Roman History Books and More

the trial of gaius verres

A longish chapter of our current read, Imperium, A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris deals with the trial of Gaius Verres, the only trial in which Cicero acted as prosecutor.  Harris tells a compelling story here about the rapacious governor of Sicily and Cicero's determination to prosecute him against all odds.

In Verrem gives background at Wikipedia (as usual, handle with care).  Translation of Cicero's text of the trial is on Perseus, which, as so often, does not come up;  but luckily, it has been copied into Wikisource:  Against Verres, translation C. D. Yonge, 1903 (includes the pre-trial so-called Divination). 

One must always take into account that Cicero polished his speeches after the fact.

exhibit: hadrian – empire and conflict

An article from The Telegraph UK on Dorothy King's blog led me to this one:  Hadrian and the wall of silence, which reviews the new exhibit at the British Museum:

Hadrian: Empire and Conflict

Quote from the exhibit introduction:  "This unprecedented exhibition will provide fresh insight into the sharp contradictions of Hadrian’s character and challenges faced during his reign.

fireworks!

Thursday night we had our annual Fourth of July fireworks on the beach, though we stayed on my balcony quite a distance away but still with a good view.  We do this every year, much better than the traffic hassles … grabbed my little digital camera on the spur of the moment with no time to adjust the settings.  (Never done this before.)  Three pictures came out pretty well, considering. It's tough to gauge at what moment to click …

click on images to enlarge

   

'cicero the patriot' – review by n.s. gill

N.S. Gill writes:

Cicero the Patriot, by Rose Williams, is an amusing anecdotal look at the life of one of Rome's most versatile late Republican figures, Marcus Tullius Cicero.

In the same humorous vein as her The Labors of Aeneas - What a Pain It Was to Found the Roman Race, Rose Williams puts the great Roman statesman firmly in his place, beginning with an introductory quotation from Seneca about Cicero, which Williams translates for the reader as, "He praised his own achievements not without cause but without end."  Full Review

(note postscript below)

next book: 'imperium' by robert harris

Our upcoming read is Robert Harris' Imperium, A Novel of Ancient Rome. (linked to paperback edition)

We will be blogging Imperium/Cicero, but meanwhile, here are some reviews:

N.S. Gill's
The New York Times
Mary Beard in New York Review of Books (requires subscription)
Allen Massie ("I have written six Roman novels myself. Reluctantly, I must admit that Imperium is better than any of them." That, Mr. Massie, is much too modest!)
Ross Leckie ("Archaisms and anachronisms are an inherent difficulty of historical fiction. Harris doesn't seem to care," is a joke, as Mr. Leckie is a past master of same.)
My own

An interview with the author at Times Online:  Only the togas have changed:  Robert Harris tells Andrew Billen why his latest novel is about Cicero and set in Ancient Rome.  Any resemblance to today’s politicians, he says, is purely coincidental.

paris, a roman city

Here is a neat website (albeit with some navigation problems):

Paris, ville antique
English site

Courtesy Mary Harrsh

time and tide

Not only are eclipses being used to date events in the Odyssey, but the tides are being used to date Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain.

the last pagan

Via The Toynbee Convector, The California Literary Review has an extract from the introduction to Adrian Murdoch's The Last Pagan.  Dorothy King too has various recent blog entries on the book.

New paperback edition April 2008:  The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World