Tom Sienkewicz, Capron Professor of Classics at Monmouth College, is the editor of "Ancient Greece," a new three-volume encyclopedia recently published by Salem Press, Inc.

The encyclopedia is an A-Z survey of Greek history and culture from its earliest archaeological remains to the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C.E., when Greek civilization merged with Roman to become Greco-Roman civilization. Greece's ancient history serves as the touchstone for much of Western history that followed.

Encompassing heroic tales of Homer and the philosophical musings of Plato, the bloody Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta and the vast empire of Alexander the Great, "Ancient Greece" is written for students and general readers of all ages.

In addition to previously published essays, the encyclopedia includes 29 specially-commissioned essays. One of the new essays, "Women's Life," was written by one of Sienkewicz's former students, Joe O'Neill. The 2001 Monmouth College graduate is a doctoral student in classics at the University of Toronto.