The Story of Greece and Rome

By: Tony Spawforth

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 16 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

The magnificent civilization created by the ancient Greeks and Romans is the greatest legacy of the classical world. However, narratives about the "civilized" Greek and Roman empires resisting the barbarians at the gate are far from accurate. Tony Spawforth, an esteemed scholar, author, and media contributor, follows the thread of civilization through more than six millennia of history. His story reveals that Greek and Roman civilization, to varying degrees, was supremely and surprisingly receptive to external influences, particularly from the East. 

From the rise of the Mycenaean world of the 16th century BC, Spawforth traces a path through the ancient Aegean to the zenith of the Hellenic state and the rise of the Roman empire, the coming of Christianity, and the consequences of the first caliphate. Deeply informed, provocative, and entirely fresh, this is the first and only accessible work that tells the extraordinary story of the classical world in its entirety.

©2018 Tony Spawforth (P)2018 Recorded Books

All is in the title....

A good book...but beware...as it is said in the intro mainly for neophyte..you won't learn anything if you are a bit familiar with the subject...Even so...no regrets
Not one of my favorite narrator but a solid performance...

Tedious and pompous; but not wholly useless

Unsatisfying in the end. The author spends too much time in pompous asides that are about himself. Too much disorganized jumping in time and place that leaves the reader disconnected from the subject matter.

I learned a little, but not enough given the time commitment.

There are much better books on the subject

The summary pitch for this book described a tale of interweaving cultures and societies that remained influenced by each other and their surrounding neighbors for millenia. From that, you'd think from the title that you'd glean a better understanding of the impact that Ancient Greece had on Rome, which carries on with us into modern times. Sadly, this book is little more than a tired re-summarizing of a well known part of history and offers little new information or revelatory takes or insights into already deeply discussed topics.

There are thousands of books written about these two massively influential cultures. Dr. Spawforth tried to cram their complete, well documented, dozen-century+ histories into just under 400 pages which is simultaneously whirling and exhausting while remaining completely unsatisfying. Instead of well thought out and presented examples of the intent (influence from surrounding neighboring empires and polities) we're instead taken on a strange highlight reel of random well documented trials and tribulations of these two groups that offer little in details or exciting prose. If one is not already familiar with the plotline, you're left scratching your head.

History is the story of PEOPLE. And in this book there are hardly any stories and hardly anything to do with people. Indeed, there is more composition on pottery shards than individuals. This isn't surprising, given Dr. Spatworth's field (archaeology) but it belabors the point - his fascination with historical objects fails to translate into a captivating story worthy of 400 pages. It's as if one were to study my entire life and infer the influences from my travels and experiences, from a broken pottery shard discarded in my wastebin. It's one dimensional and difficult to care about.

My recommendation would be to focus on a few key examples taken throughout the periods and make the point. As one easy example: perhaps draw a line between Socrates to Zeno of Citium, and the founding of stoicism, through it's morphology and evolution into the primary philosophical school of Roman elites. Instead, there is a brief encounter with Socrates and Plato, some vague references to Greek philosophers being in Rome and Roman elites being in Athens, and then.... nothing. What was even the point of mentioning it?

There is no doubt that the author is a well regarded archaeologist and familiar with the societies discussed within, but the book does not contain his enthusiasm for the ancients and is quite a difficult slog. One is also beset on nearly every other page with his vague recollections of sitting in university studies with other boring historians and doctors, which seems pretentious and unrelatable to the masses. You're left wondering, who was this book written for?

Good for social history

First I have to say the narrator's voice is excellent but it skips over macro politics and important conflicts . if you want to hear about the origins of these civilisations then this is a must but if you want to hear about Peloponnese wars or Rome's conflict with Carthage choose something else .