The manual "Rome and Its World" fills a gap in school classical studies, which, for years now, has insisted on its absolute Greek dominance, dismissing with thoughtless arrogance the Romans' share in the formation and tradition of classical education, which has been recognized as the cornerstone of humanities and humanism in the so-called Western world - and beyond.

The science of classical studies coincides, in terms of its dual subject and twin goal, with Greco-Roman antiquity. If the Greek element chronologically preceded and qualitatively functioned as a model, its Roman mediation ensured its practical consolidation and dissemination, albeit with some degree of imperial display and grandiosity. From this perspective, the Roman world constitutes a creative reflection of the Greek world, a mirror that refracts the rays it receives. This meeting of the two worlds (which does not exclude military, political, religious, moral, and aesthetic differences) evolved into a broader cultural reciprocity.

The authoritative historical material is presented in the form of tight or loose narration, as appropriate. It is enriched with calculated doses of fiction. It is often dramatized in competitive dialogues. School didacticism is relieved with humorous anecdotes. Pedantic seriousness is neutralized with catalytic humor. Symbols of Roman world domination refer to contemporary transatlantic ambitions. In short: in this manual, strict philology is reconciled with enjoyable literature. Ultimately, distant Rome is projected into the present as an exemplary synthesis of similarity and difference: Greek roots, its own trunk, mixed foliage.

D. N. Maronitis.