While reading the Augustus novels for our upcoming book chat, I dug out Ramsay MacMullen's Romanization in the Time of Augustus.
Although a slim volume, the book is packed with information. Bryn Mawr Classical Review has an extensive review, well worth reading.
This is an unexpected book.
There have been many studies in recent years of Romanization but most
have taken a long term look at some small part of the whole -- Athens,
Britain, Gaul. Here we have a study which should not work very well. The
period is too short and the canvas too broad; the book itself should be
too long for such a short period or inadequate for the scale of the
enterprise. And yet the outcome is very successful. The book is highly
readable, stimulating and one often feels the author has stopped well
short of smothering his theme with everything he might have mustered
from his impressively wide and up-to-date reading list.
read on
My copy is a 2008 paperback reissue of the book published and reviewed in 2000. There is no mention in the new edition of any revisions or additions. I wonder whether the bibliography at least has been updated.
