A History of Greece

Bury's History of Greece is lucid, erudite, as simple as possible (given the complex subject) and comprehensive within its time period. It comes highly recommended by educators Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler. I found it through their recommendation and have enjoyed dipping into it for clarification of the ancient authors.

I've read about 20 books on ancient Greek history, and this is by far my favorite of the secondary sources. Oddly, it was a college textbook -- otherwise, I probably never would have come across it. As I read more Greek History books, I always came back to this one. Bury not only is an engaging author, but he doesn't ascribe to a 'special' school. History is not just economics and sociology, governmental systems, or great leaders. All of these elements of history are well presented. Furthermore, Bury has just the right mix of presenting history and of speculation, with an emphaisis on the former (as a textbook); nonetheless, his speculations and comments are thoughtful and outstanding. He is balanced. When he talks about tyrants, he went through the gamut of beneficial ones like Cleithenes of Sicyon, enlightened but despotic like Cypsalis of Corinth, and the usual bad ones. As an example of his insights, he discusses how clever Cyrus II was (the man that tried to take over the Persian throne with Greek mercenaries, leading to the Anabasis), and how he at an early time made military innovations with the Greek phalanx he had as his mercenary army. Bury speculates how a Greek victory, putting Cyrus on the throne, would have been bad for Greece as a whole, since Persia would have an innovative and energetic king. The book is full of facts. It is not a fast read. Noentheless, it is simply a great source book and very good reead for ancient Greek History.

J.B. Bury wrote his "History of Greece" before World War I, but it was such a good overview of classical Greek history that the third edition was still being used as a college textbook in the late 1960's. Although only selected portions of the text were assigned reading, I read the book cover to cover and have kept it to this day. Bury writes in a lucid, easily understood style that entertains as it educates. Although Bury recounts campaigns and battles in stirring fashion, he does not neglect the Greek contributions to politics, the arts, and sciences. Except for his obvious dislike of the Spartan King Agesilaus, I found Bury to be fair and even-handed in his evaluation of the peoples and events that shaped Greek history.