As the name suggests, this book brings you an overview of 36 identified Greek ‘territories’, after the disintegration of the empire built up by Alexander the Great.
Starting with Pyrrhus, the king of Epiros, the book also provides an overview of the conquests of Alexander and the Hellenistic Age, Byzantine Empire, Trebizond, Ionian Republic and many more.
“The Greek world was never about mainland Greece, it was always much bigger,” notes Greek Australian author Billy Cotsis, who has also penned The Many Faces of Hellenic Culture.
“The Hellenes travelled in search of colonies, new territories and empires. They founded hundreds of colonies and territories in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Africa and Asia.”
A number of these survive to this day, with many of their inhabitants speaking a dialect of Greek and maintaining differing aspects of Hellenic culture.
“It is important that we never forget how far the Hellenes were able to reach, and in many cases directly rule, vast territories far beyond the Greek heartland,” Cotsis emphasises.
The book’s chapters are connected by the brilliant writer Thucydides; he is the reason why history is written the way it is today.
Thucydides was an exiled Athenian general in the fifth century who decided to write a balanced account of the Peloponnesian War.
In order to create Thucydides as a connector, and in a nod to the ancient paganistic rituals of the Hellenes, the god Apollo casts a spell on Thucydides to live for eternity.
Thucydides travels around the world documenting the Greek places he discovers until he gets to the modern age, by which time you the reader will have had an entry point to the incredible array of Greek territories that existed and shape our destiny. From Pyrrhus to Cyprus is a tribute to his skill and balance as a writer.
* Billy Cotsis was first published in 1995 in the Greek media in Sydney. Since then he has featured in dozens of publications on four continents and is the author of over 120 articles. In 2013 he began developing short film projects. His first book sold out two editions and he occasionally delivers a lecture series based on his previous book, The Many Faces of Hellenic Culture.