今天的欧洲议会门前立着一座欧罗巴的雕像，那是21世纪初克里特岛居民的捐赠，意在彰显小岛在欧洲历史上的地位。毕竟，欧洲得名于传说被宙斯带到克里特岛的欧罗巴，米诺斯文明则得名于她的儿子。然而，欧罗巴神话成为欧洲象征，是19世纪的事；在希腊先民眼中，米诺斯也并非原始文明的创始人。我们对古典世界、对西方文明源头的认知，既源于过往，也出自当下。
驱动古典世界向前发展的，不是我们对他们历史的了解，而是先民们自己对历史的了解。凿出我们如今所说西方文化基石的古希腊人、古罗马人，也有他们的神话，他们的过往，他们自己的记忆和历史。要理解他们的世界，就要先理解他们的记忆。
从公元前第二千年中期到公元5世纪早期，从青铜时代到罗马帝国的一代又一代先民站在当下，回望过去，重构过往，不断定义自己和自己所居的世界。从泥板、遗迹、陶器、著作中，我们探寻跨越两个千年的历史，也探寻记忆留下的痕迹。像今天的我们一样，古时的人讲述、美化、利用着对过去的记忆。而古典欧洲，就诞生于这样层层叠叠的记忆之中。

公元前424-423年的冬季，当伯拉西达袭击安菲玻里城的时候，他正指挥七条雅典战舰驻扎在塔索斯。驻守安菲玻里城的雅典将军攸克利求援于他，他驶往援救；他虽然打败了伯拉西达的军队，救了爱昂，但是他终于没有来得及挽救安菲玻里。安菲玻里的失陷，主要是由于攸克利的疏忽，但是他后来并没有受到处罚，而修昔底德却因此遭到放逐。修昔底德本人对于此事没有作任何辩护。马赛林那斯说，修昔底德是由克里昂的建议，以叛逆的罪名而被放逐的。当时是克里昂最有势力的时候，而且克里昂对安菲玻里的陷落十分愤恨，他提议放逐修昔底德是很有可能的。
从他被放逐到他回国这一段时期内他的生活，我们也完全不知道。唯一可靠的事实是公元前404年以后不久，他回到雅典了；这一点不但他自己的话可以证明，并且他的著作中有许多回国后修订的痕迹，例如他记载了公元前404年雅典及庇里犹斯的城墙的被拆毁，这只有他回到雅典后才可以做得到的。此外其他的事情都是由著作中推测得来的。他自己说到，在这段时期中，他有更多的闲暇来编写他的历史著作，他更有机会得到伯罗奔尼撒方面的消息。事实上也是这样的，自从他被放逐以后，他和雅典断绝了联系，他编写历史的材料主要来自伯罗奔尼撒。

《伊利亚特》以特洛亚战争为题材。战争由“金苹果传说”中特洛亚王子帕里斯裁判造成美女海伦被劫引起，历时十年，史诗主要叙述发生在第十年的五十天左右里的故事。希腊军队统帅阿伽门农的傲慢和贪婪激起军队主将阿基琉斯的愤怒，从而引发了一系列战斗和杀戮。

把柏拉图著作当成戏剧来读，不仅不是时下人们所欣赏的、别出心裁的“创造性背叛”，而恰恰是一种对柏拉图本身的回归。从柏拉图对话的戏剧特征出发去理解柏拉图，既是文本自身构成的要求，也更是进入柏拉图丰富而多元话语系统的前提。既然生活本身不可以一言以蔽之，那么，柏拉图用戏剧而不是用论文来表达自身，也就正是为了更全面、更活生生地呈现问题并提出问题，让大部分人仅仅满足表层生动的故事，让细心而智慧的读者既领悟其中的“微言”也不忽视其“大义“。

Review
An all-male dinner party in Athens in 416 BC, with plentiful wine and attentive serving-girls, seems an unlikely setting for one of the world's greatest treatises on the nature of love. Yet in the Symposium Plato presents a series of witty, erudite and immensely readable speeches on love, in a setting which would be very familiar to the Athenians of the day. Students of classical Greek will delight in Robin Waterfield's fluent yet comfortable translation. His emphasis on accessibility rather than over-literalism has produced a translation sparkling with wit and ideas, which classicists and non-classicists alike will enjoy reading. Waterfield's fascinating introduction to the text provides valuable background to the sexual mores of the time and the social culture of classical Greece. He also examines each speech in detail, elucidating some of the more oblique points of the text to enable the reader to tackle it with confidence. The Greek playwright Agathon has walked off with the laurels at a recent competition, and is celebrating his victory with a select dinner party, or symposium. As he and his guests take their places, they decide to hold back on the amount of wine they consume and talk about love. The guests at the symposium are a mixed bunch of characters, who deliver their speeches in various styles and with different reactions from their appreciative listeners. Agathon's fellow playwright, the comic master Aristophanes, is there, as is Erxymachus, a doctor, and of course Socrates himself, brilliant philosopher and Plato's mentor. The conversation ranges from a declaration of the importance of homoerotic love to Socrates's account of his discussions with the prophetess Diotima, who claimed that we can only achieve true goodness through love. Into this scene of convivial discussion bursts Alcibiades, ex-lover of Socrates, military genius and famous bon viveur with a scandalous reputation. Thrusting himself between Socrates and his latest lover, Agathon, Alcibiades insists on joining in with the discussion but soon digresses and talks about his own love for Socrates. Although some critics have found the gate-crashing Alcibiades's speech sits awkwardly on such profound metaphysical discussion, it reminds the reader of the physical reality of love, while making several pointed references back to earlier speeches. As Waterfield says at the beginning of his introduction, the Symposium should be read at a sitting and re-visited for further enjoyment and insight. Layer after layer of meaning becomes revealed, and this slender dialogue proves to be a box of ever-increasing delights. (Kirkus UK)