This delightful book tells the story of ancient libraries from their very beginnings, when "books" were clay tablets and writing was a new phenomenon. Renowned classicist Lionel Casson takes us on a lively tour, from the royal libraries of the most ancient Near East, through the private and public libraries of Greece and Rome, down to the first Christian monastic libraries. To the founders of the first public libraries of the Greek world goes the credit for creating the prototype of today's library buildings and the science of organizing books in them.
Casson recounts the...
This delightful book tells the story of ancient libraries from their very beginnings, when "books" were clay tablets and writing was a new phenomen...
A master of the vivid scene, Lucian used his pungent style to ridicule the tyrants, prophets, waning gods, and hypocrite philosophers of his own day and the centuries preceding him. His most typical genre is a parody of a Platonic dialogue, but he also excelled in straight narrative, as in the elaborate spoof "A True Story" and the old folk tale outrageously retold, "Lucius, the Ass." His skeptical mind and imaginative irony have influenced generations of artists and writers, and now in Professor Casson's new translations can be freshly enjoyed today.
A master of the vivid scene, Lucian used his pungent style to ridicule the tyrants, prophets, waning gods, and hypocrite philosophers of his own day a...
Sometime around 250 B.C., in the tiny mountain village of Sarsina high in the Apennines of Umbria, ancient Rome's best-known playwright was born. Plautus wrote upwards of fifty plays of which twenty have survived. The author chose The Menaechmus and two other plays for this book. The other two plays are Pseudolus and The Rope. The plays in this book are arranged alphabetically by their title.
Sometime around 250 B.C., in the tiny mountain village of Sarsina high in the Apennines of Umbria, ancient Rome's best-known playwright was born. Plau...
Written by the renowned authority on ancient ships and seafaring Lionel Casson, The Ancient Mariners has long served the needs of all who are interested in the sea, from the casual reader to the professional historian. This completely revised edition takes into account the fresh information that has appeared since the book was first published in 1959, especially that from archaeology's newest branch, marine archaeology. Casson does what no other author has done: he has put in a single volume the story of all that the ancients accomplished on the sea from the earliest times to the end of...
Written by the renowned authority on ancient ships and seafaring Lionel Casson, The Ancient Mariners has long served the needs of all who are inter...
Lionel Casson's encyclopedic study is the first of its kind to use underwater archaeological data to refine and area of scholarship that had, for the most part, relied on ancient texts and graphic representations. Tracing the history of early ships and seamanship from pre-dynastic Egypt to the Roman empire, from skiffs and barges to huge oared warships and royal yachts, Casson describes not only the ships themselves, but also the make-up and training of the crews, placement of weaponry, how cargo was stored, methods of navigation, harbor facilities, and the ways ships were named.
Lionel Casson's encyclopedic study is the first of its kind to use underwater archaeological data to refine and area of scholarship that had, for t...
In Everyday Life in Ancient Rome, Lionel Casson offers a lively introduction to the society of the times. Instead of following the standard procedure of social history, he presents a series of vignettes focusing on the -ways of life- of various members of that society, from the slave to the emperor. The book opens with a description of the historical context and includes examination of topics such as the family, religion, urban and rural life, and leisure activities. This revised edition of Casson's engaging work, originally published in 1975 as Daily Life in Ancient Rome,...
In Everyday Life in Ancient Rome, Lionel Casson offers a lively introduction to the society of the times. Instead of following the standard...
Lionel Casson offers a comprehensive introduction to the people of ancient Egypt. He describes the structure of Egyptian society--the levels from peasant to pharaoh, the nature of the family, and the role of women. He reviews the professions, from the lowliest scribes to the architects and engineers who built the pyramids, and examines the work of sculptors, painters, cabinetmakers, jewelers, and smiths whose hands turned out the sculptures, murals, and objects of beauty that are so prized today. He deals with that key factor in Egyptian life, religion: the nature of the gods; the powerful...
Lionel Casson offers a comprehensive introduction to the people of ancient Egypt. He describes the structure of Egyptian society--the levels from p...
The unsurpassed satirist of the ancient era was a young Syrian named Lucian, who, writing in Greek in the second century a.d., combined wit, irony, fearless candor, and exuberant comic fantasy to create the triumphantly irreverent dialogues and stories contained in this book. His genial mockery, aimed at man's omnipresent feelings, has never gone out of date. The jabs he gave the hypocrites; grandstanders, fakers and boobs of the ancient world can just as appropriately be administered to their counterparts in the modern world.
Lucian's most typical genre is a parody of a Platonic...
The unsurpassed satirist of the ancient era was a young Syrian named Lucian, who, writing in Greek in the second century a.d., combined wit, irony,...
Written to replace and extend Torr's Ancient Ships, this generously illustrated underwater Bible" traces the art and technology of Mediterranean ships and seamanship from their first crude stages (about 3000 B.C.) to the heyday of the Byzantine fleets.
Originally published in 1971.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable...
Written to replace and extend Torr's Ancient Ships, this generously illustrated underwater Bible" traces the art and technology of Mediterranean sh...
