Peter Green: Classical Bearings: Interpreting Ancient History and Culture (1998)

Edition: Thames and Hudson, 1998
Review number: 86

Classical Bearings is a collection of (independently written) essays on classical history and literature arranged more or less chronologically by subject. The range of subjects within these fields is quite large, from Mycenean history and Homeric literature to the early Roman Empire.

Although now a senior academic, Peter Green first made his name by a strong attack on the parochial world of the classics scholar, and his work is still extremely critical of the academic fashion. His views are always original and based on an understanding of not only the particular issue at hand but of the whole of the Greek and Roman scene - though particularly the Greek.

Every article is worth reading, and all contain interesting insights. This is partly because of the vast range of knowledge which Green has, and which is a consequence of the way in which classics used to be taught.