The Cambridge ancient history : plates to volume IV. : Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean c. 525 to 479 B.C

This book of plates can be used either as a companion to Volume IV or as an independent, illustrated account of the period, and of the evidence of Greek civilization and culture as it encountered the Persian empire and struggled for its freedom. Detailed commentary accompanies a full pictoral survey of the art and archaeology of the Persian empire and its provinces, from Tthrace to India. The section on Greece concentrates on late Archaic Athens, immediately before the Persian wars, and considers cultural progress as evidence of various aspects of Greek life and society. The fortunes of the Western Greek colonial area and of the Etruscan and Italic peoples are similarly treated. The volume concludes with a study of the invention of coinage and its use throughout Greece and Persia. V. 2 provides illustrations to accompany v. 5-6 of the Cambridge Ancient History, which focuses on Greece and the Mediterranean world of the fourth and fifth centuries, B.C.; v. 3 provides illustrations to accompany v. 7-8 of the Cambridge Ancient History, which focuses on the areas conquered by Alexander the Great and by Rome; v. 4 focuse upon the Roman Empire This volume complements the text volume of "The Cambridge Ancient History Volume IV", but can also be used as an independent, illustrated account of the period (c. 525 to 479 BC), and of the evidence for the life and arts of Greeks and Persians in the years when they first crossed swords. Until extensive and systematic excavations are conducted in occupational levels of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. at the Median capital of Ecbatana (modern Hamadan) the material culture of the Medes, if it was indeed distinctive, will remain an enigma. Illustrations and photographs depict the early history of the Middle East, the Greek world, and the Mediterranean