Part I. The Question of Beginnings: A most unusual case I: the appropriation of antiquity by medieval and modern Europe; The challenge of freedom; A most unusual case II: the early conditions of the formation of medieval and early modern culture; The constitution of Europe as a continent; Greeks and Persians I: freedom and rule
Atossa's dream; Europe and Asia in antiquity; Antiquity as European prehistory or early history
Part II. The Rise of the World of Poleis: A post-mycenaean new beginning : origins of Greek particularity; The dawn of an era : the eighth century BC; The Greeks and the Orient; Colonization; Homer and Hesiod; Gods and priests; Crisis and consolidation: the seventh and sixth centuries BC; Polis individualism and the pan-Hellenic context: the agonistic impulse; The diversity of the poleis: Sparta and other cities; The wars; Polis structure: public sphere and institutions; Crisis: aristocratic rivalries, social conflict, tyranny; Lyric poetry, the symposium, and a reorientation towards virtue; The beginnings of political thought: the 'middling class' ; The beginnings of philosophy and science; Athens's path towards Isonomy and its rise to power; The Aegean world around 500 BC: Greeks and Persians II; Outlook
Epilogue.