Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor cover art

Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor

By: Kenneth W. Harl, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Kenneth W. Harl
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £13.99

Buy Now for £13.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World cover art
Ancient Mesopotamia cover art
The History and Archaeology of the Bible cover art
England: From the Fall of Rome to the Norman Conquest cover art
Ancient Civilizations of North America cover art
Language Families of the World cover art
The Celtic World cover art
1066: The Year That Changed Everything cover art
The Foundations of Western Civilization cover art
What the F cover art
China: A History of China and East Asia 3rd Edition cover art
A History of the World cover art
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World cover art
Guns, Germs and Steel cover art
Sophie's World cover art
The Adventure of English cover art

Summary

Embark on an unforgettable trip into the historical glories of the past with these 24 lectures that immerse you in the history of an often overlooked region of the ancient world.

With Professor Harl as your guide, you'll plunge into the history of Asia Minor's great ancient civilizations and come face to face with eye-opening historical milestones. Among these: the rise of the Hittites, the legendary Trojan War, the birth of Western philosophy, the fiery Greek and Persian Wars, the victories of Alexander the Great, the dawn of the Hellenistic Age, the spread of early Christianity, the golden age of Byzantium, the birth of the Ottoman Empire, and much more.

Cultural change and continuity are the main themes of these lectures. You'll come to see how each successive civilization inherited and modified the political, social, religious, and economic institutions of its predecessor. In fact, the scope of Anatolian history can be best understood as a series of major cultural and religious rewrites: first by the Hittite emperors; then by the elites of Hellenic cities; next by their Hellenized descendants in the Roman age; then by Christian emperors and bishops in the Byzantine age; and, finally, by Turkish rulers and Muslim mystics.

To give you a stronger sense of that continuity (and the various changes that are a part of it), these lectures are organized into five cultural components: Early Anatolia (from 6000 to 500 B.C.), Hellenized Anatolia (from 750 to 31 B.C.), Roman Asia Minor (from 200 B.C. to 395 A.D.), Byzantium (from 395 to 1453), and Islamic Turkey (since 1071).

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2001 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2001 The Great Courses

What listeners say about Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    20
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    18
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    18
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Should have kept to its title

The history of Anatolia is a topic of great interest; indeed, hardly any region of the world has seen greater changes over the last few thousand years.

Compressing all that into 24 lectures can only ever scratch the surface. The course is misnamed in referring to 'Ancient Civilisations'. 'Ancient' might arguably end with The Bronze Age, but in my book it would pretty much end with the Hellenistic period, or the Roman at a stretch. It certainly wouldn't include later Byzantium, the Holy Roman Empire, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders or the Ottomans, all courses in their own right. A 36 or 48 lecture course that kept to the earlier periods would be far more rewarding.

The combination of a shallow survery and Prof Harl's rather dreary presentation meant that I didn't really engage with this course.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • S
  • 12-06-23

Enjoyable

I learned a great deal of history by listening to these informative but short lectures.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A bit condensed

These are great lectures, but told awfully quickly and tersely. Some people may find, like me that its hard to maintain attention and your mind wanders off. BTW lecturer sound like Agent Smart in TV series, Get Smart.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful