Ancient History

History is like a tree—the ancient parts are roots, and as the story progresses the trunk rises and branches expand to encompass every person and event since Adam and Eve. Because history is unified, every element of the story is interconnected, even if that connection is distant. Furthermore, the current parts are all directly the product of the parts that have come before, and to understand the current situation you'll need to understand the past.

Understanding the ancient history roots at the bottom of the tree is essential for a proper perspective of everything that comes after. Some people take this too far and assume that ancient history is all that matters, but those who disregard it or understand it on no more than a cursory level are just as mistaken. Just as a building must have a strong foundation, so a study of history must begin in the right place.

The ancient world was different from ours, and the same. It was different in primarily physical ways: technology was less advanced, there were fewer people, and the general standard of living was far below what we enjoy (at least in the industrialized world). However, human nature never changes, and the same universal conflict that exists today—between God's children and His enemies—raged then.

It's interesting to what extent the dominant theories and philosophies of the modern world reflect those of the ancients. There is truly nothing new under the sun, and the Enlightenment rationalism, faith in human progress, belief in man's innate goodness, evolutionary idealism, and even postmodernism against which Christians fight all have their roots in the ideas of the Babylonians, Greeks, Egyptians, and every other early civilization.

That doesn't mean there isn't a clear trajectory from the ancient world to the present. Ideas all run a distinct course, and some reach prominence at different times; while the seeds of every successive philosophy were sown in the ancient world, it took time to grow them into what we recognize how as humanism, modernism, postmodernism, and the ever-illusory post-postmodernism.

The same is true of events. The history of any period is simply the chronicle of man's attempts to thwart God's will and Yahweh's use of even the most outrageous rebellion to achieve His own ends. In some ways, this is more obvious in ancient history, as the nation of Israel fought the surrounding nations, and too often embraced their paganism.

That story, of God's work among His people and in the world, and of man's continual rebellion, is also our story. The Church fights the same battles our Israelite forefathers did, though on a more ideological rather than physical scale. When we realize how much the story of the ancients is our own story, the significance of studying their world becomes much clearer, and the urgency of such study is made plain.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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113 Items found Print
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Aeneid
by Virgil, translated by Robert Fitzgerald
from Vintage Classics
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 10th-Adult
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Aeneid
by Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles
from Penguin Putnam
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Aeschylus I: The Oresteia (old)
The Complete Greek Tragedies
by Aeschylus (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
from University of Chicago
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
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Aeschylus II: The Oresteia
The Complete Greek Tragedies
by Aeschylus (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
3rd edition from University of Chicago
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$14.00
Aeschylus' Oresteia
Penguin Classics
by Aeschylus (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
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Aeschylus' Oresteia
by Aeschylus, translated by Peter Meineck
from Hackett Publishing Company
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
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$13.50
Aeschylus' Oresteian Trilogy
Penguin Classics
by Aeschylus, translated by Phillip Vellacott
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
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Ancient City
by Hazel Dodge, Peter Connolly
First Thus from Oxford University
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$14.00 (2 in stock)
Ancient Egypt
by David P. Silverman
from Oxford University
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$18.00 (1 in stock)
Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors
by Lorene Lambert
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Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends
by Lewis Spence
Reprint from Dover Publications
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Ancient Rome
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$11.95
Annals of Imperial Rome
Penguin Classics
by Tacitus
from Penguin Classics
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$19.00
Bacchae and Other Plays
Penguin Classics
by Euripides (translation by John Davies)
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Tragedy for 11th-Adult
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$12.00
Bacchae and Other Plays
Penguin Classics
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Ancient Tragedy for 11th-Adult
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$13.00
Basic Works of Aristotle
by Aristotle
from Modern Library
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$24.00
British Museum Visitor's Guide
by John Reeve
from British Museum Press
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Burial at Thebes
by Sophocles, translated by Seamus Heaney
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Chronological and Background Charts of the New Testament
by H. Wayne House
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Civil War
Penguin Classics
by Julius Caesar
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Conquest of Gaul
Penguin Classics
by Julius Caesar
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Consolation of Philosophy
by Ancius Boethius
from Penguin Classics
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$16.00
Consolation of Philosophy
by Ancius Boethius
from Ignatius Press
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Darius, Artaxerxes, and Ahasuerus in the Bible
by James B. Jordan
from Athanasius Press
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$8.95
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
by Edward Gibbon
from Modern Library
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Defending Constantine
by Peter Leithart
from InterVarsity Press
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Dictionary of the Roman Empire
by Matthew Bunson
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Early History of Rome
by Livy
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Echoes of Egypt: Conjuring the Land of the Pharaohs
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Euclid's Elements
by Euclid & Sir Thomas Heath (translator)
2nd edition from Green Lion Press
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Euripides I
by Euripides
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Euripides III
by Euripides
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Euripides: The Trojan Women and Hippolytus
by Euripides
from Dover Publications
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$2.50
Five Dialogues of Plato
by Plato, translated by G.M.A. Grube, revised by John M. Cooper
2nd edition from Hackett Publishing Company
Ancient Philosophy for 9th-Adult
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Flames of Rome
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Foxe's Book of Martyrs
by John Foxe
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Gallic War
by Julius Caesar, translated by H. J. Edwards
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Gorgias
Penguin Classics
by Plato
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Ancient Philosophy for 9th-Adult
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Gorgias
Oxford World's Classics
by Plato
from Oxford University
Ancient Philosophy for 9th-Adult
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Greek Lives
by Plutarch, translated by Robin Waterfield
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Greek Tragedies I
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Heroes of the City of Man
by Peter Leithart
from Canon Press
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$25.00
Histories
Penguin Classics
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Histories
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Histories
Penguin Classics
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Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult
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$16.00
History of the Ancient World - Study & Teaching Guide
by Julia Kaziewicz
1st edition from Well-Trained Mind Press
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History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Penguin Classics
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History of the Medieval World - Study & Teaching Guide
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How the West Won
by Rodney Stark
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Iliad
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
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$20.00
Iliad
by Homer (translation by Robert Fitzgerald)
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Ancient Literature for 11th-Adult
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$17.00
Iliad
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
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Iliad
by Homer (translation by Stanley F. Lombardo)
from Hackett Publishing Company
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Iliad
by Homer (translation by Caroline Alexander)
from Ecco Press
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Iliad of Homer
by Homer (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
from University of Chicago
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
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Iliad: A Prose Rendering
by Homer, translated by Wes Callihan
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Inspirational Women
for 8th-12th grade
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Landmark Herodotus
by Herodotus (translated by Andrea Purvis & edited by Robert Strassler)
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Landmark Thucydides
by Thucydides
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Last Days of Socrates
by Plato
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Lives of Famous Romans
by Olivia Coolidge
from American Home-School Publishing
Roman History for 7th-12th grade
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$17.99
Lysistrata and Other Plays
by Aristophanes
from Penguin Classics
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Medea and Other Plays
by Euripides
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Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius
from Modern Library
Classic Literature for 9th-Adult
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$11.00
Metamorphoses
by Ovid, translated by Charles Martin
from W. W. Norton and Co.
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Metamorphoses
by Ovid
Reprint from Signet Classics
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Mummy
by Ernest A. Wallis Budge
New edition from Senate
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Mythology
by Edith Hamilton
from Little, Brown & Company
Mythology for 7th-Adult
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North American Indian Burial Customs
by Dr. H. C. Yarrow
First Edition from Eagle's View Publishing
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Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fitzgerald)
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Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
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Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
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Odyssey
by Homer
2nd edition from Wordsworth Classics
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Odyssey & Guide - 2 book set
by Homer
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Odyssey of Homer
by Homer (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
from HarperCollins
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
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$18.99
Oedipus Cycle
by Sophocles (translation by Dudley Fitts & Robert Fitzgerald)
from Harcourt
Ancient Tragedy for 9th-12th grade
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On the Nature of Things
by Lucretius
from Penguin Classics
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$16.00
On the Nature of Things
by Lucretius
from Veritas Press
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$19.00
Oxford Concise Companion to Classical Literature
by M. C. Howatson & Ian Chilvers
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
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Pearl Maiden
by H. Rider Haggard
from Christian Liberty Press
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Peloponnesian War
by Thucydides
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Peloponnesian War
by Thucydides, translated by Martin Hammond
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Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations
by John Haywood
from Penguin Putnam
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Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece
by Robert Morkot
from Penguin Putnam
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Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome
by Chris Scarre
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Roman History Reference for 9th-12th grade
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Plutarch's Lives Volume I
by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden
from Modern Library
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$19.00
Plutarch's Lives Volume II
by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden
from Modern Library
Biography for 11th-Adult
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Pontius Pilate
by Paul L. Maier
2nd edition from Kregel Publications
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Pontius Pilate
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2nd edition from Kregel Publications
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Punic Wars 264-146 B.C.
by Nigel Bagnall
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Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt
by Betsy Morrell Bryan, Erik Hornung, National Gallery of Art (U. S.), United Exhibits Group (Denmark)
First Edition from National Gallery of Art
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Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by W. S. Kuniczak
from Hippocrene Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
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Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by Jeremiah Curtin
from Dover Publications
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
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Quo Vadis (abridged)
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, edited and abridged by James S. Bell, Jr.
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Quo Vadis?
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by Stanley F. Conrad
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Rhetoric and the Poetics of Aristotle
by Aristotle
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Roman Lives
by Plutarch, translated by Robin Waterfield
Reissue from Oxford University
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Romans
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Silver Chalice
by Thomas B. Costain
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Son of Heaven: Imperial Arts of China
by Robert L. Thorpe
First Edition from Son of Heaven Press
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