Historical atlas of the ancient world /

This supplement to Brill's New Pauly (CH, Feb'07, 44-3007; CH, Jul'03, 40-6125) covers the ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world from the third millennium BCE through the end of the Byzantine empire in CE 1453; it is translated from the German original, Historischer Atlas der antiken Welt. The atlas offers 161 full-page maps in color, along with 44 black-and-white insets. Each of the major maps faces a page of text providing context and bibliography (largely drawn from the New Pauly). Arrangement is primarily chronological, although a systematic table of contents allows access by region and theme. The atlas is most useful for maps illustrating cultural and political history: they illustrate such topics as languages, wars, trade routes, the expansion of Christianity, and Germanic migrations. The maps also provide better coverage of the fringes of empire than other historical atlases. For topography, the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, ed. by R. Talbert (CH, Feb'01, 38-3050; CH, Sup'02, 39Sup-0546) remains the definitive work. The maps in the Brill atlas are well done, although the decision to limit them to a single page in some cases has resulted in too small a scale to adequately present the topic. This attractively produced atlas should serve both students and scholars well; its major drawback is price. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. F. W. Jenkins University of Dayton