Preface 

1 Early Civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt  

1. The Mesopotamian Miracle  

2. Early Mesopotamian History:
              The Sumerian Period (3100–2000 b.c.)  

3. The Egyptian Alternative: The Old Kingdom
              (c.a. 2700–2200 b.c.)  

2 An Age of Empires: The Middle East,
         2000–1000 b.c.  

1. A Time of Turmoil: New Peoples East and West  

2. Imperial Egypt (1550–1069 b.c.)  

3 The Middle East to the Persian Empire  

1. Twelfth Century Convulsions  

4 Religion and Culture in Israel  

1. The Challenges of Canaan  

2. Creating Israelite Identity: The Tanakh, 
              the Hebrew Bible 

3. The Monotheistic Revolution  

4. The Religious Life of Israel: The Festivals  

5. The Evolution of Judaism 

5 The Emergence of Greek Civilization  

1. The Geographical Setting  

2. Greece: Never a United State  

3. Old Europe and the Origins of Greek Culture   

4. The Minoan and Mycenaean Ages   

5. The Dark Ages: A Time of Transition   

6 Out of the Darkness: The Age of Recovery  

1. The Greek Recovery, 850–700 b.c.   

2. Social Transformations  

3. The Making of Greek Cultural and Social Identity
               in the Archaic Age 

7 The Society of the Polis  

1. Society and the State: Modern and
             Ancient Assumptions   

2. From Warrior Aristocrat to Polis Age Citizen:
             Transitioning to a New Age   

3. Religion and the Polis  

8 The Wars of the Greeks  

1. Persians and Greeks  

2. The Military Situation after the Persian Wars  

3. The Great War Between Athens and Sparta  

4. The Hegemony of Sparta and Thebes   

9 Classical Athens: The Indispensable City  

1. The Early Classical Period (ca. 490–450 b.c.)   

2. The Classical Age (ca. 450–430 b.c.)   

3. The Later Classical Period (ca. 430–338 b.c.)  

10 Athenian Society and Democracy  

1. Athenian Society  

2. Day-to-Day Democracy: The People and
              Their Government   

11 Philip and Alexander  

1. Backward Macedonia Challenges Greece   

2. In the Shadow of Macedonia  

3. The Genius of Philip II  

4. Alexander the Great   

12 The Hellenistic World  

1. The State and Society in the Hellenistic World  

2. Hellenistic Society   

3. Culture and Religion in the Hellenistic world  

5. The Golden Age of Greek Science   

6. Art, Architecture and Society   

7. Becoming Greek: Education  

8. The Hellenistic Age: Achievements and Limitations   

13 Early Rome  

1. The Connecting Sea: The Western Mediterranean   

2. The Latins and Early Rome  

3. The Republic   

14 Building an Empire  

1. The Growth of Rome in Italy   

2. The Punic Wars: The Conflict with Carthage   

3. Macedonia and the East   

4. The Low Point of Roman Imperialism:
             The End of Corinth and Carthage   

15 Society and the State in the Roman Republic  

1. Society in the Republic  

2. Ordo and the Orders  

3. The Cursus Honorum and the Army   

4. The Roman Army and Society   

5. An Estimate of Roman Society:
              Defending the Indefensible?   

16 Roman Religion and Religious Practice  

1. Roman Religiosity  

2. True Religion for the Romans  

3. The Roman Religious Administrative System  

17 The Transformation of the Roman Republic  

1. The Old Order Fades   

2. The Gracchan Crisis: The Social and Political Context   

18 From the Gracchi to Augustus: The Fall of
         fthe Republic  

1. The Great Conundrum   

2. The Dynasts: The Engineers of the Fall of the Republic  

3. The Civil Wars   

4. The Cultural Revolution   

19 The Roman World from Augustus to the
        Third Century Crisis  

1. The Reforms of Augustus  

2. Rounding out the Empire  

3. The Flavians and the Five “Good Emperors”  

4. The Severan Emperors  

20 The Roman Peace  

1. Challenge and Response  

2. Society and the State in the Empire  

3. Religions of the Empire  

4. Maintaining the Peace: Consent, Custom, Coercion  

21 The Roman State and Society  

1. The Basic Structure of Imperial Society  

2. The Imperial Elite  

3. Government, the Army and Society  

4. The Household: The Social and Economic
             Foundation of the Empire  

22 The Empire from the Third Century Crisis
         to Justinian  

1. The Third Century Crisis  

2.  Gradual Recovery  

3. Response to the Crisis  

4. The Collapse of the Western Empire after Adrianople  

5. The Rise of the Byzantine Empire  

6. The Slavs and Eastern Europe  

23 The Transformation of the Empire  

1. History Moves Northward and Eastward   

2. The Transformation of the Classical Tradition   

3. The Empire and the Church Come to Terms  

4. The Christian Way of Life   

5. Civilizing the Barbarians   

6. Diverging Beliefs  

24 Late Antiquity:The Monotheistic Revolution  

1. Revolutionary Monotheism  

2. The Cultural Background  

3. Islam  

4. “The Way:” Social Cohesion in Judaism, Christianity
              and Islam  

5. Greco-Roman Legacies  

Glossary  

Suggested Readings  

Index