The birth of politics : eight Greek and Roman political ideas and why they matter /
Eight Greek and Roman political ideas and why they matter
Melissa Lane.
- 381 pages : maps ; 21 cm
"First published in the United Kingdom as: Greek and Roman political ideas : a Pelican introduction, by the Penguin Group, Penguin Books ... London"--T.p. verso.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-355) and index.
Introduction: Possibilities of power and purpose -- Justice -- Constitution -- Democracy -- Virtue -- Citizenship -- Cosmopolitanism -- Republic -- Soverignty -- Conclusion: Futures of Greek and Roman pasts -- Acknowledgements -- Glossary -- Athens map key -- Brief biographies of key persons, events and places -- Reference lists and abbreviations.
"[An introduction] to the foundations of Western political thought, from the Greeks, who invented democrary, to the Romans, who created a republic and then transformed it into an empire...[Lane] focuses on eight political ideas from the Greco-Roman world that are especially influential today...and describes how the ancient formulations of these ideas often challenge widely held modern assumptions"--From publisher description on book jacket.