A History of Greece

By: Cyril Robinson

Narrated by: Charlton Griffin

Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

A History of Greece is the thrilling story of the rise to power and influence of the greatest civilization the world has ever known. As Cyril Robinson's exquisite narrative unfolds, we find ourselves plunged into mankind's greatest and most magnificent adventure.

The story begins in Minoan Crete, but quickly shifts to a dimly understood mainland culture. We follow the heroic deeds of the Mycenians and the Trojan War, the glorious artistic and intellectual triumphs of the Ionians, the turmoil of the Doric invasion and resultant dark age, the slow recovery culminating in the epic Persian wars and the renewed splendor of Periclean Athens. In the fifth century B.C., philosophy, literature, art, and architecture reach a pinnacle in Athens which no civilization has ever equaled. But civil strife soon follows and eventually a bitter struggle between Sparta and Athens for mastery of the Hellenic world embroils all of Greece. Though Sparta finally emerges victorious, her victory soon turns to ashes with the ascendancy of Thebes and the still greater power of Philip of Macedon. Philip unites an unwilling Greece with his iron policy. Athens gives up her independence, but maintains an aloof intellectual and artistic leadership in the Greek world. Across this magnificent fabric of history strides Alexander the Great, who takes the banner of Hellenic culture all the way across the Persian Empire and into India itself, a stunning event that altered the course of human history. This is followed by the Hellenistic age and the final subjugation of Greece by Rome. An incredible epic, indeed.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©1929 Cyril Robinson (P)2014 Audio Connoisseur

Beginner? Start here.

If your knowledge of any leg of ancient Greek history is spotty, this is the place to start. Written in 1929, Cyril Robinson is an authority and lacks certain prejudices that will make a seasoned reader nauseous, like the last man of history fallacy which holds that whatever most people think must of necessity be the best (also called by me the capitalist fallacy). Robinson's grasp is wide and deep enough (in this book) to fill in potholes that you might not have realized before were essential to fill in. For me, it happened about a space of an hour toward the very end of the book filled in connections about Hellenism vs. Hellenic, a distinction that is of weighty import to any budding philosopher or philologist. The chapter on Alexander the Great is itself quite worth the price of the book. No single individual in Greek "Hellenic") history is more central to the development of what we now call with smug certainty "modernity". In fact, whatever history, however, you consider to be modern is probably a direct result of the spirit of Alexander and his father Philip of Macedon, who took the Hellenic and (short of extending it into eternity (impossible), did the next best thing and brought Egypt and the Near East, as well as parts of Northern African into touch with the Hellensitic, which was the next best thing, and the very essence of all we call by various names such as "progress" in the sciences and mathematics, "the humanities", and especially "Western philosophy". If you already know the basics of ancient Greek history, however, then this book is not for you. You'll want to move on to the classic authors of antiquity themselves, like Thucydides (if you are scientific-minded), or Herodotus and/or Livy (if you are a traditionalist). Don't expect any attention to mythology or music, painting or sculpture, because hardly any is present in this work (with a bare passing mention in the area of sculpture, a truly important Greek art). Also, if you want to understand the progress of Hellenic spirit in relation to modernity, you'd be doing well to read this book and then move on directly to Nietzsche's Birth of Music and then to consume the rest of his major works in historical order of publication. Griffin is as good a narrator of this sort of book as exists. He has the bearing and the seriousness to pull it off.One single caveat: Griffin's pronunciation is British, not North American. So expect to rewinf now and then to try to understand the British accent until you get used to it. For longtime audible listeners in history, this should not be a serious issue. Bon voyage!

Engaging and informative

A great book on the history of Ancient Greece. The content is engaging and informative. The narration is great.

The Book Has A Lot Of Problems

This book was written in 1929. That’s before Mycenaean Linear B was translated and before archeological methods became an exact science rather than a historians hobby. Had I known that alone I would not have bought this book, but the real problem with the work is that it is soaked in British popular biases of the time.

Racialized language is used throughout to make sweeping generalizations of cultures throughout their histories, the author is even outright racist at times. Any mention of Persia, Egypt, or the East in general is steeped in orientalism, with the decadent corruption of the eastern world compared to the noble and civilizing Greek world without a hint of irony. The author also occasionally favorably compares the Greek world to the British Empire without an iota of self awareness.

History is presented as a linear process guided by exceptional individuals and there is very little evident understanding of a larger context of events. There are also many strange assumptions based on the authors opinions on art and art history throughout the book. Some ancient sources are treated with appropriate objectivity and others are accepted without much skepticism or rejected without explanation.

What this book does well is present dates and events that were important in the history of Ancient Greece. The narrator is also a good fit, he sounds exactly like the posh and overconfident British academic that the author no doubt was. It is also somewhat interesting to hear the beliefs and prejudices that many in the West held about the ancient world in situ, but that’s not what I imagine people are looking for in a book about Ancient Greek history.