Follows the history of the world's early civilizations from the first farmers of the Middle East to the rise of empires in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Includes detailed reconstructions of life in the ancient world, factfinders, time chart, who's who, mythology, and details of recent archaeological finds.

The Dialogues of Plato, written between 427 and 347 b.c., rank among the most important and influential works in Western thought. Most famous are the first four, in which Plato casts his teacher Socrates as the central disputant in colloquies that brilliantly probe a vast spectrum of philosophical ideas and issues. Socrates' ancient words are still true, and the ideas found in Plato's Dialogues still form the foundation of a thinking person's education....

"For eons, the city of Troy--whose legendary fall was detailed in Homer's Iliad--was believed to be myth, until archaeologists in the nineteenth century uncovered its ancient walls buried beneath the sands. If Troy was real, how much of Homer's twin tales of gods and monsters, curses and miracles--the Iliad and the Odyssey--could also be true and awaiting discovery? In the frozen tundra of Greenland, a group of modern-day researchers stumble on a...

"Overwhelmed by the responsibilities of running a ranch on her own, Laurel Tracey decides to hire a convict--a man who's just scary enough to take care of squatters and just desperate enough to agree to a one year post. The years following the war have been hard on Laurel Tracey. Both her brother and her father died in battle, and her mother passed away shortly after receiving word of their demise. Laurel has been trying to run her two hundred acre...

Virgil's epic poem in verse translation describing the fall of Troy.

"During the infamous eruption of Mount Vesuvius, one boy struggles to escape. Can he survive the most devastating disaster of ancient times? In this thrilling addition to the bestselling I SURVIVED series, readers are taken back to antiquity with a young boy trying to escape as the giant Mount Vesuvius erupts. Does he have what it takes to survive the epic destruction of Pompeii?" Reading level: grade 4

Connecticut middle-schooler Jake and his older sister Kady are transported by a Mayan artifact to a strange world inhabited by a mix of people from long-lost civilizations who are threatened by prehistoric creatures and an evil alchemist, the Skull King.

"Over fifty of the most fascinating accounts of history's greatest unsolved mysteries"--Page 4 of cover.