kinds* » kings* (Expand Search), finds* (Expand Search), minds* (Expand Search)
kind* » king* (Expand Search), mind* (Expand Search), find* (Expand Search)
minds* » mind* (Expand Search), finds* (Expand Search), mines* (Expand Search)
The treasures of Alexander the Great : how one man's wealth shaped the world /
:
"War, the most profitable economic activity in the ancient world, transferred wealth from the vanquished to the victor. Invasions, sieges, massacres, annexations, and mass deportations all redistributed property with dramatic consequences for kings and commoners alike. No conqueror ever captured more people or property in so short a lifetime than Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BC. For all its savagery, the creation of Alexander's empire has generally been hailed as a positive economic event for all concerned. Even those harshly critical of Alexander today tend to praise his plundering of Persia as a means of liberating the moribund resources of the East. To test this popular interpretation, The Treasures of Alexander the Great investigates the kinds and quantities of treasure seized by the Macedonian king, from gold and silver to land and slaves. It reveals what became of the king's wealth and what Alexander's redistribution of these vast resources can tell us about his much-disputed policies and personality. Though Alexander owed his vast fortune to war, battle also distracted him from competently managing his spoils and much was wasted, embezzled, deliberately destroyed, or idled unprofitably. The Treasures of Alexander the Great provides a long-overdue and accessible account of Alexander's wealth and its enormous impact on the ancient world"--
:
xcii, 295 pages ; 23 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9780199950966
An ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead : the papyrus of Sobekmose /
:
'The Book of the Dead of Sobekmose', in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, New York, is one of the most important surviving examples of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead genre. Such papyrus scrolls were composed of traditional funerary texts, including magic spells, that were thought to assist a dead person on their journey into the afterlife. This publication is the first to offer a continuous English translation of a single, extensive, major text that can speak to us from beginning to end in the order in which it was composed. The papyrus itself is one of the longest of its kind to come down to us from the New Kingdom, a time when Egypt's international power and prosperity were at their peak. This new translation not only represents a great step forward in the study of these texts, but also grants modern readers a direct encounter with what can seem a remote and alien civilization. With language that is, in many places, unquestionably evocative and very beautiful, it offers a look into the mindset of the ancient Egyptians, highlighting their beliefs and anxieties about this world as well as the next. The papyrus itself is reproduced in its entirety and the translation is prefaced by a fully illustrated introductory essay which, along with a brief chronology of ancient Egypt and a glossary guiding the reader through the religious and mythological terminology that they will encounter, grounds it in its historical context.
:
Glossary of terms and names, and chronology. :
216 pages : color illustrations ; 26 cm. :
Bibliography : pages 205-207. :
9780500051887