The Last Olympiad: Twilight of Antiquity
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Book Overview
The Serapeum destroyed, the emperor murdered, pagans raise a revolt
The best-selling European author of books on Greaco-Roman antiquity paints a rich and highly readable panorama of the intellectual life of the Roman Empire of the period of the Last Olympic Games of antiquity (AD389-AD393). Here they are, debating topics ranging from the moral consequences of bathing and chariot races to national character and demon possession:
the zany, crafty, and weird doctors of the Church: Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustinethe dyspeptic historian Ammianus Marcellinusthree fanatic historians of the Churchthe grumpy rhetorician Libaniusthe blood-thirsty pagan scholar-defenders of the Alexandrian Serapeumthe author of a rabid anti-Christian diatribe which somehow miraculously survived to our times (The Lives of Sophists)and the quirky and mysterious figure of "Jorge Luis Borges of ancient Rome" (Authors of Imperial History)Aleksander Krawczuk (1922-2023) was a scholar, a professor at the Jagiellonian University, a minister of culture, and a best-selling European author of books on Graeco-Roman antiquity with an international cult following. His intimate and conversational style allowed him to talk about complicated subjects in an accessible way without dumbing them down in the process. His books remain in print in many languages across Europe. And now they finally appear in English.
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