing them with other accounts of the same episodes. This volume completes Professor Hammond's study of the five Alexander-historians begun with Three Historians of Alexander the Great (Cambridge University Press, 1983) and lays a basis for work in this area.

Volume II Part 2 deals with the history of the region from about 1380 to 1000 B.C., and includes accounts of Akhenaten and the Amarna ‘revolution’ in Egypt, the expansion and final decline of the Mycenaean civilization in Greece, the exodus and wanderings of the Israelites, and the Asstrian and Hittite empires.

In 338 BC Philip II of Macedon established Macedonian rule over Greece; he was succeeded in 336 by his son Alexander the Great, whose conquests in the twelve years that followed reached as far as the Russian steppes, Afghanistan, and the Punjab, and created the Hellenistic world. The study of Macedonia has just been completed in three volumes by N. G. L. Hammond, helped by G. T. Griffith and F. W. Walbank. On the basis of that work, (Volume III of which won the Runicman Award, 1989), Professor Hammond now provides in one volume a history of the Macedonian State in action from early times to 167 BC. The most important concern is the nature of the Macedonian State and its institutions both in Europe and in the Hellenistic kingdoms in Asia and Egypt, on which much new light has been shed by epigraphic and archaeological discoveries. Those institutions have had a profound influence upon subsequent history. Full references are given to the ancient sources of information and to archaeological, numismatic, and epigraphic articles.

The emergence of the Greek world from the Dark Ages to the height of its Geometric civilization was described in The Cambridge Ancient History Volume III Part 1. Volume III Part 3 explores the new prosperity and growth of the young city-states in the eighth to the sixth centuries B.C. This was the great period of expansion and colonization which saw the establishment of Greek city-states from the Western Mediterranean to the Black Sea. This volume describes the East and Egypt, the importance of West Greece and the Aegean islands in trading and exploration, the special characteristics of the societies which were established by colonization. While societies outside the mainstream of expansion and trade retained their old institutions, those at the centre changed rapidly and the period was a time of warfare in mainland Greece. Athens is seen developing into a leading state under the influence of the reforms of Solon and assessment of the social, economic and material history of Greece during these years.

Part 2 of volume I deals with the history of the Near East from about 3000 to 1750 B.C. In Egypt, a long period of political unification and stability enabled the kings of the Old Kingdom to develop and exploit natural resources, to mobilize both the manpower and the technical skill to build the pyramids, and to encourage sculptors in the production of works of superlative quality. After a period of anarchy and civil war at the end of the Sixth Dynasty the local rulers of Thebes established the so-called Middle Kingdom, restoring an age of political calm in which the arts could again flourish. In Western Asia, Babylonia was the main centre and source of civilisation, and her moral, though not always her military, hegemony was recognized and accepted by the surrounding countries of Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Assyria and Elam. The history of the region is traced from the late Uruk and Jamdat Nasr periods up to the rise of Hammurabi, the most significant developments being the invention of writing in the Uruk period, the emergence of the Semites as a political factor under Sargon, and the success of the centralized bureaucracy under the Third Dynasty of Ur.

Volume III of The Cambridge Ancient History was first published in 1925 in one volume. The new edition has expanded to such an extent, owing to the immense amount of new information now available, that it has had to be divided into three parts. Volume III Part 1 opens with a survey of the Balkans north of Greece in the Prehistoric period. This is the first time such a survey has been published of this area which besides its intrinsic interest is important for its influence on the cultures of the Aegean and Anatolia. The rest of the book is devoted to the tenth to the eigth centuries B. C. In Greece and the Aegean the main theme is the gradual regeneration from the Dark Age and the emergence of a society in which can be seen the beginnings of the city-state. During the same period in Western Asia and the Middle East the Kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia rise to power, the Urartians appear, and in Palestine the kingdoms of Israel and Judah flourish. In Egypt the country’s fortunes revive briefly under Shoshenq I. The final chapter in this part deals with the languages of Greece and the Balkans and with the invention and spread of alphabetic writing.

During this period the dominant powers in the East were Assyria and then Babylonia. Each established an extensive empire that was based on Mesopotamia, and each in turn fell largely through internal strife.

Volumes I and II of The Cambridge Ancient History have had to be entirely rewritten as a result of the very considerable additions to knowledge which have accrued in the past forty-five years. For the same reason it has also been necessary to increase the size of the volumes and to divide each of them into two separately published parts. The individual chapters have already appeared as fascicles, but without maps, indexes and chronological tables which, for practical reasons, have been reserved for these volumes. Some additions and corrections have also been made in order to bring the text, as far as possible, up to date. Together the new volumes provide a history of Egypt and the Ancient Orient (including Greece and the Aegean region) down to 1000 BC in a form suitable for both specialist and student. Volume II, Part I, deals with the history of the region from about 1800 to 1380 BC. This was the era of Hammurabi in Western Asia, the Hyksos and warrior-kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt, and the Minoan and early Mycenaean civilizations in Crete and mainland Greece.

The present volume begins with an account of what is known about the remotest geological ages and comprises chapters on the different kinds of evidence concerning man and his physical environment up to the end of the Predynastic Period in Egypt and the parallel stages of development in Mesopotamia, Persia, Anatolia, Palestine, Cyprus, Greece and the Islands. To trace the history of these very early times it is necessary to rely chiefly on material remains, since writing had not then been invented. The text offers a setting against which the cultural progress of the historical epoch can be viewed. Archaeological investigation may be expected to bring to light more evidence to fill some of the present gaps in our knowledge, but already it is clear that the gulf between historical and prehistorical times in much of the ancient world is narrower than was once supposed.

A comprehensive history, in one volume, of Macedonia, the home of Philip II and Alexander the Great. From 338 BC, Macedonia ruled the whole of Greece, and it was the Macedonian kings, whose conquests from the Punjab to Afghanistan, who created the Hellenistic world. This book traces the history of the Macedonian state in action from early times right down to 167 BC, and analyses its institutions in Europe, Asia, and Egypt. These institutions have had a profound influence on subsequent history, and the book throws much new light on them with the help of fresh epigraphic and archaeological evidence.

This volume carries the history of Macedonia through from the death of Philip II to the end of its existence as an independent state in 167 BC. Its expansion in the reign of Alexander is one of the miracles of history. An attempt is made to understand the internal sources of strength of the kingdom and the impact of Alexander's career upon the Macedonians, the Greek states, and the Balkan area. It then goes on to examine the period of civil war which followed, between the Macedonian generals, each of them claiming to defend the monarchy. After the death of Alexander IV the Macedonian-Hellenistic kingdoms are viewed from the standpoint of Macedonia and the Greek mainland, which remain the central topics of this three-volume history. The final phase is dominated by the wars with Rome; recent discoveries have afforded new insights into Macedonia's contribution to the arts and into the structure and the institutions of this most remarkable of all the monarchic states.

The first section of this volume examines the Persian empire, the regions it comprised, and its expansion under Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes. In Greece, Sparta attained maturity as the leader of a military coalition and Athens passed through a period of enlightened tyranny to a moderate democracy of dynamic energy and intelligence. Given the contrast between Greek idealism and Persian absolutism a clash between the two empires was inevitable. Important chapters deal with the revolt of Ionian Greeks against the Persians, and the two Persian invasions of Greece including epic battles at Marathon, Tthermopylae, and Salamis. The book's third part turns to the Western Mediterranean: Italy becomes a significant factor in the area's historical development and is explored in terms of its peoples and languages from the Bronze to the Iron Ages.

This widely-used textbook presents a modern interpretation of Greek ideas, culture, and actions. Changes in the new edition concern mainly the spread and significance of tumulus-burial in Albania and the Mycenaean world, the dating of early coinage, the decree of Themistocles, and some aspects of Alexander the Great.

By the time of his death in 323 B.C., Alexander III of Macedonia had built an empire that stretched from the eastern Mediterranean coast through Asia Minor and into the Indus valley. Even before his sudden death, Alexander had achieved mythical status throughout his kingdom, and in the centuries that followed his life became the subject of countless chronicles and biographies. N. G. L. Hammond, the foremost expert on ancient Macedonian history, here presents a new account of Alexander's fabled career. Based on a thorough analysis of the ancient sources and enriched by a lifetime of research, Hammond's narrative pronounces the Macedonian conqueror a man truly deserving of the title Alexander the Great. According to Hammond, Alexander was a visionary statesman and general, the force behind a kingdom which rose above racism and nationalism to enjoy peace and prosperity. His intellect and charismatic personality, which earned him the respect, admiration, and devotion of his subjects, also help explain Alexander's endurance as a source of fascination into the present day.

In many fields of knowledge Aristotle was and is today an outstanding figure. He possessed the acutest powers of observation and analysis, and he applied the systematic method of definition and classification to the study of biology, physics, logic, ethics, metaphysics and literature. His writings, however, at least in the form in which they have come down to us, are far from systematic in arrangement and far from clear in exposition. The discrepancy between his scientific method and his literary manner is probably to be explained on the hypothesis that the notes, on which his lectures at the Academy were based, were published in the form in which they were found after his death. The Poetics is a case in point. The arrangement of the argument is often haphazard. For example, a technical term is frequently used in one chapter and defined in a subsequent chapter; literary forms, such as tragedy and epic, are distinguished from one another, but the treatment of them is intermingled; and the summary of contents does not correspond in order to the unfolding of the argument. In consequence, the treatise is often confusing to the scholar and to the layman. In this version the text has been so rearranged that it makes the argument clear. The style of Aristotle is direct, concise and close to the ordinary speech of his day. The style of the translation by professor Hammond is intended to be similar. Aristotle's method of exposition is marked in detail by some idioms of connection and arrangement which are alien to us. In the translation these idioms of exposition have been abandoned, and the normal practice of our day has been adopted.

A new Plates Volume to accompany the four new Parts of The Cambridge Ancient History, Volumes I and II. The editors have selected many new as well as familiar subjects for illustration, and contributors to the text Volumes have made frequent references to these illustrations. The Plates Volume can also, however, stand on its own as a visual guide to the formative period of civilization in Egypt, the Middle East and the Aegean region from earliest times to about 1000 B.C.

Within the span of thirteen years, Alexander the Great changed the face of the world more decisively and with more long-lasting effects than any other statesman has ever done. It is therefore no surprise that there has been, and still is, so much debate about both his personality and his achievement. The great merit of Professor Hammond's biography is that, with impressive mastery of the evidence, he sets the record straight between the extremes of romantic hero worship on the one hand and scholarly demolition on the other. Based on his detailed knowledge of the literarysources and on his own experience of warfare in Alexander's native country, Professor Hammond presents a compelling picture of Alexander in his public life as king, commander and statesman. This revised biography includes new material and extensive reference to literary sources.Professor Hammond's other works include "The History of Macedonia" and "Studies in Greek History." He also collaborated on "The Oxford Classical Dictionary" and "The Cambridge Ancient History."