Roman History Books and More

next book chat selection: 'winter quarters' by alfred duggan

Our selection for April 15 is the novel Winter Quarters by Alfred Duggan.  It may not be readily available in your public library, but there is always the inter-library loan service.  If you go that route, I suggest you order as soon as possible.

Alternately, online booksellers have a variety of inexpensive used copies.

Product Description:

Camul and Acco were both Gauls of the Pyrenees living at the time of Julius Caesar, both young and proud of their noble descent; Acco, also an Ovate training to be a Druid. In avenging the girl he loved Acco brought upon himself the curse of the Goddess; and in consequence both men left home to join the Roman army. The story tells of their adventures and travels which took them to Rome and across the greater part of the Empire as far as its Eastern rim. Duggan includes a brilliant account of the fate of Marcus Crassus's expedition of seven Roman legions and Gallic cavalry which set out to plunder Seleucia and met with the Parthian horse-bowmen under their leader the Surenas.' WINTER QUARTERS covers a remarkable amount of ground, and covers it convincingly... Mr Duggan throws the strengths and weaknesses of the era into sharp relief... damnably skillful'
Sunday Times

for german speakers: golo mann and antiquity

Antike und Abendland, remembering Golo Mann's 100th birthday this month, has an entry Golo Mann, die Antike und ihre Historiker – eine Spurensuche zum Hundertsten.

Golo Mann had an affinity to Roman literature:

Die Antike, genauer: die römische Literatur bildete einen nicht unwesentlichen, wenngleich wenig beachteten Teil im geistigen Haushalt Golo Manns. In Salem gehörte Latein, von Kurt Hahn persönlich unterrichtet, zu seinen Lieblingsfächern, und auf den fürsorglichen Rat von Karl Jaspers hin absolvierte er das Erste Staatsexamen für das Lehramt in diesem Fach, um einen beruflich brauchbaren Abschluß vorweisen zu können. Die gelesenen Autoren - Cicero, Sallust, Horaz und Tacitus - begleiteten ihn das Leben hindurch. 1976 erschien in der „Neuen Rundschau" ein „Versuch über Tacitus". Dem in seinen Augen letzten großen Historiker Roms fühlte er sich besonders verbunden; Stilwillen, eindringliche Personenportraits und eine pessimistische Grundhaltung kennzeichneten beider Geschichtsschreibung.

Furthermore, he was instrumental in getting Syme's Roman Revolution translated into German, and under his aegis as editor of Propyläen Weltgeschichte 3 plus of its 10 volumes were dedicated to antiquity.

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

bookplates of scholars in ancient studies

Chuck Jones, on the Ancient World Bloggers Group Blog, presents a wonderful collection of bookplates:

Bookplates of Scholars in Ancient Studies

This posting originated on The Oriental Institute: Fragments for a History of an Institution: A collaborative project intended to focus ideas and thoughts on the history of the Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago, and was first posted there on 2/14/08, and was updated on 2/28/08 and 3/14/08. Since it has now gone beyond the mission of that blog, starting August 13, 2008, I'll maintain it here in more neutral territory. It was updated on September 22, 2008 with the addition of twenty bookplates collected by Peter Pamminger and Kirsten Konrad. It was updated again on March 24, 2009 with the addition of the ISAW Vermeule bookplate.       read on

View all and enjoy!

Image Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

more teutoburg forest, on the history channel 'warriors' series

Warriors: Barbarian Massacre Airs on Thursday March 26 10:00 PM

Germany, 9 AD:  The Romans, with the greatest army in the world, are annihilated by Germanic tribes at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.  What does it take to be a warrior?  Travel the globe alongside modern-day warrior, SFC Terry Schappert, and go inside the culture of some of the most famous warriors of all time to explore their weaponry, tactics and, ultimately, their psyche.

Hat tip Eric Skelly

Hopefully, this better than Decisive Battles …

archaeological roman presence in germania east of the rhein

Update 1 (for German speakers mainly, but nice photos): Römerlager Hedemünden, for which I could not find a link before. Hat tip Adrian Murdoch.

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Both authors of the books in our upcoming book chats on the battle in the Teutoburg Forest, The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest and Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest, as well as the German book Die Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald: Arminius, Varus und das römische Germanien, discuss to a greater or lesser extent the Roman presence in Germania east of the Rhein in Augustan times (more on provincia later).  Jona Lendering has useful pages on most of them on his Germania Inferior site map.  I list them here more or less geographically, beginning closest to the Rhein and going east and south (the names are modern, the map image is from Jona's site, click to enlarge). Other than that, I found only German language sites.

Dorsten-Holsterhausen (livius.org)
Holsterhausen und die Rőmer (nice pics)
Haltern (livius.org)
Altertumskommission fűr Westfalen (scroll down to Haltern)
Oberaden (livius.org)
Altertumskommission fűr Westfalen (scroll down to Oberaden)
Römerlager Beckinghausen
Uferkastell (PDF, nice pics)

roman-germanic encounters in the late republic and early principate

For our book chat members, the content of this detailed Bryn Mawr Classical Review of the German publication Römisch-germanische Begegnung in der späten Republik und frühen Kaiserzeit. Voraussetzungen-Konfrontationen-Wirkungen. Gesammelte Studien by Dieter Timpe, 2006, should be of interest, given last Wednesday's discussion.

(my translation of the title: Roman-Germanic Encounters in the Late Republic and Early Principate)

[…] In his introduction (3-18), T. explains the impossibility of writing straightforward 'Germanic' history, principally because 'Germani' is a Roman construct. There was never an ancient, independent and self-aware Germanic 'nation', viscerally opposed to the Roman Empire, only middle and northern Europeans messily but positively interacting with their southern neighbours -- Celts, then Romans. T. argues that Rome's dealings with the northern barbarians are obscured by the paucity of the sources and their propensity to distort what they describe according to their own experiences and expectations.

[…] T.'s main themes are easy to recognise. Historiographically, he stresses that most of our sources, preferring preconception over experience, seriously misinform us about Germanic affairs. Their projection of an absolute polarity between 'Germanentum' and 'Römertum' played a crucial role in shaping German nationalism, which remains an embarrassment for contemporary German historians. However, their misinformation may be corrected by assessing what they say against the wider geographical and historical context. Historically, he is equally keen to assert that, contrary to the sources, in their practical dealings Romans and Germani were generally cooperative. His 'big idea' is certainly that under different circumstances Rome could have provincialised Germania, and that what determined otherwise was the emergence of an axis of Suebian power up the Elbe.

read all

Hat tip: Adrian Murdoch

a thesis on 3rd century a.d. coinage – free download

"...Achieved Nothing Worthy of Memory".
Coinage and Authority in the Roman Empire c. AD 260-295.
by Ragnar Hedlund

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.03.11

Ragnar Hedlund, "...Achieved Nothing Worthy of Memory". Coinage and Authority in the Roman Empire c. AD 260-295. Studia Numismatica Upsaliensia 5. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, 2008. Pp. ix, 267. ISBN 9789155471200. $89.50.
Reviewed by Clare Rowan, Macquarie University, ([email protected])

This book is available online for free download.

Hedlund's book is a published form of his doctoral thesis, submitted at Uppsala University in 2008.

Hat tip to Adrian Murdoch

'cleopatra, arsinoe, and the implications'

Kudos to David Meadows for Cleopatra, Arsinoe, and the Implications.

Just before bed last night I was deluged with bloggables, chief among which was a report in numerous newspapers about tests having been done on the bones of someone believed to be Arsinoe, Cleopatra’s murdered sister.  This one presents numerous difficulties and the press might be jumping the gun (once again), although it is clear this is hype for a television program masquerading as news …

A  lot of leaps have been taken in and by the media. I think everyone should take a deep breath.  Not ... likely!

thusnelda in the triumph of germanicus

I do hope that Robert will blog the Battle in the Teutoburg Forest and related events as history in the arts, but meanwhile here is Thusnelda im Triumphzug des Germanicus by Karl Theodor von Piloty (1826-1886).

I've come perversely to enjoy this kind of uniquely – it seems to me – bombastic 19th century type of historicizing art*, paintings which in German we disrespectfully call Schinken.  There is no real English equivalent for that term, I think.

*Dissenting views are invited …

Thusnelda at the Triumphal Entry of Germanicus into Rome
(to get the best view, click on above link and the on the image)

In the center is a proud Thusnelda with her small son Thumelicus walking among the prisoners.  Above right lounges a decadent Tiberius, with the traitor Segestes close by.  Germanicus is a dim figure way in the back left (adapted from a description by Reinhard Wolters).  The painting, begun in 1869, was the contribution by the German Reich to the 1873 World's Fair in Vienna.  It's in the Pinakothek in Munich.  A later copy, ca. 1875, is at the Met Museum in New York.

More paintings by Piloty

Images courtesy Wikimedia Commons

meanwhile, 'matters arising' continues with his 'metamorphoses' series … and also displays art about the rape of lucretia updated

Metamorphoses

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Update 2:  Lucretia: The 18th to 20th Centuries

Don't miss the links at the bottom:

ultraorange.net
The Lucretia in Art Project
The Visual History of the World

Update 1:  Lucretia: The 17th Century

Lucretia: The 16th Century

Chapter IV in Saylor's book deals with the end of Rome's regal period and the beginnings of the Republic. The part of this story that has most inspired artists is the story of the rape of Lucretia … read all

Here is another one that I found and add:

Lucretia, 1508–12
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi) (Italian, Marchigian, 1483–1520)
Pen and brown ink over black chalk, partially incised with a stylus (recto), rubbed with black chalk for transfer (verso); 15 5/8 x 11 1/2 in. (39.7 x 29.2 cm)
full view and description
courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art

challenge of preserving history – collapsed cologne archives

Update 2: Roger Pearse is also blogging on the subject. (Hat tip David Meadows)

Update 1: Updates can be found at the Archivalia blog.

Collapsed Cologne Archives Show Challenge of Preserving History
Even as the search for survivors continues, experts ponder the extent of the historical material that has been lost after part of the Cologne city archive caved in -- and how to protect cultural heritage.
Deutsche Welle
March 4, 2009

Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln
Das Historische Archiv der Stadt Köln nimmt durch den Umfang, die frühe zeitliche Erfassung und Sicherstellung seiner Archivalien einen vorderen Rang unter den öffentlichen Kommunalarchiven Deutschlands ein. Das Archivgebäude befand sich in der südlichen Altstadt an der Severinstraße nahe dem Waidmarkt. Das Gebäude ist am 3. März 2009 eingestürzt.

for german speakers: another book about the battle in the teutoburg forest

Die Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald: Arminius, Varus und das römische Germanien by Reinhard Wolters (C.H. Beck, 2., durchgesehene Auflage 2009) is another excellent treatment of the event and its era, and its aftermath.

The review in Der Spiegel, 7 January 2009 (scroll down) says:

Aus der Vielzahl einschlägiger Publikationen hebt sich dabei das Buch des Tübinger Historikers Reinhard Wolters positiv hervor: Es präsentiert seine fundierte Gesamtdarstellung knapp und übersichtlich und ist in jeder Hinsicht preiswert. Der Tonfall ist sachlich, und Wolters verzichtet auf jene narrativen Elemente, die suggerieren, der Autor sei selbst dabeigewesen.

I can whole-heartedly endorse this!  Very informative and well organized.

Hat tip: Adrian Murdoch

Another, longer, review.

archaeology as modern art?

Archaeology as Modern Art?
An exhibition at the Guggenheim reveals how archaeological sites, sacred temples, and ancient art served as sources of inspiration for 20th-century sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

Stepping inside the Guggenheim Museum on Manhattan's Upper East Side is like entering a giant, hollowed-out dollop of whipped cream. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building--stark white inside and out, with its upward spiraling ramp and flanking galleries--is a treat in itself, a big part of any visit. The structure's sleek, clean lines serve as an ideal backdrop for a wide variety of paintings, sculptures, and multimedia installations.

But a noteworthy new photography show, Noguchi: The Bollingen Journey, 1949-1956, has quietly opened along a hallway in the museum's understated ground floor, accessed by the "Annex Elevator," far from the chic, bustling rotunda ... read on

from archaeology.org/

watchmen and spartacus

With the current Watchmen mania I observe in the blogosphere – please forgive an old fogy like me – a blog post by Barry Strauss seems appropriate:

Watchmen

A review of his new book The Spartacus War, Simon & Schuster, March 2009, is forthcoming.  A first read-through is a thumbs-up – in the modern sense  ;-)

nero claudius drusus, 'drusus the elder'

Nero Claudius Drusus, also known as Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus or Drusus the Elder, brother of Tiberius and stepson of Augustus, campaigned extensively in Germania east of the Rhine until his untimely death in 14 BCE.  Adrian Murdoch, in his Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest, one of our chat subjects on March 18 and April 1, gives us quite a bit of information about Drusus, and his German campaigns.

livius.org has a timeline of Drusus' life, with links to Cassius Dio: 54.32, 54.33, 54.36.3, and 55.1.

Suetonius, in The Life of Claudius, devotes some space to Drusus, Claudius' father.

tacitus' germania et al redux

I notice that Bingley blogged ancient Germania in 2006:

roman resources on germany besides tacitus

museum and park kalkriese, place of the 'varus battle' – 2009 anniversary

Archaeological background to the clades variana battlefield can be found at the Museum und Park Kalkriese, Osnabrűcker Land, Germany.

German
English

I myself had a flying visit there in 2003, with rather meager photo results.  Meanwhile, the 2000th anniversary of the battle is here:  What happens in 2009?

Adrian Murdoch, author of Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest, has been blogging updates connected to the event, but unfortunately most of the newpaper clippings and interviews are in German.  I have saved the most interesting articles to my computer and may refer to/summarize them, blogging time permitting.

In his latest, he points to Focus Magazin: "Lots too at Focus which is developing its series 2000 Jahre Varusschlacht. It is worth keeping an eye on, as new articles appear to be going up on a daily basis at the moment."

You can also follow Adrian on Twitter.

note to book chat participants: change to eastern daylight time march 8

As of March 8, the US is switching to Daylight Savings Time.  Our chats will start as usual at 9:30 PM.

World time clock for non-USAns.

ancient written sources for the battle in the teutoburg forest

livius.org has an extensive, 7 part section on the Varus battle. In Part Two, Written sources: the authors, Jonah Lendering lists and discusses the ancient sources.

Here are the links to translations at LacusCurtius:

• Velleius Paterculus' Roman History Book II: Chapters 94‑131
  or at livius.org: Book 2, chapters 117-120
• Tacitus, Annals, 60-62
• Publius Annius Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 2.30
• Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 56, 18-24

Image: Publius Quintilius Varus on a coin from Africa
courtesy livius.org via Wikimedia Commons.

Publius Quinctilius Varus

New at LacusCurtius and Livius.org

marcus caelius, casualty of the varus battle

The monument for the Centurion Caelius from Bononia (Bologna) who perished with Varus.  In his hand he carries the vitis, a stick of the timber of the vinestock, which was a characteristic of his rank of centurion.  To the left and right are freedmen of his.

 
more views (Reproduction, Saalburg Museum)

More about Marcus Caelius, Kalkriese Museum