Quotes from Roderick Beaton

The whole of the Middle East, up to the River Tigris, was returned to Roman rule.

Philip was ideally suited to lead the expedition against the Persian 'barbarians'.

Crete is home to an advanced civilisation that will be dubbed 'Minoan'

A syllabary is a system in which each syllable of the language is represented by its own sign.

In 260 CE, the emperor Valerian was taken prisoner, along with much of his army, while campaigning against them.

the island's legendary king, Minos, when its remains are discovered three and a half millennia later.

It also meant that no state could legislate

One of the first Greek words to be recognised in Linear B was represented

beyond its own borders without encroaching on the autonomy of another.

the four characters: ti-ri-po-de, meaning 'two tripods'.)

A mere forty years after the death of Basil II, Byzantium found itself faced with new and aggressive enemies on all sides during the 1060s:

The Minoans at this time had spread their influence right across the southern Aegean.

Instead, the Greeks looked elsewhere. The writing system that eventually caught their attention had been developed

previous centuries by the Phoenicians living on the Levantine seaboard.

mere forty years after the death of Basil II, Byzantium found itself faced with new and aggressive enemies

The Phoenician script was in effect a syllabary.

On the occasions when city-states did work together, it was usually in temporary alliances for mutual self-protection.

on all sides during the 1060s:

by leaving out the vowels, it had the great advantage of reducing the number of signs to just over twenty.

in the full Assembly.

in the Eastern Harbour of Alexandria. These include statues of Egyptian gods

Seljuk Turks in the east, Normans in the west, and in the north the latest nomadic groups

The Semitic signs were given names that served as mnemonics for the respective sounds: alf, bet, and so on.

And all officeholders, whether chosen by lot or elected, were held closely to account.