Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/652145 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The First Clash: The Miraculous Greek Victory at Marathon and Its Impact on Western Civilization

Author: James Lacey

Narrator: Mike Cooper

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 25 minutes

Release date: September 6, 2024

Genres: Ancient Civilizations

Publisher's Summary:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Marathon—one of history’s most pivotal battles. Its very name evokes images of almost superhuman courage, endurance, and fighting spirit. But until now, the story of what happened at Marathon has been told exclusively through the narrow viewpoint of specialists in antiquity. In this eye-opening new book, acclaimed journalist Jim Lacey, both a military historian and a combat veteran, takes a fresh look at Marathon and reveals why the battle happened, how it was fought, and whether, in fact, it saved Western civilization. Lacey brilliantly reconstructs the world of the fifth century B.C. leading up to the astonishing military defeat of the Persian Empire by the vastly undermanned but determined Greek defenders. Using the seminal work of Herodotus as his starting point, Lacey reconstructs the tactical and strategic scenario of the battle, including how many combatants each side might have used and who actually led the Greeks. He also disputes the long-repeated myths of Athenian inexperience and effete Persian arrogance. With the kind of vivid detail that characterizes the best modern war reportage, Lacey shows how the heavily armed Persian army was shocked, demoralized, and ultimately defeated by the relentless assault of the Athenian phalanx, which battered the Persian line in a series of brutal attacks. He reveals the fascinating aftermath of Marathon, how its fighters became the equivalent of our “Greatest Generation,” and challenges the view of many historians that Marathon ultimately proved the Greek “Western way of war” to be the superior strategy for fighting—and winning—battles to the present day. Immediate, visceral, and full of new analyses that defy decades of conventional wisdom, The First Clash is a superb interpretation of a conflict that indeed made the world safe for Aristotle, Plato, and our own modern democracy. But it was also a battle whose legacy and lessons have often been misunderstood—perhaps, now more than ever, at our own peril. * This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF containing illustrated maps and the Dramatis Personae, from the printed book.

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Title: How to Fit All of Ancient Greece in an Elevator

Author: Theodore Papakostas

Narrator: Tom Babbage, John Moraitis

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 41 minutes

Release date: August 1, 2024

Genres: Ancient Civilizations

Publisher's Summary:

'Irresistibly fascinating' MARIE CLAIRE GREECE 'Essential' VICTORIA HISLOP 'Brilliantly conceived' PAUL CARTLEDGE An enormous bestseller in Greece, this is a bold, witty retelling of the story of Ancient Greece by a rising star in archaeology Two strangers meet in a trapped elevator. One is an archaeologist, the other isn’t. A simple question, ‘What do you do?’, becomes the springboard for a dialogue that weaves a fascinating tale. Archaeologist Theodore Papakostas takes the reader on a spectacularly iconoclastic and hugely engrossing journey through ancient Greece, from its beginnings in prehistory to its end. Marvelling at the exalted moments in history as well as the more mundane, Papakostas introduces the reader to countless fascinating stories about the cradle of western civilisation – many of which upend received wisdom about the empire as well as about archaeology itself. Along the way, he settles questions such as: What did a Minoan princess pack for a trip to Egypt? How did a raunchy dance lead to the birth of Democracy? Why did Heraclitus suggest that Homer should be slapped? A whistle-stop tour through three hundred years of Greek history, How to Fit All of Ancient Greece in an Elevator is an unforgettable love letter to the treasures we’ve inherited from the ancient world, as well as to those who have helped us unearth them.

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Title: Homer and His Iliad

Author: Robin Lane Fox

Narrator: Steve John Shepherd

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 16 hours 44 minutes

Release date: October 24, 2023

Genres: Ancient Civilizations

Publisher's Summary:

A groundbreaking reassessment of the Iliad, uncovering how the poem was written and why it remains enduringly powerful  The Iliad is the world’s greatest epic poem—heroic battle and divine fate set against the Trojan War. Its beauty and profound bleakness are intensely moving, but great questions remain: Where, how, and when was it composed and why does it endure?  Robin Lane Fox addresses these questions, drawing on a lifelong love and engagement with the poem. He argues for a place, a date, and a method for its composition—subjects of ongoing controversy—combining the detailed expertise of a historian with a poetic reader’s sensitivity. Lane Fox considers hallmarks of the poem; its values, implicit and explicit; its characters; its women; its gods; and even its horses.  Thousands of readers turn to the Iliad every year. Drawing on fifty years of reading and research, Lane Fox offers us a breathtaking tour of this magnificent text, revealing why the poem has endured for ages.

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Title: Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint

Author: Peter Sarris

Narrator: Mark Elstob

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 15 hours 37 minutes

Release date: October 24, 2023

Genres: Ancient Civilizations

Publisher's Summary:

A definitive new biography of the Byzantine emperor Justinian     Justinian is a radical reassessment of an emperor and his times. In the sixth century CE, the emperor Justinian presided over nearly four decades of remarkable change, in an era of geopolitical threats, climate change, and plague. From the eastern Roman—or Byzantine—capital of Constantinople, Justinian’s armies reconquered lost territory in Africa, Italy, and Spain. But these military exploits, historian Peter Sarris shows, were just one part of a larger program of imperial renewal. From his dramatic overhaul of Roman law, to his lavish building projects, to his fierce persecution of dissenters from Orthodox Christianity, Justinian’s vigorous statecraft—and his energetic efforts at self-glorification—not only set the course of Byzantium but also laid the foundations for the world of the Middle Ages.     Even as Justinian sought to recapture Rome’s past greatness, he paved the way for what would follow.

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Title: Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age

Author: Tom Holland

Narrator: Tom Holland

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 14 hours 53 minutes

Release date: September 26, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.8 of Total 5

Ratings of Narrator: 4 of Total 1

Genres: Ancient Civilizations

Publisher's Summary:

The definitive history of Rome’s golden age—an ultimate superpower at the pinnacle of its greatness The Pax Romana has long been shorthand for the empire’s golden age. Stretching from Caledonia to Arabia, Rome ruled over a quarter of the world’s population. It was the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of humankind.   Pax is a captivating narrative history of Rome at the height of its power. From the gilded capital to realms beyond the frontier, historian Tom Holland shows ancient Rome in all its glory: Nero’s downfall, the destruction of Jerusalem and Pompeii, the building of the Colosseum and Hadrian’s Wall, the conquests of Trajan. Vividly sketching the lives of Romans both ordinary and spectacular, from slaves to emperors, Holland shows that Roman peace was the fruit of unprecedented military violence.  A stunning portrait of Rome’s glory days, this is the epic history of the Pax Romana.

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Title: Faith Under Fire: Stories of Hope and Courage from World War II

Author: Steve Rabey

Narrator: Tom Parks

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 13 minutes

Release date: July 18, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.33 of Total 3

Genres: Ancient Civilizations

Publisher's Summary:

As World War II raged, millions of men and women confronted injury, destruction, separation from home and loved ones, chaos, and death. These challenges and traumas and many others forced an entire generation of everyday heroes to take stock of their lives. And in the process, many turned to God in ways they never had before. In Faith Under Fire, you'll experience scenes of astonishing bravery, moments of heart-breaking loss, and a pervasive sense of love for God, neighbor, and country that was strong enough to transcend denominational and national differences, inspiring selfless acts of courage and compassion under the worst of circumstances. From the Catholic chaplain who offered mercy among the carnage of Iwo Jima, to the Pentecostal boy who was saved from an incoming shell by the voice of God calling his name, to the young wife praying that her husband would survive life in a concentration camp, to the Tuskegee Airman who fought both totalitarianism and racism, these stories reveal the power of faith that sustained these heroes when there was nowhere else to turn. Award-winning author Steve Rabey presents more than twenty firsthand accounts of faith under pressure, many of them illustrated with war-time photos, letters, and journal entries. At a time when many who lived through these trying times are dying, their stories live on, passing on a legacy of faith and fortitude to future generations. Photos are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.

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Title: The Wall: Rome's Greatest Frontier

Author: Alistair Moffat

Narrator: James Cameron Stewart

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 30 minutes

Release date: July 18, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 1

Genres: Ancient Civilizations

Publisher's Summary:

Hadrian's Wall is the largest and one of the most enigmatic historical monuments in Britain. Nothing else approaches its vast scale: a land wall running seventy-three miles from east to west and a sea wall stretching at least twenty-six miles down the Cumbrian coast. Many of its forts are as large as Britain's most formidable medieval castles, and the wide ditch dug to the south of the Wall, the vallum, is larger than any surviving prehistoric earthwork. Built in a ten-year period by more than thirty thousand soldiers and laborers at the behest of an extraordinary emperor, the Wall consisted of more than twenty-four million stones, giving it a mass greater than all the Egyptian pyramids put together. At least a million people visit Hadrian's Wall each year, and it has been designated a World Heritage Site. In this book, based on literary and historical sources as well as the latest archaeological research, Alistair Moffat considers who built the Wall, how it was built, why it was built, and how it affected the native peoples who lived in its mighty shadow. The result is a unique and fascinating insight into one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/620634 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Homer and His Iliad

Author: Robin Lane Fox

Narrator: Steve John Shepherd

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 16 hours 43 minutes

Release date: July 13, 2023

Genres: Ancient Civilizations

Publisher's Summary:

Brought to you by Penguin. Homer's Iliad is the famous epic poem set among the tales of Troy. Its subject is the anger of the hero Achilles and its dreadful consequences for the warring Greeks and Trojans. It was composed more than 2600 years ago, but still transfixes us with its tale of loss and battle, love and revenge, guided throughout by the active presence of the gods. Its beauty and profound bleakness are intensely moving but great questions remain: where, how and when it was composed and why it has such enduring power? In this compelling book Robin Lane Fox addresses these questions, drawing on a life-long love and engagement with the poem. He argues for a place, a date and a method for its composition, giving us a sense of alternative approaches and grounding his own in discoveries about long heroic poems composed elsewhere in the world, and the ever-growing evidence of archaeology. Unlike other books on the Iliad, this one combines the detailed expertise of a historian with the sensitivity of a teacher of it as poetry. Lane Fox goes on to consider hallmarks of the poem, its values, implicit and explicit, its characters, its women, its gods and even its horses. He argues repeatedly for its beautiful observation and addresses its parallel use of what is, to us, the natural world. Thousands of readers turn to the Iliad every year. In this superbly written and conceived tribute, Lane Fox expresses and amplifies what old and new readers can find in it. It is pervaded, he argues, by a poignant hardness which is not just a poetic trick. It is a deeply held view of the world. ©2023 Robin Lane Fox (P)2023 Penguin Audio

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Title: Awakening Osiris: The Spiritual Keys to the Egyptian Book of the Dead

Author: Normandi Ellis

Narrator: Tegan Ashton Cohan

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 8 minutes

Release date: June 1, 2023

Genres: Ancient Civilizations

Publisher's Summary:

A beautiful and engaging rendering of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is one of the oldest and greatest classics of Western spirituality. Until now, the available translations have treated these writings as historical curiosities that have little relevance to our contemporary situations. This new version, made from the hieroglyphs, approaches the Book of the Dead as a profound spiritual text capable of speaking to us today. These writings suggest that the divine realm and the human realm are not altogether separate—they remind us that the natural world, and the substance of our lives, is fashioned from the stuff of the gods. Devoted like an Egyptian scribe to the principle of 'effective utterance,' Normandi Ellis has produced a prose translation that reads like pure, diaphanous verse.

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Title: The Last Kings of Macedonia and the Triumph of Rome

Author: Ian Worthington

Narrator: Gareth Richards

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 3 minutes

Release date: May 9, 2023

Genres: Ancient Civilizations

Publisher's Summary:

In the history of ancient Macedonia, the last three Antigonid kings—Philip V, his son Perseus, and the pretender Andriscus or Philip VI—are commonly overlooked in favor of their predecessors Philip II and his son Alexander the Great, who established a Macedonian empire. By the time Philip V became king, Macedonia was no longer an imperial power and Rome was fast spreading its dominance over the Mediterranean. Viewed as postscripts to the kingdom's heyday, the last Macedonian kings are often denounced for self-serving ambitions, flawed policies, and questionable personal qualities by hostile ancient writers. They are condemned for defeats by Rome that saw both the end of the monarchy and the fall of the formidable Macedonian phalanx before the Roman legion. Producing the first full-scale treatment of Philip V in eighty years and the first in English of Perseus and Andriscus in more than fifty, Ian Worthington argues that this period was far from a postscript to Macedonia's Classical greatness and disagrees that the last Antigonid kings were merely collateral damage in Rome's ascendancy in the east. Despite superior Roman manpower and resources, Philip and Perseus often had the upper hand in their wars against Rome. As Worthington asserts, these kings deserve to be remembered for striving to preserve their kingdom's independence against staggering odds.