The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens and Rome;

Peter Connolly's marvelous full-color drawings of the public and private structures of Athens and Rome are the perfect illustrative counterpart to his detailed description of city life (cowritten by Hazel Dodge) in the classical era. The Ancient City covers the Greece of the golden years of Athens (approximately the 4th to 3rd centuries B.C.), and the Roman Empire from the reign of Augustus to the reign of Septimius Severus (27 B.C. to A.D. 211). In addition to such monuments as the Parthenon and the Colosseum, adolescent readers--and adults just beginning to study the ancient world--can learn about the two era's different forms of government, contemporary fashions, home life, and entertainment.