10/16/2023
Historian Freeman (The Closing of the Western Mind ) offers an enlightening survey of the Greek intellectual tradition during the Roman Empire. Often overlooked in favor of classical Athens and its foundational schools of thought, Greek philosophy flourished under Roman rule, according Freeman. Beginning with a brief sketch of classical Greece and its absorption by the Roman Empire, Freeman profiles historians, doctors, orators, philosophers, soldiers, and consultants, who exemplify the wide variety of careers available to Greek intellectuals working as purveyors of culture for their Roman employers. Subjects include the historian Polybius, who, unlike his more mythologically minded predecessors, emphasized firsthand research, thus offering cogent lessons on statecraft to his aristocratic audience; the polymath Posidonius, whose admiring ethnographic writings on the Celts would later be useful to Caesar in his near-genocidal military campaign against them; and the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, whose argument that the most ethical position is to ignore suffering and be useful to the established order was popular among the ruling elite of an imperial slave state. While Freeman endeavors to highlight points of continuity between these thinkers and their classical forebears, many come off as self-interested strivers whose ideas were pragmatic and made-to-measure. It adds up to a lively series of character portraits that shed light on the history of ideas. (Dec.)
"Charles Freeman’s The Children of Athena is an ambitious and readable attempt to persuade you to have a go at some Epictetus, Lucian or Arrian. Mr. Freeman’s book can be seen as a splendidly old-fashioned project: an attempt to recover the Classical tradition as it might have appeared to Ficino, Erasmus or Montaigne before 19th-century taste decreed that only 'early' Greek texts were worth reading. The Children of Athena offers a kaleidoscopic survey of Greek intellectual life across five centuries. Mr. Freeman has filled a real gap. Although there have been excellent scholarly books on Greek literature and thought under the Roman empire, I know of no other survey of intellectual life in the imperial Greek world accessible to the nonspecialist reader."
"It’s difficult to imagine classical philosophy without Plato and Aristotle. But as Charles Freeman writes in his engrossing new book, it’s a minor miracle their works, which date from the fourth century BC, survived the devastating decline of the Roman Empire and were even available to form the foundation of the Western philosophical tradition. [The Children of Athena] adds to an impressive series on an important era in intellectual history."
"Children of Athena is an absorbing romp through Greek (and Roman) history, full of learning and interest, which is just what the book's manifold subjects deserve."
"Charles Freeman's latest effusion of cultural history is a paean of tributes to ancient Hellenic intellection. Freeman sportingly and illuminatingly engages with a wide variety of styles of thought and expression, from epideictic oratory and satire—via historiography and mathematics—to philosophy proper. Sophisticated Greek culture did not only take firm hold of the Greeks' Roman conquerors' imaginations: thanks to Byzantium and the Renaissance, it engages us still to this day.
"An enjoyable, very readable book that refreshes our knowledge of those twenty important Greek thinkers but also reminds us that empires can reap a rich reward from tolerance and respect of older traditions."
"Freeman is a well-known scholar of ancient Greece and Rome, and in this provocatively titled work he directs his encyclopedic knowledge of the classical world at its relationship with early Christianity. His exploration of early Christian attitudes is simply too impressively erudite to dismiss or to set down.” - Booklist “Engrossingly readable and very thoughtful. Freeman draws our attention to myriad small but significant phenomena. His fine book is both a searching look at the past and a salutary and cautionary reminder for us in our difficult present.
There is much here to admire. It is a panoramic view that Freeman handles with grace, erudition and lucidity.” - The Washington Times “Ambitious, groundbreaking. A scholarly history that is accessible, passionate and energetic.
A fine book for a popular audience that enjoys history, clear writing, and subject matter that reflects our own time.” - Houston Chronicle “A lucid account of an intellectual and social transformation that continues to shape the way Christianity is experienced and understood.
The narrative is clear and fluent, the nomenclature is studiously precise . . . and the theological conflicts of the fourth century are analyzed with subtlety.” - History Today “A triumph. Engrossing. Successfully realized. Wholly admirable. Freeman is to be congratulated on a broad-brush approach that throws the main issue into sharp focus. [He] has added a new level of understanding.
The Times Higher Education Supplement
One of the best books to date on the development of Christianity. Beautifully written and impressively annotated, this is an indispensable read for anyone interested in the roots of Christianity and its implications for our modern worldview. Essential.” - Choice “Engaging. Refreshing. A memorable account. The author is always interesting and well informed. Freeman’s study moves with ease between political and intellectual history. The cumulative effect is impressive.
The Times Literary Supplement
"This book brings together a gallery of fascinating personalities, a group of Greek intellectuals—controversialists, scientists, and scholars—to elucidate the role they each played in the discourse and intellectual life of the Roman Empire and beyond. The varied contribution of these famous individuals places them, without doubt, in the center of Roman intellectual life and explains the long-lasting influence they have had on European literature, science, and scholarship. Freeman brings them to life so they can resonate amongst us and show off the height of their achievements once more. A much needed reminder of the wonders of late antiquity and the birth of European scholarship.
"Too often we ask what the Romans did for us—but this important and beautifully written book reminds us to ask what the Greeks did for the Romans—and for us in turn! This is a banquet of delightful insight, important ideas and colorful characters.”
Praise for Charles Freeman’s The Closing of the Western Mind : “A fascinating account.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"This is a much-needed book. The astounding brilliance of Greek writers of the Classical period, the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, is well known. But Greek learning did not end with the end of the Classical period. Freeman demonstrates the extraordinary richness and the variety of the work being done by the Greek intellectuals of the Roman empire. Chapters are devoted to sketches of the most important writers, their environments, and their work. We meet orators, philosophers, historians, geographers, astronomers, a travel writer, a medical botanist, physicians, a satirist, polymaths with various interests, and Christian scholars. Gradually a picture emerges of the magnificence—and the lasting importance—of work being done by the Greek intellectuals of the Roman empire."
Enjoyable and illuminating. Clearly and plausibly argued. Full of fascinating detail.” - The Boston Globe “Entertaining. An excellent and readable account of the development of Christian doctrine.
The New York Times Book Review
2023-09-05 A study of the significance of a neglected epoch in Greek cultural history.
Freeman, the author of A.D. 381 and other books, argues that scholars have failed to properly account for the achievements of what is, in fact, an intellectually vital and influential period—namely, the years “between the point when Greece came definitively under Roman rule in the second half of the first century BC up to the time when Christianity became the dominant religion of the empire in the fourth century AD.” In making his case, the author tracks the resilience and dynamism of Greek philosophy during centuries of profound cultural upheaval. He focuses on a series of individuals and their contributions, weaving them into a broader narrative about “a single, unified and vibrant intellectual culture in which debate was possible across the disciplines.” Freeman considers such luminaries as Plutarch, Epictetus, and Plotinus, as well as lesser-known figures, including Dioscorides, Themistius, and Libanius. In each case, Freeman provides a thorough and astute description of how a thinker drew on specific traditions, adapted them according to the idiosyncrasies and emerging debates of the contemporary milieu, and critically influenced later thought. Among the strengths of the book, which should appeal to general readers and subject experts alike, are the author’s clear summaries of complex philosophical ideas and his revealing commentary on the assumptions and approaches that linked figures from different generations. Especially insightful is Freeman’s account of the impact of Greek philosophy on early Christian history, a topic explored with liveliness in the chapter dedicated to the theologian Origen (185-283 AD). “Christianity needed a strong intellectual background to give it coherence, and Origen provided it,” writes the author. Overall, this book satisfyingly fulfills its promise of highlighting intellectual landmarks and hidden continuities.
Well-informed, rewarding analysis of an unjustly overlooked period and its intellectual legacy.