Mary Beard is one of the world's best-known classicists - a brilliant academic,
with a rare gift for communicating with a wide audience both though her TV prese
nting and her books. In a series of sparkling essays, she explores our rich clas
sical heritage - from Greek drama to Roman jokes, introducing some larger-than-l
ife characters of classical history, such as Alexander the Great, Nero and Boudi
cca. She invites you into the places where Greeks and Romans lived and died, fro
m the palace at Knossos to Cleopatra's Alexandria - and reveals the often hidden
world of slaves.
She takes a fresh look at both scholarly controversies and
popular interpretations of the ancient world, from The Golden Bough to Asterix.
The fruit of over thirty years in the world of classical scholarship, Confrontin
g the Classics captures the world of antiquity and its modern significance with
wit, verve and scholarly expertise.
