Christian Meier, Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at the University of Munich, is the author of Caesar: A Biography, Athens: A Portrait of the City in Its Golden Age, and From Athens to Auschwitz: The Uses of History.

"Christian Meier is one of the most celebrated ancient historians writing today."--Times Higher Education Supplement

The book consists of two major parts. The first one explores the origins of the concept of Europe. Meier shows how modern western civilization is both based on and separate from that of Greco-Roman antiquity.... Part 2... covers the development of Greek civilization from the collapse of the Mycenaean state-system around 1200 BCE down to the wars against the Persians in the early fifth century BCE.... Meier is probably the single most distinguished ancient historian in Germany.... This is a beautifully written book that manages to meld different aspects of Greek history and civilization into a coherent narrative. The main strength is the seemingly effortless fusion of political, cultural, and social history....The volume addresses a general audience with no prior knowledge of Greek history but is so well-crafted and insightful that it should also be of interest to students and academics.--Walter Scheidel, Professor of Classics, Stanford University

"Meier reminds us of the huge debt that Europe owes to the Greeks - a painfully ironic message at a time when modern Greece, unable to pay its debts, contemplates an exit from the European Union"--The Wall Street Journal

"A wide-sweeping argument that locates an essential aspect of European culture in the distinctiveness of ancient Greece from the other large empires found both before and after it." --Philosophy in Review