Roman History Books and More

book chats "the beginnings of rome" by t.j. cornell start on wednesday, september 3

Our book chats about The Beginnings of Rome: Italy From the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (Circa 1,000 to 264 B.C.) by T.J. Cornell are coming up, the first one next week, September 3, followed by September 17 and October 1. 

On Wednesday we plan to cover up to and including Chapter 5, TRADITIONAL HISTORY.

Not to be missed is reading Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION: THE EVIDENCE, which discusses the evidence available to the modern historian, laid out as

1. Historical accounts
2. The sources of our sources: lost historical accounts
3. The sources of our sources: Greek accounts
4. The sources of our sources: family tradition
5. The sources of our sources: oral tradition
6. The sources of our sources: documents and archives
7. The reliability of the annalistic tradition
8. The antiquarians
9. The sources and methods of the antiquarians
10. Archaeological evidence

and where the author discusses the respective merits and pitfalls of assessing and using this evidence, and gives a warning as to how to properly interpret related archaeology.  Of special interest, at least to me, are the two sections on antiquarians.

roman mainz

New at LacusCurtius and Livius.Org just posted two articles and related links on Roman Mainz:

• Museums of Mainz
• Monuments of Mainz

This brought back my own memories of my enjoyable visit to Mainz in 1999, when I took a lot of photos.

 

two books on julius caesar via peter stothard

Christ was Julius Caesar via Peter Stothard:

A call comes today asking why I haven't accepted that the life of Jesus Christ was invented in imitation of the life of Julius Caesar.  read on

WSJ review: What came after the Ides of March

Caesar: A Life in Western Culture
By Maria Wyke
(University of Chicago Press, 287 pages)

http://www.carotta.de/ (whatever one makes of that)

library of the villa of the papyri in herculaneum update

Courtesy of Judith Weingarten:

In search of Western civilisation's lost classics
The unique library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, buried beneath lava by Vesuvius's eruption in AD79, is slowly revealing its long-held secrets. read on

a sort of webmuseum

Three in One

• Roman Numismatic Gallery
• Roman Sculpture
• Roman Legions: The Roman Military Museum

As to using the images, please note the Copyright Policy.

blogging mythology / greek mytholgy

For mythology fans:  Both N.S. Gill and Bingley continue to blog mythology.

N.S. Gill's Mythology
N.S. Gill's Greek Mythology
Bingley's (Metamorphoses oriented)
Mine (mostly Bingley's before he started his own blog)

more on ovid: peter green

(updated 8/4)

In our recent chats on Ovid, some of us used translations by Peter Green, and since then I have become a fan of his. I recently acquired for a pittance the 1989 hardcover edition of his collection of essays, Classical Bearings: Interpreting Ancient History and Culture, re-isssued on 1998 as trade paperback.

I don't think this Bryn Mawr Classsical Review does the book full justice. But then I'm not a professional historian, and much closer to Mr. Green in age and share some of his views on postmodern scholarship.  Certainly some aspects will be outdated by now and new historical or archaeological facts may have been discovered.  I found his approach to his subjects and his writing highly entertaining.  The essays roam all over the place; a chapter list follows further below.

a blog for LacusCurtius and livius.org

For readers who look at these two websites, a blog: New at LacusCurtius and Livius.Org

"This website is maintained by Jona Lendering, and is meant to keep people updated about the websites LacusCurtius (maintained by Bill Thayer in Chicago) and Livius.Org. Occasionally, there is some other news."