This book on ancient Greek intellectuals is by Charles Freeman. While he lists no academic credentials, he does state some experience on archeological digs surrounding the Mediterranean.
The book consists of 20 stand-alone chapters, each on a particular personage, plus several other chapters that set the scene as each age of ancient times passes away to make way for the new. No pretense is made here to advance new theories or reveal discoveries. Rather, each chapter can best be considered as an extended Wikipedia entry, with one difference. On Wikipedia, specific claims are attached to specific sources. Here, the bibliography for each chapter (at the end of the book) lists the sources, with no indication as to which bit of data comes from which source.
Even so, the chapters give a very fine synopsis of what each person did, within the span of 550 years he considers. Freeman is careful not to make outlandish claims, and his sober assessment would serve as welcome introduction to any avid historical reader of ancient times.
He covers very famous names (Strabo, Plutarch, Galen, Ptolemy) and many that only avid scholars would recognize (Aelius Aristides, Themistius, Libianus, Pausanias). Most entries are 7-10 pages long, making this a book one can dip into as a basic reference source rather than a fully-formed narrative of ancient Greek contributions to medicine, astronomy, literature and science. On the subject of science, his assessment of the accuracy of Eratosthenes’ measurement if Earth’s circumference is incorrect. He states the measurement was “at most 17 percent out.” In reality, recent research by Christopher Matthew has shown Eratosthenes was in error by only 0.8%. For this, see my review of Matthew’s book in the Journal of Astronomical History & Heritage:
https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2024.03.35
There is a nice selection of colour plates in the book, with a total of 20 images. This would make a nice gift for any high school student interested in ancient history.The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome 150 BC-400 AD is by Pegasus Books. It lists for $32.
image: Eratosthenes