The Children of Athena

The first popular study of how Greek writers and thinkers maintained their intellectual pre-eminence during the years of the Roman empire.

Charles Freeman is a specialist on the ancient world and its legacy. He has worked on archaeological digs on the continents surrounding the Mediterranean and develops study tour programs in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Freeman is Historical Consultant to the Blue Guides series and the author of numerous books, including the bestseller The Closing of the Western Mind, Holy Bones, Holy Dust.and, most recently, The Awakening. He lives in the UK.

Too often we ask what the Romans did for us - but this important and beautifully written book reminds us to ask what the Greeks did for the Romans - and for us in turn! This is a banquet of delightful insight, important ideas and colourful characters.
Charles Freeman's latest effusion of cultural history is a paean of tributes to ancient Hellenic intellection, philosophical in both a technical and a more general sense... Freeman sportingly and illuminatingly engages with a wide variety of styles of thought and expression, from epideictic oratory and satire via historiography and mathematics to philosophy proper. Sophisticated Greek culture did not only take firm hold of the Greeks' Roman conquerors' imaginations: thanks to Byzantium and the Renaissance (other specialisms of our exceptionally broadminded author), it engages us still to this day.
This is a much-needed book. The astounding brilliance of Greek writers of the Classical period, the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, is well known. But Greek learning did not end with the end of the Classical period. Freeman demonstrates the extraordinary richness and the variety of the work being done by the Greek intellectuals of the Roman empire... We meet orators, philosophers, historians, geographers, astronomers, a travel writer, a medical botanist, physicians, a satirist, polymaths with various interests and Christian scholars. Gradually a picture emerges of the magnificence - and the lasting importance - of work being done by the Greek intellectuals of the Roman empire.
This book brings together a gallery of fascinating personalities, a group of Greek intellectuals - controversialists, scientists, and scholars - to elucidate the role they each played in the discourse and intellectual life of the Roman Empire and beyond. The varied contribution of these famous individuals places them, without doubt, in the centre of Roman intellectual life and explains the long-lasting influence they have had on European literature, science, and scholarship. Freeman brings them to life so they can resonate amongst us and show off the height of their achievements once more. A much needed reminder of the wonders of late antiquity and the birth of European scholarship.
PRAISE FOR THE AWAKENING: 'Charles Freeman has done it again - amassed a vast body of knowledge on a major subject and infused it with historical understanding and humane wit' Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge. 'The Awakening is a remarkable work of scholarship by esteemed historian Charles Freeman... The book is a fine production, adorned with coloured images of frescos and ancient manuscripts' Irish Times. 'Freeman is a good host, a superb narrator and tells his story with aplomb... His elegant prose is a treat for the mind and the accompanying illuminations a treat for the eye' International Times. 'My favourite book of the year... The wonderful images of the art, architecture and books bring to life the detailed argument of Awakening... Freeman makes the subject matter alive and relevant in a way that few historians of ideas can... A book to read slowly, to ponder and enjoy leisurely'