Ancient Greece and Rome have long been considered the parents of Western civilisation. But the ancient world was a very wide one, of conversation, commerce and theft, sex, war and enslavement. It was this restless global contact that built the West.

Why did Macedonian generals steal elephants from India to rule new realms? How did the lewd graffiti left by foreign workers in Egypt form the basis of the alphabet? In a voyage through space and time, from the Levant of 2000 BC to the dawn of the Age of Exploration, Josephine Quinn rewrites the story of the West - and in doing so, offers us a new history of our shared past.

'A truly encyclopaedic and monumental account of the ancient world' The Times 'Full of little gem-likes shifts of perspective' Guardian 'Scintillates with its focus on the unexpected' Economist 'A work of great confidence, empathy, learning and imagination' Rory Stewart 'This is, in every way, a big book' TLS