A philhellene who took part in the Greek war of independence alongside Lord Byron, George Finlay (1799-1875) later published this work on the country's ancient history in 1844. The text covers political, religious and social life in Greece from the Roman conquest of 146 BCE until 717 CE, the beginning of the Isaurian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire. By focusing on the many ways in which Greece differed from Rome, Finlay demonstrates that the Roman Empire was by no means homogenous in terms of culture or political organisation, and that these differences contributed to the more obvious divides between the eastern and western empires, not only in terms of social life and government but also in terms of their ultimate demise. Also reissued in this series are Finlay's History of the Greek Revolution (1861) and his seven-volume History of Greece (1877), covering the period from the Romans to 1864.