"The best epic saga of the prewar period"
Czesław Miłosz: History of Polish Literature
Nights And Days
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A treasure chest of cult books on Graeco-Roman antiquity by Europe's bestselling author on the subject
Aleksander Krawczuk (1922-2023), was an institution: a scholar, professor a the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, minister of culture of Poland, and author of over 30 immensely popular books on Graeco-Roman antiquity. His delightful accessible, conversational, highly readable style, addressing complex topics in an approachable manner without ever dumbing them down, made antiquity come alive to both professionals and fans but also to ordinary readers who normally take no interest in the period. He even hosted an internationally syndicated TV program on Antiquity. International best-sellers in Eastern Europe, his books have shaped three generations of antique lovers, but, as a consequence of Soviet cultural policies, they appear in English only now. We are publishing a new title every 4-6 weeks. To receive an update every time a new title appears, drop us a line.
Professor Krawczuk in his offce in 1992.
The following titles have appeared already
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 last years of the reign of Theodosius the Great. Here they are, debating topics ranging from the moral consequences of bathing and chariot races to national character and demon possession:
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the zany, crafty, and weird doctors of the Church: Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine
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the caustic and dysphoric historian Ammianus Marcellinus
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three fanatic historians of the Church
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the grumpy rhetorician Libanius
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the blood-thirsty scholar-defenders of the Alexandrian Serapeum
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the author of a rabid anti-Christian diatribe which somehow miraculously survived to our times (The Lives of Sophists)
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and the quirky and mysterious figure of "Jorge Luis Borges of ancient Rome" (Authors of Imperial History)
Quoting richly from various curious, entertaining, and beautiful texts from the period, Professor Krawczuk gives us a broad intellectual survey of the Roman Empire and its leading personalities at the time of the last revolt of the ancient gods. Be entertained. Pick up your copy today.
Meet Apuleius, Rome's all-time best-selling author (of The Golden Ass, no less!), a Platonic scholar, a part-time magician, and a dowry-hunter, as he works on his treatise on Plato at night and schemes to marry a rich African widow by day.
An overview of Plato's life and work as seen through the eyes of an engaging second-century AD Roman provincial, written in a lively, conversational style with occasional--but not too overwhelming--flashes of literary genius.
My personal favorite of all of Krawczuk's books. A feast.
Give yourself a blast. Pick up your copy today.
Before the Trojan War, there was the Theban War.
To the heroes beneath the walls of Troy, the heroes of the Theban War were peerless and unattainable role models. Diomedes, son of Tydeus, so prayed to his goddess Athena:
Hear me, o daughter of Zeus! Stand by me,
as you had once stood by my father,
divine Tydeus, when he went to Thebes!
And King Agamemnon jeered him:
Woe to thee, son of brave Tydeus, the horse-tamer!
Why do you tremble with fear? Why do you glance around,
looking for a route of escape? Your father Tydeus
was not wont to retreat in fear
when he led bronze-clad Argives
against the walls of Thebes!
What was the Theban War? Who fought it? What remains of the Homeric epics which described it? What can archeology tell us? What was its importance and meaning for the next forty generations of Greeks and Romans?
Pick up this book today and escape into... intelligent pleasure.
Get A Great Deal on the First Three Books!
This Aleksander's Antiquities Starter Bundle is the perfect way to begin your journey into Krawczuk's wonderful world. Featuring a hardcover edition of the first three books in the series, this bundle is the perfect starter pack for any fan of the Sage of Kraków.
The following will appear in 2023:
THE JEWISH TRILOGY
From the last flowering of Israel to the final fall of Jerusalem. Herod, an Idumean, and therefore at best a second-class Jew, builds the last Jewish empire in the Middle East at a phenomenal cost in treasure, and blood, and terror. His pious granddaughter maintains it through a sinful liaison with the much younger, uncircumcised son of the future emperor of Rome, a liaison lovingly depicted in literature over the subsequent millennia. Yet, in the end, purity of blood and purity of cult will win the cultural wars in Palestine and--destroy the Jewish state for the next two thousand years. Read not just the history of the events, but the rich ethnic, intellectual, and spiritual panorama of the Middle East of the day: who was Simon the Magician? who were the Idumeans? could a temple in Egypt have possibly replaced the Temple of Jerusalem? did Jews inspire the Vespasian revolt? and who was the god Thoth?
THE CHRISTIAN TRILOGY
From the first legal recognition of the new cult to its last persecution. Constantine, a worshipper of a now forgotten god, Sol Invictus, undergoes a stunning conversion and becomes the first Christian Emperor of the Roman Empire. In the next 30 years, he and his sons will commit countless acts of wickedness, cruelty, and iniquity while showering largesse and administrative benefits on the new faith--benefits which will allow that faith to grow, harden, shake off the Julian persecution; and then rule Europe for the next two thousand years. Read not just the history, but the thinkers and writers of the age--politicians, historians, poets, theologians, prophets, weirdos--both those who triumphed and those who lost.
Our other great series on the antique:
The best-selling Bronze Age Saga: 1600 BC a Minoan ship sails to the ends of the world in search of the sources of amber:
The Thrice banned Roman Trilogy that rocked the Soviet Block:
And 570 BC: two wildly entertaining and humorous adventures set in the Greek Iron Age:
