Magill’s Choice: Ancient Greece
-Choice
“This useful “Masterplots” style work is part of the Magill’s Choice series. Entries have been drawn from a number of the publisher’s larger sets, including Encyclopedia of the Ancient World (2002), Great Lives From History: The Ancient World, Prehistory–476 C.E. (2004), and Magill’s Guide to Military History (2001). In addition, 29 new essays were added, and all bibliographies were updated.
The format is straight dictionary-style, which is good because only the third volume has the indexes by category, personage, and subject. The time period covers prehistory to the Battle of Actium when Rome defeated Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemies. Entries range from a few lines to a few pages, and some have more references than text. Entries for persons generally give birth and death dates and places, an index categories, a biography, and a paragraph or more on the individual’s significance or influence. Entries for some events also have a note on significance; for example, Thermopylae, Battle of. Religion, daily life, and individual cities are among the other topics that are covered. Many articles have illustrations, and some have sidebars or time lines.
Besides the indexes, the third volume has a glossary, a list of historic sites, a list of surviving Greek books, a time line, an extensive bibliography, and a list of Web sites with the note that they were active as of April 2006. The list of historical sites also indicates Web sites, but many of them link to Wikipedia, which is not always as reliable as a librarian might wish. Public and school libraries will find this useful for the recurring ancient Greece assignment. Academic libraries with undergraduate ancient history programs will also find it useful, particularly if they do not already own the parent sets.”
-Booklist