Roman History Books and More

modern companion readings to 'tiberius caesar'

As Lindsay Powell pointed out on our Facebook group page, there are excellent and more modern biographies of Tiberius out there after G.P. Baker, our current read:

Tiberius by Robin Seager and Tiberius the Politician by Barbara Levick. The latter is also a good source for Augustus.

As to novels, aside from Graves' I, Claudius there is Tiberius by Allan Massie.

           

a friend at hadrian's wall

Our book club member Beverly is currently digging at the Hadrian's Wall and keeps a blog:

Cats on the Wall

g.p. baker

A number of people in the reading group are fans of G.P. Baker, including myself. Not much can be found of him when googling his name except links to his books and occasional reviews.

I posted a summary of his life in 2006, G.P. Baker's life & a book review, when we read his "Justinian, the Last Roman Emperor."

Even though he wrote his biographies from the aspect of the 1920s and early 1930s, I get a lot out of his books, especially the psychological observations about his subject. And in Tiberius Caesar, he devotes quite a few pages to what he calls the "Roman word-state," which are well worth reading. One has to overlook (probably contemporary) idiosyncrasies such as singular names for peoples: "The Roman," "the German," "the Parthian," and so on. He seems to have been an autodidact, but I may well stand to be corrected.

dates for 'tiberius' chat changed

Due to circumstances beyond my control, the second "Tiberius" chat had to be changed from July 20 to July 13.   See you all at the first chat on July 6.

looking ahead to 'tiberius caesar' by g.p. baker

note to people planning to attend the book chats

I did some checking of the list of people who told me that they wanted to participate in the online chats, but there are names there who attended only once or never, and I did some house-keeping and have purged all of those from the list.

So please, anyone who is serious about attending, let me know, using the e-mail address in the chat room directions. I will set you up for the chat and will do a quick trial chat with you.

A G-mail address is not necessary but would make things easier for you.

Chat schedule for the rest of the year

You'll also find us on Facebook.

looking ahead to 'tiberius caesar' by g.p. baker (july 6 & 20)

As we are getting ready to discuss Tiberius Caesar by G.P. Baker, I have been looking for free eBooks. I found two:

• at Scribd. Can be downloaded to your computer two ways, via Facebook or by setting up an account if you haven't done so; and
• at the Internet Archive on the Daisy reader.  I'm not sure how it works, but it seems to be audio cum text, and there are also iPad applications. I will try the latter soon myself.

You can also purchase it as Google eBook from your Indie Bookseller.

Ancient historiography

• Tacitus at Sacred Texts and at Perseus
• Cassius Dio at LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer)
• Suetonius at LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer)
• Vellius Paterculus at LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer)
• Josephus at Perseus

Timeline at livius.org (Jona Lendering).

background on rosemary sutcliff, an earlier post

In 2009, when we discussed The Eagle of the Ninth, I collected some background information on Rosemary Sutcliff. Enjoy!

upcoming book chat June 15: 'the silver branch' by rosemary sutcliff

Next Wednesday, June 15, we will be discussing The Silver Branch  by Rosemary Sutcliff (also on Kindle). I personally like this novel better than the first in the series, The Eagle of the Ninth. All set in Roman Britain.

Historical figures in the book (all on Wikipedia, as usual handle with care):

• Carausius
• Allectus
• Constantius Chlorus

     
Carausius coin from Londinium mint. On the reverse, the lion, symbol of Legio IIII Flavia Felix.

Allectus Æ quinarius. Camulodunum mint.

Above right: Emperor Constantius I Chlorus. Cast in Pushkin museum after original in Antik Sammlung, Berlin.

All curtesy Wikimedia Commons 

Further background reading: A History of Roman Britain by Peter Salway.