by Jem Ali Hur
The eternally fascinating society of the Greek people during approximately twenty centuries from the Bronze Age to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, it is the Greek achievements that will keep drawing students back to the story of Greek origins, Greek history, and eventual Greek cultural domination of the ancient Mediterranean world. When I was in the middle of writing the preface of this book I felt compelled to explain, almost apologetically, that I did not intend to write just one more political and military chronicle of Greek history.
Instead I wanted to write about the most famous prostitute in Greek history Aspasia. The writings and documentations we have on her life is very interesting and the class systems in Ancient Greece dictated that some women were destined to be prostitutes, but only the life of Aspasia is worth writing about, it is also to my knowledge that nothing else on the market has been written in detail on Aspasia so consider this book to be the first but not the last. Even though the title of this book indicates singular formation, in fact this book is about two prostitutes not only Aspasia but Neaira as well. I have begun the first chapter with the roles played by the women in Ancient Greece, and after that I have discussed the life of Aspasia, her routines, clients, living arrangements, workers, her income and legacy, as well as the political deceptions that were carried out by Neaira and her daughter. Next I have written about the different classes of slaves and have clarified the difference between prostitution and sex slaves. Also I have noted the currency of Greece which had an alarming inflation, which far exceeds our own to this very day in the recession that we are in. The coinage system which had a minimum of 10 per cent premium value made it hard for people to obtain money even just a small piece of silver.