The Shortest History of Greece

Philosophy, art, democracy, language, even computers - our world has been shaped by the products of Greek civilisation. Yet most of us know little about a people and a place that have given us so much. We may be familiar with Pericles and the Parthenon, but what of Epaminondas, the Theban general who saved the Greek world from Spartan tyranny?

The story of modern Greece, too, is a dramatic tale of triumph and catastrophe, from liberation and expansion through schism and home-grown dictatorship, Nazi occupation and civil war to today's nation - battered by austerity, a transit camp for the casualties of the Middle East, at the frontline of climate change - yet still proud of its values.