Review of Matthew Dillon & Lynda Garland, Ancient Greece: Social and Historical Documents from Archaic Times to the Death of Socrates (c. 800-399 BC). 2nd ed.

Authors

Vanessa B. Gorman, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

March 2001

Comments

Published in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2001.03.18. Copyright © 2001 Vanessa B. Gorman. Used by permission. Online @ http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2001/2001-03-18.html

Abstract

Dillon and Garland have revised their collection of ancient Greek documents in this second edition. As with the first edition, the present sourcebook is intended primarily for use by undergraduate students and secondarily for the "reader interested in further study" (p. xi), presumably the Greekless scholar. The work is divided into fourteen chapters roughly by chronology and topic, with anywhere from four to fifteen subdivisions within the chapters. The individual entries are each given a discrete number carried over from the first edition, as well as an introduction that includes background information and references to secondary sources pertinent to the passage.

This volume, then, is not the book to use in order to augment a culture or a literature class. However, the individual passages are translated into very readable text and the integration of references to modern scholarship is extremely beneficial. All in all, this volume is the perfect sourcebook for the instructor seeking a wide variety of ancient sources keyed into the political history of the Greeks, with a few digressions into social issues.