Children of Achilles: The Greeks in Asia Minor since the Days of Troy

by John Freely

Overview

I remember still:

He was journeying to Ionian coasts, to empty shells of theatres, where only the lizard slithers over the dry stones, and I asked him: 'Will they ever be full again some day?' and he answered: 'Maybe at the hour of death' And he ran across the orchestra howling, 'Let me hear my brother!'

And the silence surrounding us was harsh, Leaving no trace at all on the glass of the blue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845119416
Publisher:	I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd
Publication date:	04/13/2010
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

John Freely (1926 - 2017) was born in New York and joined the US Navy at the age of seventeen, serving during the last two years of World War II. He had a PhD in physics from New York University and did post-doctoral studies in the history of science at Oxford. He was for many years professor of physics at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, where he taught physics and the history of science. He wrote more than forty books, including Light from the East: How the Science of Medieval Islam Helped Shape the Western World (I.B.Tauris, 2010), The Grand Turk, Storm on Horseback, Children of Achilles, The Cyclades,The Ionian Islands (all I.B.Tauris), Crete, The Western Shores of Turkey, Strolling through Athens, Strolling through Venice and the bestselling Strolling through Istanbul (all Tauris Parke Paperbacks).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Prologue - The Trojan Plain xi

1 The Achaeans in Anatolia 1

2 The Great Migration 10

3 The Archaic Renaissance 21

4 The Persian Wars 34

5 Between East and West 42

6 Alexander's Dream 52

7 Alexander's Successors 66

8 Roman Rule and Revelation 81

9 New Rome 93

10 The Age of Justinian 107

11 Medieval Byzantium 118

12 Seljuk Turks and Crusaders 127

13 The Latin Occupation 138

14 The Sons of Osman 148

15 The Fall of Byzantium 162

16 The Tide of Conquest Turns 173

17 Tourkokrateia and the Rhomaioi 189

18 Megali Idea and Catastrophia 203

19 Exodus and Diaspora 214

20 Ionian Elegy 224

Source Notes 235

Bibliography 247

Index 259

Editorial Reviews

*A dynamic narrative* — Paul Watkins, Anglo-Hellenic Review
 
Praise for Aladdin's Lamp:

“A sinuous odyssey . . . Freely chronicles the transmission of scientific ideas from ancient Greece and Rome to an early modern Europe on the cusp of the scientific revolution.” –Booklist

“Freely extensively documents Islamic works that gave us words like algebra and algorithm and dusted off the even more ancient Hindu numerals now universally employed.” –Kirkus

“Informative and intriguing . . . Freely shows how Western science developed in relation to–and in controversy with–ancient Greek ideas about matter, light, motion and the structure of the heavens.” –Publishers Weekly
 

Praise for Strolling through Istanbul
*A classic. The best travel guide to Istanbul.*—The Times

 
“A guide book that reads like a novel.” – William F. Buckley, The New York Times 
 

From the Publisher