Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World

Forgotten People of the Ancient World by Phillip Matyszak

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This is a fun book. It is not a particularly deep book, but it's not intended to be deep. Instead, the author, Phillip Matyszak, seems to be going for a popular appeal by making it succinct, light, occasionally humorous, and broad.

The book covers four broad sweeps of time: (a) the First Civilizations, (b) from Akkad to Alexander; (c) the peoples wiped out by Rome, and (d) the people who brought down Rome. So, with that inventory, the book starts in the Mid-East and gradually makes it way west until the final entry returns us to the Persian-Indian border with the White Huns, aka the Hephthalites.

As a history lover, I've often read these names in passing without giving them more thought than I would a background character in Shakespeare. This was an interesting “backgrounder” to situate these people in their historical context as individuals.