Читать книгу Early Greece - Oswyn Murray - Страница 9

THIS BOOK would have been very different if it had been written at the time of its conception, ten years ago. The difference is due not to myself, but to the work of the archaeologists whose publications I cite: in early Greek history no historian can be unaware of his debt to those who work in the field. If my approach is new, it is because I have tried to emphasize three aspects. Firstly, the role of concepts in history: man lives in his imagination, and his history is the history of ideas. Secondly, the unity of the eastern Mediterranean, and the importance of communication in fostering that unity. Thirdly, the significance of social customs for the understanding of all aspects of history. But it is no longer necessary to justify a book which spends as much space on the drinking habits and the sexual customs of the Greeks as on their political history; since Tolstoy, we have known that the breaking of the wave is the product of forces far out in the ocean of time.

My thanks are due to those who have read and commented on different chapters of the manuscript: Antony Andrewes, Paul Cartledge, John Davies, Penny Murray, Martin Ostwald, Mervyn Popham, Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood – and most of all, for his encouragement in unorthodoxy, to Russell Meiggs. Then to my skilled typist, Mary Bugge. Lastly, to those members of Fontana Paperbacks who have watched over the beginnings, the middle and the achievement of this series: Michael Turnbull (with whom the idea was first formulated), Bob Woodings, Colin Murray, and Helen Fraser – a succession of publishers whose enthusiasm and patience have carried the project through to completion.