07-10-2011, 09:49 AM
John Freely, Children of Achilles: The Greeks of Asia Minor since the Days of Troy (2010)
I found this book by accident and decided to get it because I have an interest in Greeks in the East. It covers Greeks in Anatolia from Trojan War to the present day. To compress 3,000 years of history into some 260 pages is a tall order, but Freely manages to give an adequate overview.
The book covers practically everything that happened to the Greeks in Asia Minor: formation of colonies, Archaic Renaissance, Persian Wars, Alexander the Great, Rome, Byzantium, Turks and the exodus. Because of space constraints everything is understandably condensed.
I have a few profound problems with the book. First, it has all the appearances of being rushed. The proof reader was a spell-checker, I presume, because of unnecessary errors such as printing the same word twice in a sentence.
Secondly, such a book requires excellent maps. In the first chapter alone there are dozens of names of Greek cities, and the reader will often want to check their geographic locations. There is a nice map of the extreme western edge of the landmass, but the other maps are unhelpful. There is one map of the ancient regions of Anatolia that looks decidedly unprofessional. Also, the book includes a map of present-day Turkey which has helpfully labelled the Soviet Union. (Yes, the book was published in 2010.)
The book follows the modern custom of dispensing with numbered notes. Instead, citations are given by page in the back. I dislike this practice, but if used properly it works well enough. Unfortunately, Freely only cites direct quotations, and most of these are puzzlingly useless. For instance, let’s say you try to find the source for Julius Caesar’s famous “Veni, vidi, vici” quote. Where does this quote come from? Plutarch? Suetonius? No, you will find the source as Freely’s own travel guide The Companion Guide to Turkey.
I think the book could be a useful starting point for someone wishing a broad overview of the topic, but I can't recommend it to anyone more familiar with it.
I found this book by accident and decided to get it because I have an interest in Greeks in the East. It covers Greeks in Anatolia from Trojan War to the present day. To compress 3,000 years of history into some 260 pages is a tall order, but Freely manages to give an adequate overview.
The book covers practically everything that happened to the Greeks in Asia Minor: formation of colonies, Archaic Renaissance, Persian Wars, Alexander the Great, Rome, Byzantium, Turks and the exodus. Because of space constraints everything is understandably condensed.
I have a few profound problems with the book. First, it has all the appearances of being rushed. The proof reader was a spell-checker, I presume, because of unnecessary errors such as printing the same word twice in a sentence.
Secondly, such a book requires excellent maps. In the first chapter alone there are dozens of names of Greek cities, and the reader will often want to check their geographic locations. There is a nice map of the extreme western edge of the landmass, but the other maps are unhelpful. There is one map of the ancient regions of Anatolia that looks decidedly unprofessional. Also, the book includes a map of present-day Turkey which has helpfully labelled the Soviet Union. (Yes, the book was published in 2010.)
The book follows the modern custom of dispensing with numbered notes. Instead, citations are given by page in the back. I dislike this practice, but if used properly it works well enough. Unfortunately, Freely only cites direct quotations, and most of these are puzzlingly useless. For instance, let’s say you try to find the source for Julius Caesar’s famous “Veni, vidi, vici” quote. Where does this quote come from? Plutarch? Suetonius? No, you will find the source as Freely’s own travel guide The Companion Guide to Turkey.
I think the book could be a useful starting point for someone wishing a broad overview of the topic, but I can't recommend it to anyone more familiar with it.
David J. Cord
www.davidcord.com
www.davidcord.com
