Guides: ANCH : Ancient Mediterranean Empires: Overview

Mediterranean Empires

Map by Talessman http://tinyurl.com/owaways
CC BY-SA 3.0 Rome-Seleucia-Parthia 200bc

Companions and Handbook Series

A number of publishers have series of what are called "companions" or "handbooks." These books take a topic within a large field and provide a range of articles covering multiple aspects of that topic. We purchase many of these companions as e-books but some are only available in print. Below you'll find either a link directly to the series or links to browse through the various titles in a series through the Franklin catalog. You'll find the link to an individual e-book in the Franklin catalog.

Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World
Blackwell Introductions to the Classical World
Blackwell Sourcebooks in Ancient History
Oxford Handbooks Online: Classical Studies
A growing collections of essays on a wide range of topics pertinent to classical history. Volumes are searchable across the entire spectrum of Oxford Handbooks, within Classical Studies, or within one volume or chapter. Chapters can be downloaded as PDFs. Try doing a simple search on "empire" to find chapters on individual empires including the multiple stages of the Roman Empire, as well as Persian, Athenian, and Islamic.
Oxford Handbooks Online: Archaeology
The same platform as the Oxford Handbooks above, try searching empire, and then mediterranean.
Brill's Companion to Roman Imperialism
This individual title is part of Brill's History of Warfare series.
Brill's Companion to Ancient Macedon
Bloomsbury Classics Collection
We have just the 2013-2015 collection, search Franklin catalog for more titles in print or online on other platforms.
Cambridge Companions Online
search for "ancient world" to find companions in the Cambridge Companions to the Ancient World series
Cambridge Histories Online
Go to "General History" and then click on the link to "The Cambridge Ancient History"

Subject Phrases and Key Terms

For Persia, use Iran. The subject heading for the history of Persia is

Iran--History--to 640
Iran -- Kings and rulers
Individual Names:
Darius III, King of Persia, -330 B.C.
Alexander, the Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C.
Cyrus
Xenophon
Rome -- Civilization.
Rome -- History -- Empire, B.C. to ...
Rome -- Politics and government
Greece -- History 146 B.C. to ...
Athens (Greece) -- History B.C.
Mediterranean Region--History---to 476

Databases for Articles, Chapters, Books

L'Annee Philologique
The standard database for research in the broad area of Classical Studies. It indexes the current scholarship from over 1,500 journals and as well as books, edited volumes and conference papers.
JSTOR
Try incorporating a "proximity search" into your JSTOR advanced search. Working with two words within quotation marks, a tilda, and a number that represents how close the two words should be together: "persia war"~25 Using "proximity" will help make your JSTOR search more precise. Contains about 50 Classics journals--for most titles, about 3-5 years behind the current issue.
TOCS-IN: Tables of Contents of Journals of Interest to Classicists
provides the tables of contents of a selection of Classics, Near Eastern Studies, and Religion journals, both in text format and through a Web search program. Where possible, links are given with articles of which the full text or an abstract is available online (about 15%).
The project began to archive current tables of contents in 1992, and now contains nearly 200 journals, and over 75,000 articles including articles published since 2012.

Humanities Source
This database indexes a wide range of humanities journals providing their most recently published articles. Only about 30 Classical Studies journals are indexed in this databse, but also about 50 archaeology journals.
Digital Loeb
Digital Loeb provides fully searchable access to the entire bilingual Loeb library of critical editions of Greek and Latin texts. Click on the link for volumes to browse through all the Loeb volume titles, or search by author, title or keywords within the text through basic or advanced search boxes. Search by keyword will take you to links for a chapter or segment from a volume. There will be a link just above the text block of that chapter or segment that will take you to the entire volume. At the bottom of the text block you will see a box that allows you to searcher more deeply into the text you've selected. Online access to the ancient historians.
Oxford Bibliographies Online Classics
An online resource to a wide array of published material. Focused on literary topics, this bibliography includes bibliographic essays covering Aeschylus to Xenophon with many new articles on the way.

Reference Titles: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, etc.

Dictionaries and encyclopedias can be very specialized and may help you with vocabulary, names, dates, variant spellings, concepts, maps, and more.

Oxford Classical Dictionary
Provides coverage of Greek and Roman history, literature, myth, religion, linguistics, philosophy, law, science, art and archaeology, and topics in near eastern studies and late antiquity.
Ancient Greece and Rome online
Provides a comprehensive overview of the major cultures of the classical Mediterranean world--Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman--from the Bronze Age to the fifth century CE.
Encyclopedia of Ancient History Online
This major encyclopedia provides definitions and explanations of the key people, places, and events in ancient history. It spans the late Bronze Age through the seventh century CE and covers the entire ancient Mediterranean world including the Near East and Egypt. Includes statistical data and maps.

More Books

Rome's Revolution: Death of the Republic and Birth of the Empire PRINT by Richard Alston
Call Number: Van Pelt Library DG254 .A47 2015
ISBN: 9780199739769
Publication Date: 2015
The City in the Classical and Post-Classical World online and print by Claudia Rapp and H. A. Drake, editors
Call Number: Van Pelt Library HT114 .C526 2014
ISBN: 9781107032668
Publication Date: 2014
This volume examines the evolving role of the city and citizenship from classical Athens through fifth-century Rome and medieval Byzantium.

Subject Guide

Nick Okrent

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Contact:

Van Pelt Library, room 204

215-573-2217

Subjects: Africana Studies, Asian-American Studies, History, Philosophy, U.S. History

Recent Books on Ancient Empire

Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome online and print by Victor Davis Hanson
Call Number: Van Pelt Library U29 .M26 2010
ISBN: 9780691137902
Publication Date: 2010
Contested Monarchy: integrating the Roman Empire in the fourth century AD Online and Print by Johannes Wienand (Editor)
Call Number: Van Pelt Library DG312 .C57 2015
ISBN: 9780199768998
Publication Date: 2014
Contested Monarchy reappraises the wide-ranging and lasting transformation of the Roman monarchy between the Principate and Late Antiquity.
A History of the Ancient near East, Ca. 3000-323 BC by Marc Van De Mieroop
Call Number: University Museum Library DS62.2 .V34 2016
ISBN: 9781118718162
Publication Date: 2015
follow the link to find options for print and online access to this text