Roman History Books and More

for catullus lovers: two poems

With acknowledgement to David Meadows of  rogueclassicism, and as an introduction to Chris Weimer’s blog  Thoughts on Antiquity:

Chris has taken a fresh look at Catullus’ poems and has translated  two of them here, and added a poem of his own, addressed to Catullus.

An earlier blog of mine on T.P. Wiseman and Catullus

*****

next gibbon book chat: november 15

After we complete our three-part chat about Tacitus (The Agricola & The Gemania) and Peter Wells (The Barbarians Speak) this coming Wednesday, we return to Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire on November 15.

          Chapters XVII to XXI:

Constantine and his family down to Julian's  time in Gaul (359); religious controversies.  Some  people might want to skip Chapter XXI, see below.

Bingley’s comment on this:

The section on Julian is mainly a summary of Ammianus, whom we read, through the Julian novel, quite recently, so [people who participated in that chat] might want to do some judicious skipping here .

Bingley has already blogged about resources on Constantine.

Various Gibbon editions.  Gibbon’s autobiographies in one book:

The Autobiographies of Edward Gibbon:
Printed verbatim from hitherto unpublished MSS.,
with an introduction by the Earl of Sheffield.

December 6 and 13, with a bow to the busy holiday season – and because we deserve it  ;-) – will be light reading from Gillian Bradshaw:

Bearkeeper's Daughter  &  Imperial Purple.

2007 Book Chat List

from naissus to eboracum, 1700 years on

The future emperor Constantine was born in Naissus, now Niš  in Serbia.  The local airport is named after Constantine, and the municipal website features a symposium on Niš and Byzantium to mark the 1700th anniversary of Constantine being proclaimed emperor in York on 25 July 306.  The history section in the menu on the left features “Niš through Centuries”, the first page of which covers the Roman period.  A villa of Constantine's day has been excavated in Mediana, now a suburb of Niš.  Again, follow the menu from history for more information on the villa and Constantine.

Also marking the 1700th anniversary of Constantine being proclaimed emperor is an exhibition in York (Eboracum), running until 29 October 2006.  The BBC has a gallery of images from the exhibition, and a smaller gallery of pictures from Roman York.

BTW, Trier (Augusta Treverorum), Constantine’s capital as emperor of the West under the tetrarchic system, is holding a major Constantine exhibition next year (2007).  Click here to read Irene’s account of her trip to Trier.  The municipal website includes photos and a video of the Basilica, built as Constantine’s audience chamber and now a church.

   
Irene’s photos of the Basilica (more)

some resources on constantine

We will be taking up Gibbon's narrative with Constantine's activities as sole emperor. The wikipedia article on Constantine (usual caveats apply) directs us to this excellent numismatic site dedicated to Constantine, which usefully gathers many of the principal written ancient sources in one place. Books 8-10 of Eusebius' History of the Church are also of interest (incidentally, CCEL's new format makes online reading much more difficult -- although you can download .pdf files if you register with them). Another source is the anonymous work Origo Constantini Imperatoris, also called Valesianus after its discoverer. LacusCurtius has the Latin and an English translation.

Smith's Biographical Dictionary has an article on Constantine (as Constantinus I), while DIR has two.

Those with money or access to a good library might be interested in this sourcebook , reviewed by BMCR .

Another work which might be worth consulting is the Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine.

As well as the Gibbon, I'm reading Charles Matson Odahl's Constantine and the Christian Empire (which I see received a not very favourable review from BMCR).

allan massie on historical fiction (ancient rome & greece)

A thank you to N.S. Gill for finding  this essay by Allan Massie — one of my favorite British fiction writers of the genre — in Prospect Magazine, titled “Return of the Roman.”

His starting point is a recently published book by Salvatore Settis, The Future of the Classical.

In this thoughtful piece, Mr. Massie discusses the attraction of classics oriented fiction, both to the writer and the reader, and concludes:

People may have only a vague notion as to the exact nature of our debt to antiquity.  They may be—indeed, must be—further from understanding classical culture than those belonging to earlier generations, whose education was dominated by Greek and Roman texts.  Nevertheless, Greece and Rome continue in some way to matter as other periods of history, and other cultures, do not.  Those of us who write and read novels set in the ancient world are striving to absorb something of its significance.  Our novels may offer only a shadowy representation of the reality of Greece and Rome, but even that shadowy version is preferable to classical culture being submerged in the dark.

I whole-heartedly agree!   Mr. Massie's Roman novels:

Caesar
Antony (out of print in the U.S.)
Augustus, a Novel
Tiberius: The Memoirs of the Emperor
Caligula
Nero's Heirs    see my review

2007 book discussion list for our reading group

I'm pleased to announce the agreed upon book discussion list for 2007 for our online reading group.

I'm even more pleased to announce that James Duffy, the author of  Sand of the Arena: A Gladiators of the Empire Novel, will attend the chat on March 21!

Book 2: The Battle For Rome is scheduled to come out in the Spring of 2007.

here be dragons: a comment from plutarch

In their geographies, Socius Senecio, researchers squeeze the things which elude their knowledge into the edges of their maps and write in explanations: "the places beyond this point are waterless deserts full of wild beasts" or "unseen mud" or "Scythian cold" or "frozen sea".

(Plutarch's Life of Theseus 1.1)

Compare the conclusion to Tacitus' Germania:

What further accounts we have are fabulous: as that the Hellusians and Oxiones have the countenances and aspect of men, with the bodies and limbs of savage beasts. This, as a thing about which I have no certain information, I shall leave untouched.

book review: the chronicle of zenobia, the rebel queen

I finally completed my promised review of  The Chronicle of Zenobia: The Rebel Queen, by Judith Weingarten. 

The subject of Zenobia was first treated in modern literature by Chaucer, and later by William Ware (Zenobia or the Fall of Palmyra) and Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Blythdale Romance) in the 19th century.  Since then, a number of novels have been published, but most of them are probably not on the general public’s radar screen.

Now comes The Chronicle of Zenobia, The Rebel Queen, subtitled Book One, The World As it Was, the first volume in a trilogy.  The author, an archaeologist, has done her homework and tells us that she basically adhered to known history.  Out of this, she created a sprawling novel about life and death in Tadmor, the modern-day Palmyra, in the 3rd century A.D. 

Before God the listener, I shall remember Tadmor of the high walls and lofty towers. And I shall remember Tadmor’s illustrious Queen, Zenobia, direct descendant of Antiochus, King of Syria, and Cleopatra Thea, great-hearted daughter of Ptolemy of Egypt.  Glorious Zenobia, Queen of Tadmor, may God remember her for good. 

Every day I shall add to this story.

So speaks Simon, son of Barabas, in the prologue to the book.  He is an intimate of Zenobia – the later rebel queen – and her husband Odenathus.  Simon, the author tells us, was a real-life Palmyran citizen who lived through the events that unfold in the novel, and who left a parchment manuscript behind, with his narration beginning in 218 A.D.

Read the entire review

see also non-fiction treatment of Zenobia.

roman britain in english verse

Thanks to Adrian Murdoch of  Bread and circuses, W. H. Auden, and a comment by David Parsons of ARLT, here is Roman Britain in English Verse.

Enjoy!

roman resources on germany besides tacitus

Irene has already drawn our attention to Caesar's description of the Germans (scroll down to paragraph 6.21 etc.)

Strabo has a geographical description of Germany followed by a second part, mainly about the Cimbri. Pliny's Natural History has a geographical section on Germany.

LacusCurtius has the section on Germania Magna from Ptolemy's Geography in Greek, Latin, and English with a map. The next sections on Raetia, Noricum and Panonia Superior are not up yet, but Pannonia Inferior (English text only) is.

ammianus marcellinus, roman historian

Ammianus Marcellinus was born between 325 and 335 A.D. and lived until at least 395.  He possibly hailed from Antioch, and was of noble birth.  He soldiered under Constantius II, and under Julian the Apostate until the latter's death.  He later lived in the city of Rome.  He wrote, in Latin, a history of the Roman empire from the accession of Nerva to the death of Valens (96-378).  This work, known as res gestae, consisted of thirty-one books;  of these the first thirteen are lost, the remaining eighteen cover the period from 353 to 378.  Online, they can be found in Latin only, at the Latin Library.  There are excerpts in translation, especially the battle descriptions:  The Siege of Amida in 359 and The Battle of Hadrianopolis 378, (probably the best known).  I could not find an online translation of the Battle of Strasbourg 357.  And there is The Luxury of the Rich in Rome …

kilroy was here

… not even tangentially related to our subject matter

How many among our readers are old enough to remember this?  I'm working on the online version of a local WWII exhibit, and the drawing on the left was done for the exhibit by local resident and cartoonist Mort Walker of Beetle Bailey fame, who is honorary chairman of the exhibit and a contributor by way of an oral history interview and loan of his WWII scrapbook.

To make this relevant to Roman history:  I wonder whether Roman soldiers left pictorial graffiti behind …

bryn mawr review: a tacitus “germania” edition with an extensive analysis

Germania (Clarendon Ancient History Series) is reviewed at Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2001.04.19.

The newer paperback edition is still too expensive for most of us.

It would be nice to be able to read the extensive commentary;  however, the review itself does invite discussion points.  The individual chapters of  The Germania mentioned in the review may be found here.

And there is a remark in the review,

“I would also have liked some comment on the German narratives contained in Tacitus' Annals and Histories, viz. the possible link with, and the influence of, the Ger. on these later Tacitean German-centred narratives.”

The Annals and The Histories at the The Internet Classics Archive at MIT can be easily searched for ‘Germans’  if one wants to explore this.

the conquest of britain: not giving credit where credit's due?

In a comment on an earlier post, I pointed out this site, where Stan Wolfson argues for Thule being Shetland. In passing he suggests that Tacitus has awarded Agricola some of the credit for the conquest of Northern Britain that really belongs to Cerialis, one of Agricola's predecessors. In particular see Part Five: Thule in Contemporary Latin Literature.

This is backed up by two reports from The Roman Gask Project, which describes itself as, "A long term programme to study the Roman Frontier works on and around the Gask Ridge in Perthshire, Scotland." One is Archaeology Versus Tacitus, which basically deplores in an amusing fashion the lack of historical knowledge on the part of archaeologists and of archaeological knowledge on the part of historians. The second, Agricola, He Came, He Saw, But Did He Conquer? , informs us of archaeological findings at Gask which suggest the Romans were there earlier than Agricola's governorship.

housekeeping note on book chats: shift in november

We have extended the Germania/Barbarians Speak chat to two sessions, October 18 and November 1, 2006.

The upcoming Gibbon chat will be split between November 15, 2006 and January 3, 2007.

The December chats, Bearkeeper's Daughter and Imperial Purple, are unchanged.

Revised Chat Schedule

The 2007 reading list will be forthcoming soon.

tacitus’ germania a white paper?

Bingley found this:  Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2001.03.01, Jan-Wilhelm Beck, ‘Germania’ – ‘Agricola’ : Zwei Kapitel zu Tacitus' zwei kleinen Schriften: Untersuchungen zu ihrer Intention u. Datierung sowie zur Entwicklung ihres Verfassers, “Spudasmata” 68.   Hildesheim:  Olms Verlag, 1998.  Pp. 185.  ISBN 3-487-10742-2.  (Two chapters on two of Tacitus’ small miscellany writings:  Analyses of their intent and dating as well as of the development of their author.)

The reviewer writes:

Scholarly debate has in general divided between those who see the Germania as a work urging conquest and those who see it as arguing for indifference.  B. on the other hand explains it as a non-policy document, likening it instead to a sort of white paper, such as might have been prepared for the English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the Germans of a reunited Germany after the fall of the Berlin wall.

how accessible is “the barbarians speak” by peter wells?

Some in our chat last night professed reading Peter S. Wells, The Barbarians Speak:  How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe – which together with Tacitus‘ Germania is our next assigment – a bit of a challenge.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2000.02.30 may explain why.  I personally think the review is a bit over-critical, I find the book quite informative on the whole, even though it has to be read with a grain of salt.

Another print edition of Tacitus pointed out to me is Agricola and Germany (Oxford World's Classics) by Tacitus and Anthony Birley.

Observe the identical book cover images!

Online:  Germania

aristotle detective – book reviews

Of late I've been spending more time in ancient Athens than ancient Rome, reading Margaret Doody's series of detective novels with Aristotle and his friend and ex-student Stephanos as the sleuths. For my reviews of the series so far, see:

Aristotle Detective

Aristotle and Poetic Justice

Aristotle and the Secrets of Life

Poison in Athens

 

Mysteries in Eleusis

Unfortunately, although Amazon.co.uk stocks the books, the US Amazon doesn't, though it has  Aristotle Detective, Poetic Justice, and Mysteries in Eleusis available from other sellers.

The Amazon UK links are as follows:

Aristotle Detective
Poetic Justice
Secrets of Life
Poison in Athens
Mysteries in Eleusis

new biography – “caesar: life of a colossus”

Adrian Goldsworthy's new book,  Caesar: Life of a Colossus, is now available in the U.S. , published by Yale Unversity Press, which was kind enough to point me to a radio show with Goldsworthy on NPR's  On Point with Tom Ashbrook:

“We talk with the author of a new biography on the Roman general, brutal leader, larger than life, complex figure that is Julius Caesar…”

Some comments from me on the book – well worth reading,  if you are ready for yet another take on JC – in a future post. 

another assessment of the agricola

Language and Style in Tacitus’ “Agricola” by Janet P. Bews, Greece & Rome, 2nd Ser., Vol. 34, No. 2 (Oct., 1987), pp. 201-211,  is another JSTOR article (limited access) discussing Tacitus and his Agricola.

Or: Was Agricola a colorless person? <grin>

In her assessment of Agricola, Janet Bews writes that Ronald Syme, (Tacitus I. Oxford 1958, p.125), concluded that the work is

… a document of Roman political literature, a manifesto for the Emperor Trajan and the new imperial aristocracy.

She sets that against F.R.D. Goodyear's narrow assessment (The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, Cambridge 1982), including the statement that

… Tacitus probably found little else worth relating about Agricola except the governorship, and hence made the most of it.  In thus concentrating on military and administrative achievements, he followed a hallowed Republican tradition.... A Roman aristocrat should possess and display virtus, above all in warfare: to this pattern Agricola conformed.  Thus one old-fashioned attitude underlies a work somewhat novel in conception.

Bews introduces her own position with this: