THE FOLIO SOCIETY

Empires of the Ancient Near East is a lavishly illustrated chronicle of the four major civilisations to emerge between the end of the Stone Age and the advent of Hellenistic Greece, encompassing the invention of the wheel and the building of the earliest cities.

Empires of Early Latin America charts the empires which dominated Central and South America before the arrival of the Europeans. As their art and architecture indicates, the Maya, the Aztecs and the Incas were bold and brilliant people, and these books bring them superbly to life.

The Hittites
The emergence of the Hittites from Old Testament lore is the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century. From the 15th to the 13th centuries BC the Hittites were a major force in the near east. At its height their empire stretched across Anatolia and most of Syria, and their influence was felt far beyond these territorial boundaries. Through close analysis of cuneiform and hieroglyphic texts, O. R. Gurney is able to give us a detailed picture of their lifestyle, laws and customs as well as their military achievements.

The Persians
Persia was the first superpower of the ancient world. Her history is one of ceaseless campaigning, conquest, subjugation and revolt, dominated by the warrior–kings – Cyrus the Great, Cambyses, Darius and Xerxes. When Cambyses conquered Egypt in 525 BC, the empire was more vast and formidable than any seen before, stretching from the Nile to Afghanistan. J. M. Cook's authoritative history reveals the military strategies by which Persia reached her position of unprecedented greatness and the infrastructure by which she maintained it, until Darius III was finally defeated by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

The Egyptians
Ever since Herodotus, ‘the father of history’, described the wonders of Egypt as numbering more than those of any other land, the ancient Egyptians have been held in awe by the rest of the world. Their monuments are of such staggering scale, power and beauty – the Valley of the Kings, the Tomb of Tutankhamun, the Pyramids – that their very existence dumbfounds us; their society so sophisticated that it defies belief. Tracing the history of the land of the Pharaohs from the Old Kingdom, through the Ramesside period to eventual surrender to Persian Rule in 525 BC, Sir Alan Gardiner's account of this advanced culture is both erudite and engaging.

The Babylonians
The Hanging Gardens and the Tower of Babel have immortalised the city-state of Babylon. H. W. F. Saggs takes us beyond the legends to trace the emergence of Sumer, Agade and the Assyrian empire, describing laws and learning – including the earliest systems of astronomy, astrology and mathematics – and providing a privileged insight into one of antiquity's most celebrated civilisations.

The Maya by Norman Hammond
As early as 1588 a Spanish friar had marvelled at the mighty ruins of Uxmal, but it was not until 1839, when John Stephens, an American travel writer, and Frederick Catherwood, an English architect, set out to explore the lost jungle cities in depth that the full splendour of the Maya was discovered.

At the turn of the last century, the Maya hieroglyphic script began to be deciphered and large-scale excavations began. Norman Hammond's account reveals the sophistication of the Mayan civilization, which reached its apogee between 250 and 900 AD.

The Aztecs by Nigel Davies
For the armies of Hernan Cortes, marching down the causeway that joined the fabled city of Tenochtitlan to the mainland, it was as if they were approaching 'another Venice'. Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), with its great towers and temples, was the hub of the vast Aztec empire ruled over by Motecuzoma II.

The Aztecs were warriors: they had arrived in the area as nobodies at the beginning of the 14th century, built an empire on their skill as mercenaries and maintained it by exacting tribute from their vassal states.

It is a combination of sophistication and barbarism that makes the Aztecs so endlessly fascinating - that, and the poignancy of Motecuzoma's defeat in 1521 at the hands of Cortes and his conquistadores.

The Incas by Nigel Davies
The Inca empire was founded on rapid expansion over a huge area. Radiating outwards from the capital at Cuzco in southern Peru, it spread as far as Ecuador and Argentina.

The Incas were great road-builders, using a 12,500 mile network to move rebellious populations round the empire, with messengers running the length of these roads bringing intelligence to their masters. Like the Aztecs, the Incas were brought down by a small group of Spaniards. Nigel Davies's history of the Incas is widely regarded as definitive.