Volume II, Part I, deals with the history of the region from about 1800 to 1380 BC.

Volume II, Part II deals with the history of the region from about 1380 to 1000 B.C., and includes accounts of Akhenaten and the Amarna 'revolution' in Egypt, the expansion and final decline of the Mycenaean civilization in Greece, the exodus and wanderings of the Israelites, and the Asstrian and Hittite empires.

During this period the dominant powers in the East were Assyria and then Babylonia. Each established an extensive empire that was based on Mesopotamia, and each in turn fell largely through internal strife.

Volume VI of the new edition of The Cambridge Ancient History covers years that include the rise of Macedon and the campaigns of Alexander the Great. The volume treats the politics and economy not only of old Greece but also of the Near East and the western Mediterranean. It has sections on the continued development of classical art and the formation of the philosophical schools in Athens. This second edition, completely replanned and rewritten, is a full and reliable guide to the advances in scholarship of the past sixty-five years.

This volume of the second edition of The Cambridge Ancient History traces the history of Rome from its origins to the eve of the Second Punic War. It begins with a survey of sources for early Roman history. An examination of the first discernible traces of the Bronze Age settlement is followed by an assessment of the regal period. The complex and often controversial history of the early republic is analyzed with reference to its internal development, the evolution of its relationships with the Latins, and its ruthless assaults upon various parts of Italy. Later sections discuss the...