Rating: 
Summary:
Salamis Toward Athens
Review:
As noted by a number of reviewers, this DVD should have been called "The Athenians". The program suffers from a lack of detail despite its narrow focus.
The program uses shots of (I guess) live models standing stock still, in order to provide some kind of image of various characters from Athenian history who are profiled. The classical Athenians are portrayed as backstabbing turncoats, but still, the characters come and go for the most part without any kind of before and after history. Socrates is an exception, but literally everyone knows that story already, so no new ground is covered.
Themistocles, the genius behind Athens' naval victory over the Persians, was "ostracized" after his success -- a sign that the "democracy" of Athens was really just another fascist oligarchy -- and eventually wound up living in honor among his former enemies, the Persians. His ostracism is mentioned, but his ultimate fate in the Persian Empire is not. It would have taken an additional five or ten seconds.
The same can be said about the actions of another estranged Athenian, one who gave Sparta the key to success against Athens. Perhaps another ten or twenty seconds would have sufficed.
At one point during the war, Sparta sued for peace. The "democratic" government of Athens refused to parley. And as it imposed more and more tribute on the so-called Delian League, more and more of the tributary towns dumped Athens or even jumped to the Spartan side.
The "democracy" existed just long enough to start a major war with a view to a swift victory, then turn down the victory, and even widen the war, suffering a major defeat in the process, and eventually losing everything.
We see almost nothing regarding other Greek cities, even Sparta, the city on which Athens made war. The pretext for the war arose from something else entirely, and was the result of something Sparta did (as well as its political system), but this is not discussed in the video.
The video "The Spartans" [B0000C508X] deals strictly with the Greek city of Sparta, with an entire "episode" on the Peloponnesian War. Despite its focus on a single city, "The Spartans" does a better job of giving a real picture of life and politics in classical Greece. If you get "The Greeks", be sure to get "The Spartans" in order to see more of the picture, including important details of their struggle with Athens that are omitted from "The Greeks".
I do not agree that there was a lot to Sparta. It wasn't a sophisticated place at all. Besides the oppressive social structure, the mandatory buggery, the racism / elitism, the eugenics program, the enslavement of its neighbors for centuries, the employment of women as baby machines, and its defeat of Athens, followed by its defeat at the hands of its neighbor, there's little to know about Sparta. But boy, what an interesting and frightening story.
The Persians dealt piecemeal with the Greeks as much as possible. That strategy worked in Anatolia and elsewhere. The Greek city-states managed some major defeats of the Persians alone or by alliances, but on the other hand savaged each other using the Persians either as a pretext (the Delian League) or as an ally (Sparta, in the denouement of the Peloponnesian War). None of this is explained in the DVD, and again, it wouldn't have added significantly to the length.
"The Greeks" is a little on the repetitive side, and heavy on irrelevant modern graphics, possibly because it was intended for school aged viewers. The narrator's voice comes off as a little pompous in my opinion, and the soundtrack is ponderous. It's worth having around as an introduction to the city of Athens, provided this isn't the only thing in your video library. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary:
Salamis Toward Athens
Review:
As noted by a number of reviewers, this DVD should have been called "The Athenians". The program suffers from a lack of detail despite its narrow focus.
The program uses shots of (I guess) live models standing stock still, in order to provide some kind of image of various characters from Athenian history who are profiled. The classical Athenians are portrayed as backstabbing turncoats, but still, the characters come and go for the most part without any kind of before and after history. Socrates is an exception, but literally everyone knows that story already, so no new ground is covered.
Themistocles, the genius behind Athens' naval victory over the Persians, was "ostracized" after his success -- a sign that the "democracy" of Athens was really just another fascist oligarchy -- and eventually wound up living in honor among his former enemies, the Persians. His ostracism is mentioned, but his ultimate fate in the Persian Empire is not. It would have taken an additional five or ten seconds.
The same can be said about the actions of another estranged Athenian, one who gave Sparta the key to success against Athens. Perhaps another ten or twenty seconds would have sufficed.
At one point during the war, Sparta sued for peace. The "democratic" government of Athens refused to parley. And as it imposed more and more tribute on the so-called Delian League, more and more of the tributary towns dumped Athens or even jumped to the Spartan side.
The "democracy" existed just long enough to start a major war with a view to a swift victory, then turn down the victory, and even widen the war, suffering a major defeat in the process, and eventually losing everything.
We see almost nothing regarding other Greek cities, even Sparta, the city on which Athens made war. The pretext for the war arose from something else entirely, and was the result of something Sparta did (as well as its political system), but this is not discussed in the video.
The video "The Spartans" [B0000C508X] deals strictly with the Greek city of Sparta, with an entire "episode" on the Peloponnesian War. Despite its focus on a single city, "The Spartans" does a better job of giving a real picture of life and politics in classical Greece. If you get "The Greeks", be sure to get "The Spartans" in order to see more of the picture, including important details of their struggle with Athens that are omitted from "The Greeks".
I do not agree that there was a lot to Sparta. It wasn't a sophisticated place at all. Besides the oppressive social structure, the mandatory buggery, the racism / elitism, the eugenics program, the enslavement of its neighbors for centuries, the employment of women as baby machines, and its defeat of Athens, followed by its defeat at the hands of its neighbor, there's little to know about Sparta. But boy, what an interesting and frightening story.
The Persians dealt piecemeal with the Greeks as much as possible. That strategy worked in Anatolia and elsewhere. The Greek city-states managed some major defeats of the Persians alone or by alliances, but on the other hand savaged each other using the Persians either as a pretext (the Delian League) or as an ally (Sparta, in the denouement of the Peloponnesian War). None of this is explained in the DVD, and again, it wouldn't have added significantly to the length.
"The Greeks" is a little on the repetitive side, and heavy on irrelevant modern graphics, possibly because it was intended for school aged viewers. The narrator's voice comes off as a little pompous in my opinion, and the soundtrack is ponderous. It's worth having around as an introduction to the city of Athens, provided this isn't the only thing in your video library. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: The Greeks - Crucible of Civilization
Review: All would be fine if they just changed the name of the DVD. Correct name should be Athens instead of Greeks.When you set that aside, it`s really joyful DVD to watch, musical background is superb,as is narrator.Some things could be better , and in my opinion it could be less biased.Especially that rose picture about Athenian democracy.It should be said that Sparta was democracy also, although of different kind , unlike that of Athens which was basically mob rule.The picture of Spartans as savage and unsophisticated people is false , misleading and outright false. I could go on and on , but for somebody that intends to have some quality casual time ,watch the story about great civilization without thinking to much , this is great DVD. If you want to now the truth, to know more , than books and plenty of reading will be needed.
Rating: 
Summary: Aspasia! Aspasia!
Review: Fabulous review of Ancient Greece that takes you right into the Cothurni (SHOOZ, as Dr. Science says) of Aristotle, helots, Plato, Socrates, Pericles, and the ancient world's most notorious woman...Aspasia. Yes!
Women don't get a lot of press in the ancient world and certainly the spotlight on Pericles' main squeeze was welcome. The visiuals and sounds make you feel as though you've traveled back in time.
Rating:
Summary: Great train ride into history but I wanted to stop and look
Review: Great photography with a good overview but I would like to have had some indepth discussions on the literature and politics of Athens and Sparta, etc. You truly feel like you're on a train ride through Greek (Athens) history. You go from one conflict to another. I really wanted this train to stop so that I could get off and look around, savor the local literary, social and political climate. I would like to have been drawn into what made Greece the "Crucible of Civilization". I'm sorry to say that I didn't get that from this dvd.
Rating:
Summary: Generally good, very viewer-friendly
Review: I believe this is the first of the "Empires" series on PBS, and as such has a few rough edges that were smoothed out in later productions. The first weak spot is that it could be better focused in terms of time. Even though the time frame isn't all that wide, it somehow seems more sprawling than it should be. And as others have pointed out, it tries to include all of Greece, while in fact staying fairly close to Athens. I was also less than thrilled with the fact that when discussing one of their selected "great men" of Greece, the camera zooms in and holds on an actor standing like a living statue. And holds. And sweeps in again. And holds. Gets tedious... aren't there other visuals you could use?These points aside, this really is a good documentary. There is a nice variety of info, from military issues, to philosophy, politics, trade, and art. The production values are stellar, the visuals generally fine, the narration excellent, and the info solid. Armchair historians will most likely enjoy this DVD, and I'm fairly sure younger viewers will be attracted to it as well. Overall, a solid DVD, and a good start to a series that has gotten progressively better.
Rating:
Summary: Generally good, very viewer-friendly
Review: I believe this is the first of the "Empires" series on PBS, and as such has a few rough edges that were smoothed out in later productions. The first weak spot is that it could be better focused in terms of time. Even though the time frame isn't all that wide, it somehow seems more sprawling than it should be. And as others have pointed out, it tries to include all of Greece, while in fact staying fairly close to Athens. I was also less than thrilled with the fact that when discussing one of their selected "great men" of Greece, the camera zooms in and holds on an actor standing like a living statue. And holds. And sweeps in again. And holds. Gets tedious... aren't there other visuals you could use? These points aside, this really is a good documentary. There is a nice variety of info, from military issues, to philosophy, politics, trade, and art. The production values are stellar, the visuals generally fine, the narration excellent, and the info solid. Armchair historians will most likely enjoy this DVD, and I'm fairly sure younger viewers will be attracted to it as well. Overall, a solid DVD, and a good start to a series that has gotten progressively better.
Rating:
Summary: Generally good, very viewer-friendly
Review: I believe this is the first of the "Empires" series on PBS, and as such has a few rough edges that were smoothed out in later productions. The first weak spot is that it could be better focused in terms of time. Even though the time frame isn't all that wide, it somehow seems more sprawling than it should be. And as others have pointed out, it tries to include all of Greece, while in fact staying fairly close to Athens. I was also less than thrilled with the fact that when discussing one of their selected "great men" of Greece, the camera zooms in and holds on an actor standing like a living statue. And holds. And sweeps in again. And holds. Gets tedious... aren't there other visuals you could use? These points aside, this really is a good documentary. There is a nice variety of info, from military issues, to philosophy, politics, trade, and art. The production values are stellar, the visuals generally fine, the narration excellent, and the info solid. Armchair historians will most likely enjoy this DVD, and I'm fairly sure younger viewers will be attracted to it as well. Overall, a solid DVD, and a good start to a series that has gotten progressively better.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and educational
Review: I recommend this DVD if you're interested in history and/or civilizations. It's both fun and educational and definately worth it's cost!
Rating:
Summary: A never-ending story
Review: I watched this with my eigth-grade history students. After about the fifteenth time the the ship with the large eyes painted on the hull lunged across the screen...sort of a palate cleanser between changes in action...one remarked, "this movie doesn't really have an end, does it?"
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