Macedonia, kingdom of Philip II and his son Alexander the Great, the greatest conqueror the world has known, has a turbulent history and a rich artistic tradition from antiquity to the present day. This volume offers a concise review of all the periods in Macedonian history and the abundant artistic creations and monuments in the region.

In this book leading Greek and foreign scholars, authorities on Classical Antiquity, discuss the personality and achievements of Philip II, King of Macedon, unifier of Ancient Greece and father of Alexander the Great, while also presenting the history, arts and culture of the Macedonian kingdom during the 4th century BC.

The discovery at Vergina in 1976, of the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, was hailed worldwide as one of the greatest archaeological achievements of the 20th century. In this volume the excavator himself, renowned Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronicos, vividly describes the progress of the excavation and the wealth of wonderful finds recovered from the royal tomb.

Initiated in Greece during the 8th century BC, the Olympic Games were the major athletic event in Antiquity. This volume, the only illustrated work dealing exclusively with the Olympic Games, covers all aspects of them, with a separate section devoted to the development of each contest: running, jumping, discus and javelin throwing, boxing, wrestling etc. The text is accompanied by figures of some of the greatest masterpieces of Classical art, which drew much of its inspiration from sport and the beauty of the human body in athletic competition.

EPIRUS, 4000 years of Greek History and Civilization is the second volume in the series " Greek Lands in History", the first volume of which, MACEDONIA, has already appeared, and which will include four more, devoted to Thrace, Asia Minor, Cyprus and the Aegean Islands. The series marks a new departure in the international bibliography, in that it presents the continuous presence over time of the Hellenism in six major border areas, each of which developed its own historical and cultural tradition, but exercised a decisive influence on the Greek culture as a whole

At a time when man wass still in the initial stage of his civilization and his thought had not yet consciously come to serve objective truth, the resort to myth was the only way to supply an answer to the questions which exercised him, to interpret natural phenomena, and to preserve what he himself had seen, experienced and imagined and thought should not be forgotten. Particularly in the case of those myths which deal with human history, it is very likely that there is some kernel of actual history embedded in them, just as it is not impossible that some of the heroes of whom they tell were real people, whether they bore the names ascribed to them or others. Naturally, the tracing of the actual circumstances which gave rise to the creation of each myth is not possible, since the traditions in questions have been enriched with a host of poetical features, but also because the people and the bard who forget the myth did not regard themselves as under any obligation to remain faithful to historical truth.