Best books on Ancient Greece (and Rome)

[evolvedForm]

I'm looking to expand my knowledge of the ancients and I wanted to see if the loungers had any recommendations. To make this post loungeworthy, I'll make small reviews of books I'm currently reading.

Edith Hamilton's "Mythology": This book so far is very well written, tells the myths in a delightful way, and provides a wealth for the imagination.

"The Oxford History of Greece and the Classical World": Several sections are interesting but others are not very well written. The chapter on the Pelopenesian War combined very general information and very specific, pointless (to the general reader) facts. I would have preferred middle ground, and an interesting narrative. What is a good book on the Peloponesian War?

I generally don't like edited works with different authors so I should have expected that.


I'm also reading an assortment of Greek tragedies by Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus. They are, as to be expected, fantastic. And though my boy Nietzsche has fightin words for Euripides, I still like him.


I'm looking for the so-called classics (like Edith Hamilton's) and other well-written, substantial yet not esoteric, works, preferably in the areas of literature, culture, history, and war.