The Greeks

What a fantastic 2 and a half hours this was. Highly educational account of Greek culture and society from when it started, until it's relevance today. Extremely comprehendible for any audience; I'm not sure how it could receive any BAD reviews (bogus-bogus-one).

I am a student of history and watched the full series with interest, only to be appalled at the incorrect history outlined. It depicts Macedonia, Mycea, Persia and others as being part of Greece ! It says Alexander the Great spread 'Greek culture' to the vast regions of his empire. Alexander was NOT Greek. He was Macedonian. Conquerors do not become the nationality of the conquered. It is like saying Germany is Polish. "Greek" and 'Magna Graecia" were names the Romans gave to the foreign settlers on Italian soil from Sparta, Athens and other city states. There was no Greece until the 19th Century, merely 200 years ago. Thus Greece and Magna Graecia in the series were not countries. The 'greeks" on Italian soil were entries in the population census of the Romans; they had settled in coastal Italy to escape their local tyrants, famine and rebellion. The Roman name for these settlers and refugees has stuck to this day.

I'm generally interested in ancient Greece so when I ran across an old recording of this series I thought I'd give it a try. It didn't take long before I began experiencing the disappointment. This show is using what I call the "multiple expert" format. Where it switches between video clips and brief commentaries by multiple personalities. It's been getting more popular as it a fast & cheap way to generate content. If you watch the science or history channels you've probably seen a few examples. Fast & cheap isn't necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, in this case it appears no attempt was made at achieving any kind of quality.The content was all "fluff". The pacing and editing was atrocious.It's what I would expect from a middle school student ADD. (or maybe that was the target audience)? Save yourself... watch something else.

Not only do they not know Greek history, they butcher it for an effing payday, because cowards will always be cowards. Forget these stupid people that make stuff up. Greeks are proud people, dominated throughout history by non Greeks. They -never- got their own again after the Athen's led legion failed. Their infighting is why they were never a power in the ancient times.

I have to add more, before being rejected.

Athens was a body to be reckoned with, so long as you went through the Aegaen Sea (sp). Otherwise they got their stuff whooped..badly. (pre-Roman interference).

I had to heavily modify this post because I don't pay to have their stuff sucked. Because this site is ran by a bunch of gay cowards.

If this was a history lesson in school it would be deemed unfit. Rating this high means a lack of knowledge of history. It has already been proven that the Sumerians are the earliest culture to invent all that is claimed by the Greeks in this series. The Sumerians lived in CITIES by 5300 BC, or earlier, had a god who saved mankind, they invented democracy etc, and the Greeks copied it. So did the Egyptians. It was Rome that brought everything to the next level. Visit Rome and you will see a thriving, cultural, business, international city. Visit Athens and you have a snap shot of its short history long, long ago. Classical Greece lasted one century, and it encompasses the lifetimes of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Socrates was put to death for his philosophies by the Athenians themselves! They burned his teachings, and all we know of them is what Plato, his student remembered,. Plato's student was Aristotle. Aristotle's student was Alexander the Great, who then conquered Greece. That's 100 years.