‘Know Yourself’, the aphorism supposedly inscribed on the façade of the Temple to Apollo, is taken by Gregory Aldrete and Alicia Aldrete as the underlying rationale of their book, The Long Shadow of Antiquity. What Have the Greeks and Romans Done for Us? (p.ix). It is the starting point from which the authors consider the contribution ancient Greece and Rome have made to modern society. The sheer range of topics presented in The Long Shadow of Antiquity has the potential to make it a rather weighty tome; however, the authors have explicitly aimed this book at the general reader and, happily, succeed in taking one on an ‘entertaining journey’ (p.x) through some of the main structures, ideas and institutions of both civilisations. The book romps from the Greeks to the Romans, and back again, while holding the attention of the reader with interesting anecdotes, well-deployed black and white images to illustrate points, and the occasional cautionary tale. The result is a solid overview of the contribution of the ancient Greeks and Romans to our own world.
The approach taken in this text is well-considered, with nine chapters that reflect the aspects of life as we would define it today. The book begins with chapters on the basics: Food and Shelter, the Journey through Life, and Entertainment (in which a mirror is held up to the modern fascination with fitness and diet). There is then progress through the weightier topics of Power, Science, and Superstition and Religion, before finishing with Language, Culture and some of the Parallel Issues that face both us and the ancients in Chapter 9.
Each of these long chapters is divided into mostly clear sub-sections, and comparisons are drawn to modern society throughout. This allows rather broad topics such as Chapter 8's ‘Words, ideas, and stories: Language, law, philosophy, and literature’ to be investigated in accessible chunks. In this instance the alphabets of both civilisations are explored, before embarking on an explanation of the impact of both Greek and Latin on our society in terms of etymology, the evolution of Western language, legislature, mythology, poetry and theatre, thus exemplifying that ‘journey’ Aldrete and Aldrete determined to take us on from the start. Here, as in all chapters of the book, a plethora of sources is used to evidence the arguments made, although the reader is not allowed to become mired in the debates of Epicureanism or the Cynics, but is instead allowed a wry smile at Diogenes presenting a plucked chicken to Plato.
As far as possible, the authors give equal consideration to both ancient civilisations and, rather importantly, ensure that the contribution of ancient Greece to the ideas, structures and institutions of Rome is also recognised. For a reader in the British Isles, it is worthwhile noting that, while the focus is on the impact on Western civilisation, many of the comparisons drawn are with America. This particularly true of ‘Chapter 4: Power to the People’, where a considerable amount of time is devoted to the impact their classical education had on the Founding Fathers. This is balanced to an extent by a consideration of the fascist systems of 20th century Europe.
There is a dry humour running throughout this book, and the authors do not miss any opportunity to return to the central theme of ‘know yourself’ - offering examples such as the manipulative tactics of orators as cautionary tales for today's society. ‘Chapter 9: Ancient and Modern Parallels’ explores some of the most important global questions society faces today including environmental problems and the assimilation of immigrants. The examination of the ancients’ knowledge of, and attitude to, the environment and their impact on it, is concluded with a sobering observation that environmental changes at least contributed to both the rise and fall of Rome (p.350). Equally, the discussion of resistance to Alexander the Great's efforts to fuse Persian and Macedonian cultures presents interesting angles on modern cultural mixing and interchange.
On a number of occasions in The Long Shadow of Antiquity, the authors recognise L.P. Hartley's observation that ‘the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there’ (p.381). While pointing out those similarities and connections that unite ancient and modern humans, they also draw out some of the crucial differences such as attitudes to slavery, women, and homosexuality, that mark us apart. These differences are not as explicitly developed as the connections, but that is a natural consequence of the aim of the book to show how the past has shaped us.
The general reader will take a lot from this interesting, informative, and fast-paced book. It manages to strike a balance between the good, the bad, and the ugly of the ancients’ contribution to the modern Western world, and it is accessible enough to make it a useful recommendation to A Level students of Classical Civilisation or Ancient History; there is an excellent bibliography that provides ample scope for further research and its synthesis of many ancient sources will help to build a clear understanding of how they were received at the time, and their enduring importance.
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