A TRAVELER'S GREECE

Author:
William Bonville

Whenever I see the title of a new book on the GraecoRoman world, I whisper to myself, What can this author teach me? After all, I was born on that tiny peninsula which gave us more great civilizations than any other corner of the planet. As a child I used to run to their monumental remains, gape at them, enjoy them, dance among them, sing amidst the rustling pines and read countless books describing and explaining every aspect of their grandeur. Usually I assign a C' grade to such new works.

Bonville's book on the Sicilies and ancient Magna Graecia gained an A.

Then I received A Traveler's Greece. Come on, I said to myself. Can Bonville triumph twice? Nevertheless, I promised myself to read at least the chapter, Athens: Queen City of Hellas. How surprised and ecstatic I was! My beloved and extremely familiar city became exciting in a novel fashion. A new insight here; a minute detail bursting forth like a shooting star there. An original combination of scattered marbles and broken statues form a scintillating constellation somewhere else. So I read one more chapter...and then another...and another...to the end. What a triumph!

~ Panos Bardis, PhD, late Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Toledo; Editor, International Journal of World Peace