Roman History Books and More

gibbon on rome and on the edification of travel

The Autobiographies of Edward Gibbon (There were six of them, From A through F!)

From Memoir C, written about 1789,  Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Edward Gibbon (as titled in the print edition, 'typos' and spelling as in the original)  E-text from Gutenberg.

on Rome:

My temper is not very susceptible of enthusiasm; and the enthusiasm which I do not feel, I have ever scorned to affect. But, at the distance of twenty-five years, I can neither forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I first approached and entered the eternal city. After a sleepless night, I trod, with a lofty step, the ruins of the Forum; each memorable spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, or Caesar fell, was at once present to my eye; and several days of intoxication were lost or enjoyed before I could descend to a cool and minute investigation. My guide was Mr. Byers, a Scotch antiquary of experience and taste; but, in the daily labour of eighteen weeks, the powers of attention were sometimes fatigued, till I was myself qualified, in a last review, to select and study the capital works of ancient and modern art . . . On my return, I fondly embraced, for the last time, the miracles of Rome; but I departed without kissing the feet of Rezzonico (Clement XIII.), who neither possessed the wit of his predecessor Lambertini, nor the virtues of his successor Ganganelli.

scipio africanus, conqueror of carthage

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major (235–183 BCE) is best known as the victor over Hannibal and thus ending the Second Punic War. He was involved in this war, also called the Hannibalic War, since its beginning, when he rescued his father Publius Cornelius Scipio during the battle of Trebia. He was a survivor of the battle of Cannae and, despite his young age, wangled a command in Spain after his father and his uncle Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus were defeated and killed in battle by Hasdrubal Barca. He was so successful that he was re-appointed, despite his detractors, to continue the war on African soil. After the successful completion of his campaign and the war he was given a triumph and the agnomen Africanus.

Later, he served as censor and took a secondary command under his brother Lucius Cornelius Scipio in the war against Antiochus III of Syria, after which his brother received the agnomen Asiaticus. He returned to Rome, only to be accused by his enemies of corruption and taking bribes – a favorite sport of Roman politics – and although he was not convicted, he withdrew into the country for the rest of his life.

massinissa and sophonisba, love story or politics?

That question already stirred the ancient historians.

Sophonisba or Sophoniba is believed to have been the daughter of Hasdrubal, son of Gesco, a Carthaginian general. She was married for political reasons to Syphax, a Numidian king of the Masaeisylians, as opposed the Gaia or Gala, king of the Massylians. Confusing, eh? Anyway, Gaia's son Massinissa, who was educated – kept as hostage? – in Carthage, was or believed himself betrothed to Sophonisba before she was given to Syphax. After the death of his father he returned to Africa from Spain where he had fought the Romans, and first was deprived of his kingdom by his brother – or uncle? – Oezalces, then by Syphax. While Syphax stayed in the Carthaginian camp, Massinissa went over to the Romans and Scipio. Hasdrubal and Syphax were defeated in the famous burned camp incident (Livy), and Massinissa pursued Syphax to Cirta, his capital, and took Syphax and Sophinisba as prisoners. He married the queen against Scipios wishes, and when Scipio insisted she must be taken to Rome for the triumph, Massinissa poisoned her and then gave her a royal funeral. Syphax survived and was taken to the triumph.

So was is politics, a love story, or both? Was Syphax the monster he sometimes is portrayed as?

new book on the early years of augustus: caesar's legacy

[on the early years of the new Caesar and the era of 44-29 BC, that is]

Thanks to our friend at Bread and circuses, who blogged an entry of A Don's Life titled How it really was? (in ancient Rome), I was pointed to a book review by P.T. Wiseman of three new publications.

Only one of these seems to be worth purchasing, Caesar's Legacy : Civil War and the Emergence of the Roman Empire by Josiah Osgood. Wiseman calls it "a historical work of real distinction". Wiseman does has one  problem though – which I have always shared: "Submission to the convention [of calling the young Caesar 'Octavian'] is the one complaint I have about Caesar's Legacy, Josiah Osgood's superb account of the 'missing years' 43-29 bc: of all Caesar's legacies, that of his name was the most significant and the most lasting."

The above Amazon.com links offers part of Chapter 1 as preview. I'm looking forward to reading this tome (450pp., Cambridge University Press, February 2006, ISBN: 0521671779).

the hannibalic war in Plutarch's lives

Mestrius Plutarchus, better known as Plutarch and best known through his Parallel Lives, includes three senator generals from the Hannibalic War in his collection of biographies. They are

Fabius (Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, dictator and famous cunctator)
Flaminius (Titus Quintius Flaminius)
Marcellus (Marcus Claudius Marcellus)

Print editions: Fabius and Marcellus can be found in Makers of Rome: Nine Lives (Penguin Classics); all three in Plutarch: Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans (Modern Library Series, Vol. 1).

   

the aftermath of Cannae: why did Hannibal not go for Rome?

This is a question that has occupied historians from the ancients to the moderns.

Polybius' relevant chapters are unfortunately missing. History: Book III: 107-118 (Ancient History Source Book) has only this:

"In spite of all, however, the Senate left no means untried to save the State. It exhorted the people to fresh exertions, strengthened the city with guards, and deliberated on the crisis in a brave and manly spirit. And subsequent events made this manifest. For though the Romans were on that occasion indisputably beaten in the field, and had lost their reputation for military prowess; by the peculiar excellence of their political constitution, and the prudence of their counsels, they not only recovered their supremacy over Italy, by eventually conquering the Carthaginians, but before very long became masters of the whole world."

And in Book VI, An Analysis of the Roman Government he writes : "…that Hannibal was much less filled with joy from having vanquished the Romans in the field, than he was struck with terror and astonishment at the firmness and magnanimity what appeared in their deliberations." He also discusses in IX, 22-26, the Character of Hannibal. That all doesn't help us much though.

david anthony durham blogged his "pride of carthage"

Prompted by a question during last night's chat, I googled "why did hannibal not attack rome", and lo and behold, David Anthony Durham's blog came up!

I found two entries on Hannibal (Pride of Carthage, A Novel of Hannibal):

Misunderstanding Hannibal (2005)
Meeting Hannibal (2004)

As promised, I will review what historians have say on the matter of Hannibal not going for the city of Rome itself after Cannae and blog it soon.

hannibal crosses the alps

Hannibal and his army crossed the Alps in 218 BCE in 16 days, which is still considered an amazing feat, taking into account that it was late in the year and in uncharted territory as far as Hannibal was concerned; that the army of course did not consist only of the foot soldiers and the cavalry (none of whom had ever been exposed to the kind of weather they experienced), but also of the supply trains with their pack animals, the usual camp followers; and last but not least the elephants, most of whom did not survive the ordeal. However, according to Livy,

The elephants proved both a blessing and a curse: for though getting them along the narrow and precipitous tracks caused serious delay, they were none the less a protection to the troops, as the natives, never having seen such creatures before, were afraid to come near them.

The image is of a Roman marble bust of Hannibal, found at Capua.

As so often, good information can be found on livius.org, with Hannibal's route across the Alps and a separate page, showing the Polybius and Livius text translations side by side.

There has been much speculation about the actual route. The curent status of the research is best presented by the Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project 1994-2006.

phoenicians and carthage

It might be useful, when reading David Anthony Durham's Pride of Carthage, A Novel of Hannibal, to acquaint oneself with Phoenician and Carthaginian history.

Wikipedia (handle with care, as usual) has two pages: Phoenicia and Carthage. 

It mentions the awsome but difficult to navigate site A Bequest Unearthed, Phoenicia, Encyclopedia Phoeniciana, which includes a timeline of Carthaginian history. Supposedly, this site contains 1,000 individual pages!

As books go, there is the lavishly illustrated The Phoenicians, edited by Sabatino Moscati, and The Fall of Carthage : The Punic Wars 265-146BC (Cassell Military Paperbacks) by Adrian Goldsworthy. Many more books on the subject can be found at Amazon.com.

            Books on Hannibal & the Punic Wars

Other links and e-texts can be found here. 

210 reasons for the decline of the roman empire

In his excellent and accessible book The Fall of Rome And the End of Civilization, Bryan Ward-Perkins displays a table (3.1 – in German)  with "A list of 210 reasons, from A-Z, that have been suggested, at one time or another, to explain the decline and fall of the Roman empire."  It begins with Aberglaube (superstition) and ends with Zweifrontenkrieg (two-front war). As you can imagine, some of it is hilarious!

The list was compiled by Alexander Demandt, a German Professor of Ancient History at the Free University Berlin, in his book "Der Fall Roms: Die Auflösung des Römischen Reiches im Urteil der Nachwelt". Some of you may be familiar with him as editor of Theodor Mommsen's lecture transcriptions, A History of Rome Under the Emperors.

I did some googling and found an English translation:

210 Reasons for the decline of the Roman Empire

Unfortunately, the German list seems not to be available online; it reads even funnier in the original, there is a lot of "Über...". In the translation, it begins with Abolition of gods and ends with Vulgarization. #203 is Tristesse . . .

Enjoy!

book review - rome's greatest defeat: massacre in the teutoburg forest

Adrian Murdoch, known to most of us through his blog Bread and circuses, has a new book out:

Rome's Greatest Defeat : Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest

In his introduction, which partially may be read here, he writes:

[Although] Arminius and Varus are, naturally enough, part of Germany’s national consciousness, their names often warrant barely a flicker of recognition in the English-speaking world. It is fair to say that Roman Germany as a whole, specifically the country’s early history under the first emperors, has been conspicuously ignored outside Germany. Even in the academic field, only a handful of critical book-length studies have appeared in the last thirty years. The sheer volume and variety of discoveries in the last decade alone – archaeological, historical, epigraphic – make this nothing short of a scandal.

He is out to correct this failure and has packed an enormous amount of research and analysis into a mere 200 pages. He further says:

While a deliberately tight focus on the events themselves is paramount, it is also important for the historian to see beyond this, to see the wood beyond the trees. Rome's Greatest Defeat has the secondary aim of highlighting the ways in which the battle has been transmitted through history.

From my lay point of view, he certainly has reached both aims, and his intent to write the book for a non-specialist audience is met by a lively and entertaining style and a lot of interesting minutiae.

Read my entire review.

glass in antiquity

David Anthony Durham, in his afterword to Pride of Carthage, writes: This book is a work of fiction and should only be read as a novel. It was inspired by real figures and events, but I have taken many liberties to arrange the material into a workable narrative.

That is the fiction writer's privilege. But should that extend to anachronism?

Bingley found this passage:

The magistrate rose and fetched a jug of wine and a glass. It was early in the day, yes, but Silenus found himself thirsty as well. He motioned for the jug and drank directly from it, deeply enough to ensure that he would feel the effects. Diodorus took the jug from him and refilled his glass. A few moments passed like this, the two of them shuttling the jug back and forth, each captured by thoughts of his own.

And he wondered, did they have wine glasses in the 3rd century BCE? I did some checking, and it seems not quite yet: Wkipedia, Glassmaking in Antiquity, and The History of Glass Making all refer to the 1st century BCE as the point when glass blowing was invented.

In the empire, glassmaking was raised to a real art. Here are photos I took at various German museums.

The Romans also knew how to make sliding glass windows, as these photos show, from a villa rustica in Ahrweiler, Germany.

[In April, we talked about wine making]

the papyrus: all you wanted to know and more

by Bingley (mostly) & Irene

From page 109 (page 87 in the small print trade paperback) of Pride of Carthage: A Novel of Hannibal 

Hannibal sat a moment, watching his son at play with the balls of wadded paper Bostar had improvised as toys while the men spoke.

Pliny the Elder's account of papyrus, papyrus manufacturing, and the different qualities of papyrus (keep going to section 13.27)

A slide show of the papyrus manufacturing process: Papyrus 101 from  an online exhibit presented by The University of Michigan Papyrus Collection.

appian on the hannibalic war

Jona Lendering of livius.org, who has an excellent and well illustrated page on Hannibal Barca, points to Appian's History of Rome: The War against Hannibal as a major source:

"Although only his books on the Roman Civil Wars survive in their entirety, large parts of other books have also come down to us. His account of the War against Hannibal contains some information that can not be found in other sources (Polybius of Megalopolis and Livy), is fortunately well-preserved, and is certainly accessible."

And he provides us with a translation, footnotes, and his own additions.

Hannibal coin:
AR dishekel, 1½  & ¼, beardless male head, club behind / elephant
(Wikipedia/Carthage and its Coinage)

next book chat: Pride of Carthage

exeunt Gibbon...for now

Our next book will Pride of Carthage, A Novel of Hannibal by David Anthony Durham.

I wrote a review of the book last year. Since then, is has been published as paperback and is also available in digital form, which one can purchase via the link in the paragraph above.

Chats will be on June 21 & July 5. Enjoy the read!

Details   more to come.

2006 Booklist   PDF

the colosseum

Gibbon, in Chapter XII of Decline & Fall, provides us with an eloquent description – but whenever is he not eloquent? –  of the games and the colosseum  (Spectacles of  Rome and The amphitheatre).

"...Posterity admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the amphitheatre of Titus who so well deserved the epithet of Colossal..."

In a footnote, he refers to Maffei, Verona Illustrata, p. iv. l. i. c. 2.  I could not find this online, but instead, there is a Piranesi illustration, c.1760.

For detailed information on the Colosseum, one can go to Lacus Curtius, which has both Amphitheatrum Flavium (Platner's) and a more general Amphitheatrum (Smith's Dictionary), the latter with drawings and photos.

There is also a paper (pdf format) titled The Amphitheatre Construction Problem.

--> A March 2007 postscript

painting: the appian way

While at the Brooklyn Museum last Sunday, I came across a classical painting from 1869 by John Linton Chapman, titled "The Appian Way," which to me made history come alive.

I found the image of a like painting by the same artist from 1867, Via Appia, in the Resource Library of the Traditional Fine Arts Organization, in an essay, Classic Ground, by Paul A. Manoguerra, Georgia Museum of Art. It represents the introductory essay to the catalogue for the exhibit Classic Ground: Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Painting and the Italian Encounter at the Georgia Museum of Art in late 2004, and is well worth reading, IMO.

Click on the image above right to get a larger view of the painting.

Catalogue: Classic Ground: Mid-nineteenth-century American Painting And The Italian Encounter

Born in Washington D.C. in 1839, John Linton Chapman became known for his luminist-style, detailed paintings of Roman ruins and landscapes.  He moved to Rome at age nine with his artist family which included his father and teacher, John Gadsby Chapman, and a brother, Conrad Wise Chapman. He remained in Rome until 1878, then moved to New York City, where he eventually died in poverty in 1905. (Adapted from Ask Art, which shows what looks like the Brooklyn Museum painting.)

This page shows an installation photo of the painting at the Brooklyn Museum.

Gibbon and christianity

A vindication of some passages in chapters XV & XVI, and online pages of  'vindication'.

by Bingley

On the publication of Volume 1 of Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire many people were outraged by chapters XV and XVI, and a number of rebuttals appeared. As Gibbon himself puts it in his "A Vindication of some passages in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire" (A VINDICATION &c. &c. by Edward Gibbon, Introduction):

When I delivered to the world the First Volume of an important History, in which I had been obliged to connect the progress of Christianity with the civil state and revolutions of the Roman Empire, I could not be ignorant that the result of my inquiries might offend the interest of some and the opinions of others. If the whole work was favourably received by the Public, I had the more reason to expect that this obnoxious part would provoke the zeal of those who consider themselves as the Watchmen of the  Holy City. These expectations were not disappointed; and a fruitful crop of Answers, Apologies, Remarks, Examinations &c. sprung up with all convenient speed.

Ever since there have been Christians eager to criticise Gibbon, and atheists and agnostics eager to enrol him in their cause:

Cardinal Newman's mid 19th century characterisation of Gibbon is often quoted: It is melancholy to say it, but the chief, perhaps the only English writer who has any claim to be considered an ecclesiastical historian, is the unbeliever Gibbon.

Gibbon is included in this list of  "people who have made important contributions to atheism, skepticism, agnosticism and religious critique through history": Famous Atheists, Skeptics and Freethinkers, at Agnosticism / Atheism at About.com.

The following two articles, however, argue that Gibbon was in fact a believing Christian despite his criticism of the disparity between Christian belief and Christian practice:

Edward Gibbon & the Enlightenment
Gibbon Misconstrued

Postscript from Irene: Vicki pointed out earlier today that the Vindication is not included in some print editions. Here is the full online version.

brooklyn museum: jewish mosaics from the roman empire and more

Today, we went to the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y., and among other things, saw the exhibit Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire (obsolete link removed 7/13), from a sanctuary floor of the synagogue in Hammam Lif, Tunisia.  This was of particular interest to me because I had seen a Tunesian mosaic exhibit in Cologne, Germany, a few years back.  There was a similarity in color selections.

Unfortunately, today was the last day, so the preceding link may not be up for long.   But here is an excellent write-up and background by Kris Hirst at Archaeology at About.com.  She includes illustrations, Scenes from Paradise, so I need not repeat a descripition.  Twenty-one pieces of the mosaics have been in possession of  the Brooklyn Museum since 1905.

I found the exhibit a little disjointed, with a lot of Egyptian Jewish material joined in, but the history of the mosaics, their discovery by French army captain Ernest de Prudhomme in 1883, the drawings of them by one of his soldiers which prove extremely valuable today, is fascinating and was well presented.  Emphasis was put on the fact that the patron/donor of the mosaic was a woman, the first known of this kind.  Analogies of religious symbolism between Judaism and Christianity were noted and a good general historic background given.

This discovery of the mosaics is termed "the birth of synagogue archaeology."

Some photos may be forthcoming.  Here  (8/14)

I spent a good deal of the remainder of the day in the renowned Egyptian collection, which is freshly introduced with Egypt Reborn.  At the bottom of that page are links to the rest of the collection. And there was also Egypt Through Other Eyes.  At the end of it, I was mentally exhausted...not being helped by us getting stuck in Sunday afternoon traffic... Unfortunately, the Brooklyn Museum is not as easily accessible to us as the Met, and other museums, in Manhattan.

classical education c.1800, via Jane Austen

What little boys (and girls) were plagued with c.1800, from Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Chapter 14 (at Bibliomania):

[Catherine Morland] "That is, I can read poetry and plays, and things of that sort, and do not dislike travels. But history, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in. Can you?"

"Yes, I am fond of history."

"I wish I were too. I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all - it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention. The speeches that are put into the heroes' mouths, their thoughts and designs - the chief of all this must be invention, and invention is what delights me in other books."