Why read The Ancient City?

Book cover of The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens and Rome

Book description

Superb, detailed reconstructions of buildings provide the starting-point for a vivid exploration of these two great cities and the lives of the people who inhabited them. Peter Connolly's illustrations and reconstructions have a unique authority, with their blend of superb draughtsmanship, imagination, and meticulous research. The text appeals to a…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Ancient City as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Nigel Rodgers

Author

This book has the best illustrations of the two main cities of antiquity that l have ever seen. Besides superb photographs (all in colour) of the ruins today, they include Peter Connolly’s brilliant reconstructions of buildings of all sorts: houses, palaces, baths, temples, forums, hippodromes, theatres, amphitheaters, insulae (blocks of flats), bars and aqueducts, plus styles in furniture, clothing, and hair. All are shown in colourful detail, many with cutaway illustrations that recreate city life of 2000 years ago with wonderful vividness. They are complemented by Dr. Hazel Dodge’s lucid, informative text. The first part covers Athens at its…

From Nigel's list on daily life in ancient Athens and Rome.

Caroline Lawrence

Author

Kids will love seeing what Ancient Rome might have looked like, and in this book they get Ancient Athens in the bargain. The late, great Peter Connolly illustrates every aspect of ancient Rome, not only the famous monuments but ordinary homes, what people wore, their artefacts and even their gods. This is such a meticulously researched and clearly presented book that scholars use it, too.

From Caroline's list on ancient Rome for kids.