Roman History Books and More

anthony trollope wrote a "life of cicero"

Searching the Internet Archive to see what I could find of Cicero's writings, I discovered that Anthony Trollope (Wikipedia, handle with care) wrote a Life of Cicero in two volumes (Chapman and Hall, 1880):

• The life of Cicero (Volume 1)
• The life of Cicero (Volume 2)

Finding the time to browse through it is another thing . . .

Anthony Trollope at Britannica
Collection of portraits of Trollope at the National Portrait Gallery, London
The Trollope Society

the correspondence of marcus cornelius fronto online

I just stumbled over this online Loeb's copy (Internet Archive: New York Public Library)

The correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto with Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Lucius Verus, Antoninus Pius, and various friends; (1919-20)

Can be downloaded as PDF or read online as Flip Book. Apparently requires a "Library Card" (free sign-up) for multiple viewing. This is probably old hat for most of you. I wonder what other goodies I'm missing and where one can find a list.

a don's life: the face of julius caesar? come off it!

And right Mary Beard is!

The face of Julius Caesar? Come off it!

What do you do if you are an archaeologist and you find a nice Roman portrait bust in the bottom of a river?

The answer is simple. You go through every book of Roman portraits and coins until you find some famous figure in Roman history who looks vaguely likely your man. It is laborious and time-consuming. But the principles are simple – it’s like a game of snap.  read on

new julius caesar biography out

Julius Caesar by Philip Freeman, Simon & Schuster, May 2008, 416 pages.

Mr. Freeman writes on his website:

Julius Caesar was one of the greatest heroes of human history-or one of its most pernicious villains, depending on who you believe. Many of the American Founding Fathers despised Caesar as the evil genius who overthrew their beloved Roman Republic. The medieval poet Dante assigned him a blessed afterlife among the most virtuous pagans while sentencing his two leading murderers, Brutus and Cassius, to the lowest levels of Hell. Shakespeare tried to have it both ways, praising both Caesar and the conspirators who slew him. Modern scholars have been equally divided concerning Caesar's legacy. Some have seen him as a paradigm of the just ruler, but in the wake of twentieth-century dictators and devastating wars, other historians have turned a cold eye on a man who caused the death of so many and established the rule of emperors over elected magistrates.

goethe's italian journey

More from David Derrick's The Toynbee convector, on one of my favorite reads: Goethe’s Italian Journey.

The book itself in translation:  Italian Journey: 1786-1788 (Penguin Classics)

Online, it's available in German only:

• ItaIienische Reise, vol. 1
• Italienische Reise, vol. 2
• Italienische Reise
• Wiedergeburt in Italien

the cambridge companion to ovid

The Cambridge Companion to Ovid seems to be a book worth reading, according to this Bryn Mawr Classical Review:

"The editor of this volume, Philip Hardie, is one of those responsible for the rise in Ovid's fortunes, and many of the contributors that he has recruited for this volume have done their parts as well.  But the essays on the whole do not merely reprise earlier themes;  and Hardie has also recruited some less obvious but highly suitable collaborators, with the result that the collection makes a striking impression and succeeds on two separate fronts.  As a summary of where Ovidian scholarship has been, it is, with perhaps one or two caveats, very successful indeed;  and as an effort to indicate fruitful directions for future work, the volume should have a stimulating effect."

on holy ground

Toynbee's reflections on his preference as a young man for the historically significant sites of the Hellenic civilization rather than those of his own Western Christian civilization.

Courtesy David Derrick, The Toynbee convector

website back up

The website is back up.

ovid: reading schedule for june

We have two chats planned for June about the works of the poet Ovid (Wikipedia, handle with care).  With the limited time we have, I think it's best to concentrate on his two major works:

June 4	The Metamorphoses the creation and history of the world
June 11	(optional) other works*
June 18	Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) plus Amores, Remedia Amoris?

*If anyone wishes to discuss the other works, I offer another chat in between, on June 11. I'm especially interested in the poems and letters from exile (Tristia, Ex Ponto, Ibis).  And there are also the Fasti.

online book chats

This blog is an adjunct to The Roman History Reading Group which meets on the first and third Wednesday of each month except August in our chat room (with download instructions for both Mac and Windows users), from 9:30 to 11:00 p.m. US EST.  (This means that in Asia and Australia/Pacific, it's daytime.)  Here is a world time clock as a general assistance for non-USAns.

2008 scheduled reading list (updated April 2)

On April 16 and May 7 & 21 we will discuss The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme. (April 2 was canceled)

This is followed by a discussion of the works of the poet Ovid, June 4 & 18.

Join us!

website temporarily down

My website is temporarily down, I hope to fix this tomorrow, Monday.

ovid at britannica online: testing webshare feature

Ovid
Roman poet
Latin in full Publius Ovidius Naso

(now, if only JSTOR would follow suit)

elliott carter still going strong and composing at almost 100

The amazing Elliott Carter, who will be 100 in November:

Music Review

Quintet of Calming Strings and a Rumbling Clarinet

By STEVE SMITH

Published: May 1, 2008

The playful qualities of Elliott Carter’s music outnumbered potential hazards on Tuesday night in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at the Juilliard School.

Jennifer Taylor for The New York Times

The composer Elliott Carter, far right, discussed his new “Clarinet Quintet” with Ara Guzelimian, the dean of the Juilliard School, on Tuesday after the Juilliard String Quartet and the clarinetist Charles Neidich performed the piece.

how well do you know marcus didius?

Three quizzes on the adventures of Marcus Didius Falco:

My First Falco Quiz covers The Silver Pigs and Shadows in Bronze.

My Second Falco Quiz covers "Falco On His Metal", the omnibus volume containing Venus in Copper, The Iron Hand of Mars, and Poseidon's Gold.

My Third Falco Quiz covers "Falco On The Loose", the omnibus volume containing Last Act in Palmyra, Time to Depart, and A Dying Light in Corduba.

cartimandua

In their series of articles for May 2008, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has an article on Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, mainly based on Tacitus' account.