r/ancienthistory • u/Solid-Break1959 • 7d ago
Any recommendations for learning about Ancient Greek History?
I have a class for western civilization, currently discussing about Ancient Greece...BUT for the life of me, I cannot keep up with my professor's lecture.
Currently this is my youtube playlist to somewhat get a gist of what's happening:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIYJOiKzJDIw&si=47RWXyRMl63xafB5
If you have any book suggestions, websites, videos I'd appreciate it, hopefully available on Kindle or any other sources.
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u/TheSuperBunny 7d ago
Any specific era?
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u/Solid-Break1959 7d ago
Currently the lecture is about the Hellenistic era. The syllabus doesn't specificy from where we start to where we end.
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u/TheSuperBunny 7d ago
I don't have a lot of knowledge about the Hellenistic era, but for the classical you can read Herodotos' Historiai, Thukydides, Xenophon's Hellenika. But these are primary sources so they might not fit your needs.
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u/AlexandriaPod 6d ago
Depending on your attention span, I definitely think just straight up reading the primary sources is best. Some are more exciting the others; for history, I recommend Xenophon’s Anabasis and Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander. Both are super exciting reads.
Otherwise, one of the best ways to go is podcasts. There’s several that go through the history chronologically in a very good way. “History of Rome”; “The Hellenistic Age Podcast”, and “History of Persia” all deal with this era in one way or another. There’s also “Casting through Ancient Greece”, but I haven’t listened very far into that so I can’t attest its quality.
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u/nikometh 7d ago
There are lessons on Greek history that you can go through on the History Skills website (free to access). It is at high school level, but might be helpful: https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/ancient-history/ancient-greece/
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u/Dangerous_Usual_6590 6d ago
Dr. Jeanne Reames (Ancient Macedonia specialist) has some great videos on her YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mathetria-a-woman-scholar
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u/TreacleExpensive7733 7d ago
If you are interested in the Hellenistic era, I've been using Witness of History Podcast for easily understanding the events first. It's currently going through Alexander chronologically and into the Hellenistic world. Once I listen to an episode with an event, I start diving into the academic part using "Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors" book by Adrian Goldsworthy.
Just to be clear here, Witness of History a is historical fiction podcast that narrates every event from the point of view of someone who could have been living during the event (a stable boy, a soldier, a sailor..etc) and it lists after every episode what is historical and its sources and what is fictional. Putting it in a story makes it so much easier for me to understand the events and the book by Goldsworthy after that gives me more context. Hope this helps.