Embark upon a lavish visual journey through ancient Greece--its origins, its rise and fall, and its legacy that still permeates the Western world today. Spanning more than 3,000 years, Ancient Greece explores the tumultuous history of this glorious empire in vivid detail--from its Minoan and Mycenaean origins to the apogee of the warring city-states of Athens and Sparta, and from the death of its most charismatic leader, Alexander the Great, to its ultimate defeat by Rome. Sumptuous photography and authoritative, engaging text cover every facet of life in ancient Greece, from art, entertainment, and schools of thought to politics, medicine, and war, while myths and religious beliefs are explored and explained in visual context. Greece's military and political power shines through attractive and detailed maps of its legendary battles. The buried palaces and Athenian agoras where Plato and Socrates discussed philosophy are brought back to life with specially commissioned CGI recreations, while the stories of ordinary citizens, policymakers, and the first Olympic athletes are told with the help of illustrations, artifacts, and eyewitness accounts.