ΤΗΕ SΗΟRΤΕSΤ ΗΙSΤΟRΥ ΟF GRΕΕCΕ

Philosophy, art, democracy, language, even computers – our world has
been shaped by the products of Greek civilisation. Yet most of us know
little about a people and a place that have given us so much. Pericles and
the Parthenon might ring a bell, but what of Epaminondas, the Theban
general who saved the Greek world from Spartan tyranny? Alexander
the Great’s fame has rolled down the centuries, but the glorious
Hellenistic Age that came after him is largely forgotten. ‘Byzantine’
often conjures a vague notion of decadence and deadly intrigue, yet
the 1,000-year empire ruled from Constantinople saved Europe twice
from invasion and was, in fact, Greek.
The story of modern Greece, too, is a dramatic tale of triumph and
catastrophe, from liberation and expansion through schism and home-
grown dictatorship, Nazi occupation and civil war to today’s nation –
battered by austerity, a transit camp for the casualties of the Middle
East, at the front-line of climate change – yet still proud of its values.
In The Shortest History of Greece, James Heneage charts the
odyssey of the Greeks through more than three millennia. As he
does so, he uncovers a vital lesson – one that may just help us fix our
own democracies.