Roman History Books and More

Lucius Aemilius Paullus Lepidus Macedonicus (ca. 229-160 BCE)

In Livy's Rome and the Mediterranean, Part III, we encounter Aemilius Paulus as victor over the Macedonian King Perseus, erecting his statue in Delphi in lieu of the vanquished king's one, and almost being denied triumph in Rome. (And loosing two young sons within one week.)

Here is more on him:

Plutarch: Aemilius Paulus   Comparison of Timoleon with Aemilius Paulus

JSTOR: The Battle of Pydna, by N. G. L. Hammond
The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 104. (1984), pp. 31-47.
Check with your university or public library for JSTOR access.

Wikipedia
Wikipedia: Scipio-Paullus-Gracchus Family Tree

Maps of the Roman Empire

There are a number ancient maps online. The ones I found and personally consider helpful are:

Some Maps of the Roman Empire  (Lacus Curtius)

Table of Maps
Cross-referenced Index of Place Names, ancient and modern.

There is also the Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd 1911, 1923-26

Reference Map of Ancient Italy, Northern Part
Reference Map of Ancient Italy, Southern Part
Reference Map of Ancient Greece, Northern Part
Reference Map of Ancient Greece, Southern Part
Clicking on the maps anywhere enlarges the sections to readable size.

Unfortunately, I didn't discover the maps of Greece until today, a little late for Livy…

Ancient / Classical History Website

Our friend − and fellow book chat member when she has the time − N.S. Gill runs the excellent Ancient / Classical History site at About.com, with a related Forum. Forum access requires (free) registration. She also has a blog, AncientRome.StudyPast.com, which links back to the above site.

A related site is Kris Hirst's Archaeology. A subsection covers Ancient Civilizations.

Elephants in the Roman army

I was surprised to see the Romans use elephants in the Third Macedonian War. Livy in 44.5 is quite entertaining in his description of getting the elephants down the mountain after crossing the pass − and one wonders how the "more than sixty years old and very stout" consul followed his soldiers "rolling down" the hill. However, the elephants, provided by Massinissa, seem to have been extremely useful in the subsequent battle of Pydna (44.41)

The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy does not mention elephants at all as far as I could see on a cursory check, and the OCD lists only three battles: Cynoscephalae (Second Macedonian War), Numantia, and Thapsus.

Here is a page that seems to be well researched: Military Use of Elephants in the Greek and Roman Period.  H.H. Scullard has written a book: The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World (Ithaca: Cornell 1974)

Greg Pitts agrees that we have a few instances only where the Romans used them in the field and that the last time was in the Battle of Thapsus against Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. "A very interesting campaign and battle; one which has never received the acclaim it deserves. The armies involved were huge!"  Greg's article on the battle

Pliny: The Nature of the Terrestrial Animals (Natural History, 8.1 through 8.12)

Lectures & Other Writings by Fergus Millar

Fergus Millar is a professor at the Oriental Institute at Oxford University. Many of his lectures and essays are published in book form.

I greatly enjoyed The Crowd in Rome in the Late Republic (Thomas Spencer Jerome Lectures), a study of the influence of the Assembly on the political decision making process in the Late Republic, attempting to demonstrate that the Senate had less power, and that Rome was more "democratic," than is generally claimed. He makes a convincing argument for his theory, although I'm certain this is not the last word on the subject.

Among his books is a three-part collection of lectures and writings, Rome, the Greek World, and the East:

Volume 1: The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution (published 2002)    Details & Sample Chapter

Volume 2: Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman  Empire (Studies in the History of Greece and Rome) (published 2004)   Details & Sample Chapter

I cannot find Volume 3: "The Greek World, the Jews and the East," anywhere. It may not yet have been published.

This all came to mind when I came across this article in JSTOR, relating to our current chat subject: The Political Character of the Classical Roman Republic, 200-151 B.C., Fergus Millar, Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 74, 1984 (1984) , pp. 1-19, which can also be found as an updated version in print in Volume 1 above. It could well be subtitled: "Polybius was right and his modern critics are wrong."

Check with your university or public library for JSTOR access.

lectisternium

In ancient Rome, the lectisternium was a ceremonial banquet for the gods.

Lectisternium (Smith's Dictionary, 1875): Sacrifices being of the nature of feasts, the Greeks and Romans on occasion of extraordinary solemnities placed images of the gods reclining on couches, with tables and viands before them, as if they were really partaking of the things offered in sacrifice …

More in Wikipedia

Appian on the Macedonian Wars

Appian of Alexandria's Roman History has come down to us in fragments only − with the exception of the Roman Civil Wars and a few others, including the Preface.  (The page Appian of Alexandria lists all chapters of this work)

www.livius.org/ has made an attempt to reconstruct The Macedonian Wars from various fragments.

Appian lived c.95-c.165. The above site calls him "one of the most underestimated of all Greek historians."

More on Appian: The Origins, Program, and Composition of Appian’s Roman History
Gregory S. Bucher, Center for Hellenic Studies (Washington, D.C.)
Transactions of the American Philological Association 130 (2000) 411–458

Penguin Editions of Livy & Polybius

Just a note for those of you reading the Penguin editions of Livy and Polybius: While these books are affordable, they do not always include the complete writings of the authors.

A quick scan of Livy's Rome and the Mediterranean through just a few books reveals that 37.57 through 37.60 are omitted, as well as 38.1 and 38.2.

If you desire the complete texts:

Livy online
Polybius online

A must for the serious student of history!

Greg Pitts

Literary Frauds: the books of Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius was one of the legendary kings of Rome. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 relates:  "… Livy (xl. 29) tells a curious story of two stone chests, bearing inscriptions in Greek and Latin, which were found at the foot of the Janiculum (181 B.C.), one purporting to contain the body of Numa and the other his books. The first when opened was found to be empty, but the second contained fourteen books relating to philosophy and pontifical law, which were publicly burned as tending to undermine the established religion."

Livy Text (Vol. VI)

On JSTOR, there can be found Literary Frauds among the Romans by Alfred Gudeman, Transactions of the American Philological Association (1869-1896), Vol. 25. (1894), pp. 140-164.

According to this, Livy traced the story back to Piso, and it is also mentioned by Pliny, who follows the annalist Cassius Hemina.  Gudeman points out the obvious fabrication (pp.3-5), including the anachronism of Numa supposedly having been a pupil of Pythagoras, but suggests that the books were burned not for their spuriousness but because they were "detrimental to the stability of the commonwealth and subversive of civic morality."

Check with your university or public library for JSTOR access.

Plutarch:  Numa Pompilius

censor

CENʹSOR (τιμητής), the name of two magistrates of high rank in the Roman republic.  Their office was called Censura (τιμητεία or τιμητία). The Census, which was a register of Roman citizens and of their property, was first established by Servius Tullius, the fifth king of Rome. read on (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)

Timeline: Censors of Rome

Cato the Elder (Plutarch)

Marcus Porcius Cato (Cornelius Nepos) added 2 February

Cato the Elder
Article by Bingley on M. Porcius Cato (Cato the Elder or Cato the Censor), the 2nd Century B.C. Roman politician, general, and writer noted for his austere way of life and rigid principles. It was he who convinced Rome that Carthage must be destroyed.

The Style of Polybius

Here are two items which address, among other things, the writing style of Polybius in his Histories

Introduction to Polybius by Col. H. J. Edwards, C.B., c.1927

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.11.27:
Cultural Politics in Polybius's Histories (Hellenistic Culture and Society)
by Craige Brian Champion
Apparently a book worthwhile reading.

Polybius background on Wikipedia

The Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus, 186 BCE

There was a discussion in the last chat as to what prompted the suppression of the Bacchic Cult in 186 BCE in Rome, as described by Livy in Book XXXIX.8.ff. I list some related links in the comments below.

I browsed through my library and found Eric Gruen's Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome. In the chapter "The Appeal of Hellas" on Page 258 he briefly addresses the issue. In Gruen's opinion, it was a manipulation by the Senate  'to reaffirm and entrench public control over religion.' He emphasizes the fact that it was 'high drama,' but that thereafter the cult was not totally forbidden: exceptions were allowed as long as permission by the authorities was sought.

Further comments are greatly appreciated.

Ancient Wargaming

Greg Pitts is an Ancient Military historian and gamer and involved with War Games Journal.

The January issue of the Journal is now out, http://www.wargamesjournal.com/home/index.asp, and the fancied up version of Part 4 of the Roman Imperial Army is included in the issue.

Greg also runs a gaming group on Yahoo!, Ancient  Empires, 2nd Edition and says: 'I have attempted now for many years to obtain a game mechanic system that gives what I consider to be the correct "feel" for warfare in antiquity, while still remaining a playable game.'

He is working on a writing project on Scipio Africanus and the Roman Military System.

Postscript:  See Greg's comment on the Battle of Magnesia.

Final Book Chat on Livy on February 1 & Next Book: Hadrian

Rome and the Mediterranean by Titus Livius

Part III: 178-167 B.C.
Books XLI through XLV
The Third Macedonian War

Suggested Talking Points (incl. leftovers from the last chat)

• Cato the Censor (XXXIX.40 ff.)
• Three deaths: Philopoemen, Hannibal, Scipio Africanus (XXXIX.49 ff.)
• The geo-political aspects of the war / war preparations / the levy for the war and the centurions' complaints (XLII.29 ff.)
• Perseus (all aspects) / The role of Eumenes
• Livy's flights of fancy: example, first paragraph of XLII.49, Publius Licinius setting out.
• Events leading up to and the battle of Pydna
• Popilius and the circle in the sand around Antiochus (XLV.12) (13 through 16 not in the Penguin edition!)
• Paulus's sightseeing tour (XLV.27)
• Marcus Servilius advocating Paulus being allowed to triumph (XLV.37)

You might want to look at background history, both in print and online.

Our Chat Room    2006 Reading List  PDF

Get ready for the next book after Livy:

February 15 & March 6

Memoirs of Hadrian
by Marguerite Yourcenar

background

'Penthouse' in Sieges

A Description of the Trajan Column by John Hungerford Pollen, 1874, explains the term penthouse, which I found in the translation of Livy's description of the siege of Notium in the Penguin edition, Book XXXVII.26.

"...Another was the testudo, which consisted in the soldiers kneeling, stooping, and standing in close order, and placing their oblong shields edge to edge, so as to form a sloping platform or penthouse, on the top of which other ranks of combatants could climb, and others above them." (Pollen)

If someone has Livy's Latin text available, it would be interesting to know what actual word Livy used. According to Lewis & Short, it could be 'pluteus'.

Postscript, later today:

Please review the comments below. It's not the tustedo as described above, but a siege construction, and the word Livy uses is 'vinea'. (Author added to above quote to avoid confusion.)

Livy in Latin

Fetialis - Priestly Collegium of Fetiales

Livy, in Book XXXVI.3., talks about the College of Fetials in connection with approving the war against Antiochus.

Here is more on the college: Fetialis - Priestly Collegium of Fetiales. Organized in the archaic age of ancient Rome, the priestly collegium of fetials had legal, military, and religious power.

gymnasium (gymnasion)

Gymnasium (ancient Greece)

This Wikipedia article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain. See GYMNASTICS AND GYMNASIUM

Images: Gymnasion at Miletus

Livy's Sources

At the last chat we talked about historians whom Livy refers to. I promised to do some checking in my trusty Geschichte der Römischen Literatur by Michael von Albrecht.

Claudius is the annalist Claudius Quadrigarius. He wrote at least 23 books. He loosened the annalistic format through letters, speeches, and anecdotes. "He pleases through brevity and preciseness." It is not known whether he began ab urbe condita or with the Gallic Sack of Rome. He wrote through Sulla's time.

The annalist Valerius Antias wrote 75 books ab urbe condita through at least 91 B.C., maybe through the death of Sulla.  He is known for his embellishments, especially of the importance of his Valerian gens and his exaggerations of battle casualties. He follows the Hellenistic writers in his narrative style.  "[His] flights of fancy are compensated by rationalistic explanations and by interspersing official reports, which may well be not imaginary."

Velleius Paterculus refers to both in Book II.9 of his Roman History: "[At this time] Sisenna, the author of the Histories, was still a young man. His works on the Civil Wars and the Wars of Sulla were published several years later, when he was a relatively old man. Caelius was earlier than Sisenna, while Rutilius, Claudius Quadrigarius and Valerius Antias were his contemporaries."

Imperial Sequence – Allan Massie

At one of our recent chats, someone mentioned the Massie novels, and I realized that there is a new one, at least new to me:  Caligula. The books, in historical sequence, are: Caesar, Anthony, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Nero's Heirs. All worth reading.

The novels vary in format: biographies, memoirs, letters, or combinations of same. In my review of  Nero's Heirs I wrote that I liked that one best. Caligula is written in a similar style, and wickedly funny in parts. A fictitious former confidante of Caligula, “Lucius,” is commissioned by Agrippina to write a biography of her brother. He creates his own private memoir first, not suitable for the eyes of Agrippina or the world.

The books are mostly not published in the U.S. but are readily available on the used book market. What would we do without those friendly booksellers?

Recent Book Reviews

Sand of the Arena
by James Duffy

A must-read for gladiator aficionados.

Jim Duffy's website

The Quest for the Lost Roman Legions, Discovering the Varus Battlefield
by Tony Clunn

The author calls it “the long, exhilarating, and often frustrating  journey to document where Varus and his men met their end”.

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