Valuing the Past in the Greco-Roman World: Proceedings from the Penn-Leiden Colloquia on Ancient Values VII (Mnemosyne Supplements, 369) - Scholarly Research on Classical History for Academics & Ancient Civilization Enthusiasts

A summary of the review on StrategyPage.Com:'In 19 essays, scholars from the United States, Germany, The Netherlands, and Greece, examine aspects of the question of how the ancient Greeks and Romans understood, valued, and used the past. The essays are not about history, but rather about how these peoples perceived history. The essay “Pelasgians and Leleges: Using the Past to Understand the Present,” for example, does not discuss whether these peoples, thought by the Greeks to have preceded them in Hellas, actually existed, but rather what was believed about them and how those beliefs affected Greek culture, politics, and historiography. The other essays range from Greek and Roman perceptions of the ruins and other relics of earlier times, how earlier events were embroidered to throw them into a better light (e.g., the story of Regulus), and, in quite a number of instances, how the perceived past was used by orators, poets, historians, and others, such as the persistent tendency by Greeks of the Roman era to describe battles using terminology from the age of Alexander. While these essays will primarily be of value to serious scholars, amateur students of ancient history will find some of interest.'For the full review, see StrategyPage.Com