ancient

Hardcover. London, Secker & Warburg, 1st, 1962, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light gray cloth with maroon and silver title on spine, 392 pages plus maps in rear. Herodotus's Histories provides the basis for this strong account of the Greek world from the 8th to the 5th centuries B.C.--both the geography that he saw during his travels and the thoughts, feelings, and tradition crystallized in his writings.

Softcover. London/NY, Routledge, reprint, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 328 pages. This unique collection of essays, published together for the first time, not only elucidates the complexity of ancient Greek thought, but also reveals Karl Popper's engagement with Presocratic philosophy and the enlightenment he experienced in his reading of Parmenides. As Karl Popper himself states himself in his introduction, he was inspired to write about Presocratic philosophy for two reasons - firstly to illustrate the thesis that all history is the history of problem situations and secondly, to show the greatness of the early Greek philosophers, who gave Europe its philosophy, its science and its humanism. Light pencil marking to 8 pages.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 238 pages. Theodosius I was the last Roman emperor to rule over both East and West. After the military disaster of Adrianople he had to rebuild the state by adopting a new policy of cooperation with the barbarians. He also suppressed paganism and established a unified Catholic Church by law. His reign was a turning point in the history of the late Roman Empire. The authors describe the military, political, and religious struggles of this turbulent period and analyze the far-reaching effects of his policies in the fourth and fifth centuries. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Color illustrations by Rumford. According to Herodotus, an Ancient Greek historian, a Phoenician named Cadmus brought the alphabet to Greece. In the ancient myths, Cadmus was a hero who fought a ferocious monster and founded the city of Thebes. Cadmus was so famous that his deeds were told and retold throughout the ancient world. In this modern retelling, James Rumford uses the alphabet that Cadmus brought to Greece to recount the hero's own story. Part truth, part fancy, this different kind of alphabet book takes its reader on a journey to the distant past, when our letters were not just marks to record sounds but were pictures of eyes and hands, doors and fences, giant teeth and . . . monsters.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 759 pages, b&w illustrations. A sweeping intellectual history of the role of wealth in the church in the last days of the Roman EmpireJesus taught his followers that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Yet by the fall of Rome, the church was becoming rich beyond measure. Through the Eye of a Needle is a sweeping intellectual and social history of the vexing problem of wealth in Christianity in the waning days of the Roman Empire, written by the world's foremost scholar of late antiquity.Peter Brown examines the rise of the church through the lens of money and the challenges it posed to an institution that espoused the virtue of poverty and called avarice the root of all evil. Drawing on the writings of major Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome, Brown examines the controversies and changing attitudes toward money caused by the influx of new wealth into church coffers, and describes the spectacular acts of divestment by rich donors and their growing influence in an empire beset with crisis. He shows how the use of wealth for the care of the poor competed with older forms of philanthropy deeply rooted in the Roman world, and sheds light on the ordinary people who gave away their money in hopes of treasure in heaven. Clean copy.

Softcover. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 271 pages illustrated in color and b&w. Textiles were the Incas' most prized possessions. Their first gifts to European strangers were made not of gold and silver, but of camelid fibre and cotton. They believed that the highest form of weaving was created expressly for the sun, which they considered the greatest of the celestial powers. This book uses this image to symbolize Andean tradition as a whole and documents the collection of ancient and Colonial Andean textiles in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which is among the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. Described and illustrated here, in many cases for the first time are the finest examples from the collection: weavings of astonishing virtuosity with striking geometric designs, elaborate carpets and covers, mantles, tunics, featherwork, woven shoes with metal decoration and intriguing figural sculptures with tapestry faces - representing the major cultures of the pre-Columbian period as well as the achievements of Spanish Colonial times. Mild wear to outer wraps, otherwise a clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Glencoe IL, The Free Press, 1st, 1957, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, brown cloth, 382 pages. Dust jacket flaps laid in, name inside front cover. Light pencil marking to about 10 pages. Ancient civilizations and medieval Europe had no "economies" -- no fixed prices for commodities, no production for markets. People have always exchanged goods, of course, but in the pre-modern world, exchange between individuals was most often done through social networks, always with a non-economic motivation. Scarcity, "entrepreneurship", the universal self-regulating market with fixed prices for goods, and the system of trade as we know it, and economics as the fundamental driving sector for all of society --- are all unique to the modern West.

Hardcover. NY, Thames & Hudson , 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 184 pages. Traces the rise and fall of the Toltec civilization, and describes what has been learned about their culture from the excavation of Tula, their principal city. 130 illustrations, 15 in color.

Softcover. Los Angeles, Getty Conservation Institute, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 138 pages illustrated in color. As the Roman Empire expanded its African settlements in the early centuries of the common era, thousands of mosaic floor pavements were fashioned to adorn the townhouses and rural estates of the African upper classes. Between the second and sixth centuries, mosaic art blossomed, particularly in Africa Proconsularis, the region comprising modern Tunisia. In contrast to the official art of imperial Rome, mosaics generally expressed the worldviews of private citizens. These artworks are remarkable for the intricate beauty of their polychromatic geometric and floral designs, as well as for figural scenes depicting the interests and activities of the patrons who commissioned them--scenes of daily life, athletic contests, gladiator spectacles, and classical literature and mythology.Abundantly illustrated throughout, Tunisian Mosaics: Treasures from Roman Africa offers the general reader a lively introduction to this extraordinary ancient art. Initial chapters survey the historical background of Roman Africa and discuss the development of mosaic art in the Mediterranean. Subsequent chapters profile Tunisia's major mosaic sites and tour the collections of important museums. A final chapter surveys current initiatives to preserve this heritage for future generations. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell & Company, 1st Edition, 1895, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 150 pages. Hardcover. B/w frontispiece with tissue guard. Fore and bottom edges rough cut, gilt top edge. Green decorated cover boards, gilt title on spine and front cover board. Binding very good. Spine straight. Pages have some tanning, but unmarked and clean. Tight first edition. A heartfelt reflection on life, family, and community beneath the towering elms of Newton, Massachusetts. Claflin's evocative prose paints a vivid picture of a bygone era, capturing moments of joy, sorrow, and timeless memories in the shade of ancient trees that stood as silent witnesses to generations of American history.

Softcover. Lanham MD, Rowman & Littlefield , 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 349 pages. In Vergil's Empire, Eve Adler offers an exciting new interpretation of the political thought of Vergil's Aeneid. Adler argues that in this epic poem, Vergil presents the theoretical foundations of a new political order, one that resolves the conflict between scientific enlightenment and ancestral religion that permeated the ancient world. The work concentrates on Vergil's response to the physics, psychology, and political implications of Lucretius' Epicurean doctrine expressed in De Rerum Natura. Proceeding by a close analysis of the Aeneid, Adler examines Vergil's critique of Carthage as a model of universal enlightenment, his positive doctrine of Rome as a model of universal religion, and his criticism of the heroism of Achilles, Odysseus, and Epicurus in favor of the heroism of Aeneas. Beautifully written and clearly argued, Vergil's Empire will be of great value to all interested in the classical world. Clean copy.

Softcover. Norman OK, University of Oklahoma Press,, 1st pbk., 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 254 pages, b&w illustrations. This volume is a study of Mesopotamian literature from the beginnings of the Bronze Age to the fall of Babylon as an independent state in the 6th century BCE. Part I of this volume deals with the history and culture of the region from the Sumerians to the Persian conquests. Part II treats the development of poetic forms and the mythology and religion upon which much of the poetry is based. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards. You can't depend on anything in Persia being what it seems!" warns Uncle Scrooge. But when he, Donald, and the nephews are approached by a wayward archaeologist bearing fragile clay tablets that point the way to Ali Baba's lost cave, the hunt is on for the most fabulous treasure of the ancient world! Carl Barks delivers another wildly imaginative collection of outrageous adventures, laugh-out-loud comedy, and all-around comic book brilliance. Each page is meticulously restored and newly colored, with insightful story notes by an international panel of Barks experts.

Hardcover. Sussex UK, Wargames Research Group, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 101 pages, b&w illustrations. This book, written in 1973, is for readers interested in the naval history of the ancient peoples of the Mediterranean. The period covered starts with Greek and Phoenician vessels of 800-700 BC and includes ships up to 800 AD. The aim of the book is to fill a gap by concentrating on the practical aspects of naval warfare in antiquity, and the battles selected for description are intended to show the development of tactics and strategy, rather than illustrate the general history of the period. It includes descriptions of the ships, crews, tactics and campaigns of Greek, Persian, Carthaginian, Hellenic, Roman, Celtic, Germanic, Scandinavian and Byzantine fleets. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 292 pages, b&w illustrations. SIGNED BY BOTH AUTHORS on the title page. Additionally INSCRIBED BY COHN on the dedication page. Kevin J. Crisman and Arthur B. Cohn show how a confluence of geographic, technological, economic, and social conditions in the United States and Canada turned an ancient idea into a practical alternative to more expensive and dangerous steamboats. Reviewing evidence from travelers' memoirs, regional histories, pictorial records, and the only horseboat ever studied by archaeologists - a wreck on the floor of Lake Champlain's Burlington Bay, in Vermont - the authors trace the evolution of horseboats from early mechanisms that forced the animals to walk in tight circles to "endless floor" treadmills that resembled modern exercise machines. In a lively narrative interspersed with quotes from passenger accounts, the book charts the rise and demise of horseboat businesses on the Hudson River, as well as in New York City, St. Louis, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The authors also describe and record the underwater excavation of the Lake Champlain wreck, revealing a wealth of detail about the construction and operation of a typical treadwheel horseboat of the 1830s and 1840s. Clean copy.

Hardcover. San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 202 pages, color illustrations. Essay by Annie Proulx. Remainder line to top edge. Watercolorist William Matthews has long been hailed as the preeminent painter of the American West. In this new collection of 180 staggering paintings, he captures the full range of western experience: endless skies, high plains, the last working cowboys, the Navajo the mystique of the Living Desert. Steeped in introspection and connected to land, tradition, and identity, Matthews' work evokes a place that is authentic, anachronistic, and dynamic. An essay by award-winning writer Annie Proulx provides insight into both the ranching and the art-making life, resulting in a glorious homage to this ancient terrain some of the last untamed wilderness in America.

Hardcover. Washington DC, National Geographic Books, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 207 pages. Recounted in gripping words and unforgettable images, Avakian's remarkable experiences will draw readers into the Muslim world to meet friends and terrorists, leaders and thieves and everyday people. She lived and worked for two years in the Gaza strip, often in Islamic dress, once beaten bloody by Hamas. For several terrifying days in Somalia she was pinned down by sniper fire on the way to her hotel. She careened across the snowy Tien-Shen Mountains with Islamic fundamentalists in an ancient Lada, only to be detained and tossed out by the Uzbek KGB. All the while, she captured some of the most important stories of our time-the famine in Sudan, the violence in Gaza and Somalia, the daily life of Hezbollah. She traveled extensively with Yasser Arafat as one of the only non-Arab photographers given such access. Small scar to front of dust jacket otherwise a clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 2000, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 398 pages. The seventeenth-century philosopher Spinoza was expelled from the Jewish community of Amsterdam the age of twenty-four for 'horrendous heresies', and was eventually reviled by all religious authorities for claiming that human beings are parts of a single, unified nature, that God is identical with nature, and that reason, not revelation, supplies the truth of any aspect of God. Undeterred, he made this thesis the basis for a rational crusade against superstition and prejudice. Dr Gullan-Whur's biography, the first for twenty-eight years, shows how Spinoza's central philosophical beliefs developed within the context of his own life. Drawing on very recent scholary research and making detailed reference to primary sources, some not previously explored, the author focuses on the philosopher's attempt to act solely through reason in the face of turbulent personal and national circumstances. This new approach demolishes the myth that Spinoza was a lofty ascetic. It exposes his emotional and sexual vulnerabilit arrogance and misogyny, yet shows his living philosophical experiment to be shrply relevant today. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Crown, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, oblong format. 158 pages. A book of quietly beautiful photographic portraits of Native-American women, accompanied by their own reflections on what it means to be a woman and an Indian in America. The result is a startlingly honest and often poetic work. The women within these pages defy stereotype: they are mothers, activists, artists, environmentalists, and community leaders. Whether living on reservations or in cities, they have struggled to preserve an ancient culture and a land under siege. 85 black-and-white photographs. Clean copy.

Softcover. Norman OK, University of Oklahoma Press, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 239 pages. In Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome, Sandra R. Joshel examines Roman commemorative inscriptions from the first and second centuries A.D. to determine ways in which slaves, freed slaves, and unprivileged freeborn citizens used work to frame their identities. The inscriptions indicate the significance of work-as a source of community, a way to reframe the conditions of legal status, an assertion of activity against upper-class passivity, and a standard of assessment based on economic achievement rather than birth. Drawing on sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and women's history, this thoroughly documented volume illuminates the dynamics of work and slavery at Rome. Owner's name on title page, otherwise clean, unread.

Softcover. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1st pbk, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 264 pages. Xenophanes of Colophon was a philosophical poet who lived in various cities of the ancient Greek world during the late sixth and early fifth centuries BC. In this book, James Lesher presents the Greek texts of all the surviving fragments of Xenophanes' teachings, with an original English translation on facing pages, along with detailed notes and commentaries and a series of essays on the philosophical questions generated by Xenophanes' remarks. Also included are English translations of all the ancient testimonia relating to Xenophanes' life and teachings, and a discussion of how many of the testimonia pose the impediments to achieving a consistent interpretation of his philosophy. The Xenophanes who emerges in this account fully warrants classification as a philosophical thinker: moral critic and reflective student of nature, critic of popular religious belief and practice, and perhaps the first to challenge claims to knowledge about divine matters and the basic forces at work in nature. As with earlier works in the Pheonix series, this volume aims to make an important portion of Presocratic writing accessible to all those interested in ancient philosophy and the first phase of European natural science. This paperback edition contains an updated bibliography. Clean copy.