Classical Civilization: A Bibliography 1987

Victor Matthews is an associate professor of classics at the University
of Guelph.

Alan D. Booth of Brock University is well known for his researches into ancient education and on the late Roman World. His book is designed to assist teachers, at both high school and university level, who intended to mount courses on classical civilization. Items are presented under a series of headings: art, archaeology, ancient city, ancient history, Greek history, Roman history, ancient civilization, Greek civilization, Roman civilization, ancient mythology and religion, Greek mythology and religion, Roman religion and mythology, Christianity and Judaism, philosophy, literature, etymology.

The author states in an introductory note, “the following lists are surely not exhaustive, and, compiled hastily, they will be marred by errors and (sic) well as by omissions.” While the fact that the lists are not exhaustive does not prevent them from fulfilling the author’s modest purpose, nonetheless, despite his apologetic disclaimer, some of his omissions are very surprising.

One or two examples will suffice: in the first section there is no mention of either Fustel de Coulanges’ The Ancient City (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980) or of Mason Hammond’s The City in the Ancient World (Harvard University Press, 1972), a work valuable for its own extensive descriptive bibliography. In the section on Greek history, scant attention is paid to the period after Alexander the Great. No textbook or collection of sources on the Hellenistic World is listed, despite the existence of such as F.W. Walbank’s The Hellenistic World (Harvard University Press, 1981), Michael Grant’s From Alexander to Cleopatra (Scribner’s Sons, 1982), and the excellent source book of MM. Austin, The Hellenistic World from Alexandria to the Roman Conquest (Cambridge University Press, 1981).

Despite such shortcomings, the lists should still be very useful for teachers preparing courses in the various areas of classical civilization. The presentation is bilingual and the author does well to list both English and French editions of works where such exist. The book is completed by a very convenient list of book distributors and their addresses.