Roman History Books and More

lacuscurtius and livius.org: informative sites about ancient rome

LacusCurtius - A Gateway to Ancient Rome, run by Bill Thayer, is one of the most informative websites on the subject. livius.org is operated by Jona Lendering.

Together, they have a blog with news about their respective websites: New at LacusCurtius & Livius, as well as book reviews and other news.

Enjoy!

Related articles

Roman Ruins HD for iPad is a terrific way to explore ancient Rome

sarahpothecary.com

sarahpothecary.com

Major project: Sarah Pothecary’s current project is the translation into English of Strabo’s Geography, originally written in Greek in the first quarter of the first century CE. The work is extremely long and complex, containing approximately a third of a million words. Yet it has much to offer, both to modern readers whose main interests lie in the contemporary world and those whose focus is on antiquity.

Of special interest: Peer-reviewed books and journal articles

a neat website about strabo the geographer by sarah pothecary

Strabo the Geographer

"[This map], representing Strabo’s conceptualisation of the northern hemisphere, was drawn by P.F.J. Gossellin in 1805-19, to accompany the French translation of Strabo’s Geography by Laporte du Theil, Korais and Letronne, undertaken at the request of the emperor Napoleon."

Don't miss the link ‘Globalisation and empire: lessons from the ancient world.’

ancient sources for the spartacus war

One of the reasons why Spartacus is so difficult to assess is the scarcity and disparity of the ancient sources. Barry Strauss in The Spartacus War, our current read, discusses the issue on pages 218/219, and in more detail throughout the book.  If only we had the contemperary Sallust's "Histories," but there are only a few tantalizing fragements left. The only other contemporary is Cicero with various speeches and the Orations Against Verres.

Here are the online sources I could find:

Jona Lendering at livius.org has a page on Spartacus, and I compiled the ancient sources he links to:

• Appian 1.7 scroll down to 116
  from Civil Wars at LacusCurtius
• Plutarch on Spartacus
  from Lives of Plutarch at LacusCurtius
• Florus on Spartacus
  from Florus: Epitome of Roman History at LacusCurtius
• Periochae of Livy's History, 91-95, 96-100

From the sources discussed by Barry Strauss, there is also Frontinus: The Strategemata (LacusCurtius). Strauss writes:

The Strategemata are a collection of over 500 examples of devices, ruses, ploys, creative ideas from history, intended by Frontinus as a sort of checklist for the military commander. The work is an appendix to his work on the Art of War, which has not survived; I suspect the interesting "stories" appealed far more to medieval copyists and readers than the deeper theoretical work: it is a great pity.

I'd be gratefull for any other online links anyone can find.

I searched JSTOR for Spartacus but was rather disappointed with what I found.

late-third century urban defenses in south Languedoc

Thanks to Lindsay Powell for finding this!   (History of the Ancient World)

Writing on the wall: late-third century urban defenses in south Languedoc
By Douglas Underwood
PhD Dissertation, University of Missouri–Columbia, 2009

This thesis takes the three largest cities in Roman south Languedoc-Narbonne, Carcassonne and Toulouse -and reexamines the evidence, both archaeological and literary, about the city walls. I conclude that these walls, indeed built in the late third or early fourth century, were not hastily constructed and did not only enclose a small portion of the city. Further, the construction of monumental walls at this date shows a level of economic vitality. This argues against the commonly assumed dismal situation and suggests that the problems of the “third-century crisis” did not affect south Gaul in ways previously thought.

City of Narbonne in south of France, and the Saint Just cathedral
viewed from the Gilles Aycelin dungeon.
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

the phoenician ship expedition

Phoenicia, the Phoenician Ship Expedition

Hat tip: Judith Weingarten

The Phoenician Ship Expedition launched from Arwad, Syria in August 2008, to sail through the Suez Canal, and into the Red Sea. Phase One of the expedition was completed in January 2009 when Phoenicia reached the Republic of Yemen.

Phase Two launched in August 2009 to sail round the Horn of Africa and down the east coast.  Negotiating the dangers of the Cape of Good Hope was a critical point in the expedition.  The voyage continued up the west coast of Africa, through the Straits of Gibraltar and across the Mediterranean to return to the Lebanon and Syria in October 2010.

Follow the ship's blog.

virgil.org, aeneid maps

Book chat member Vicky C. shares this:

I have a hard time picturing where Aeneas went between Troy and Carthage so I needed some maps.

This page has a map showing cities as well as countries.
http://www.clta.net/lessons/latin/aeneid.html

N.S. Gill found these old maps.
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/aeneid/ss/062409AeneidMaps.htm

This is an interesting one, but kind of overwhelming.
http://www.communitywalk.com/the_aeneid_map/map/449768

Actually, Googling “Aeneid” and “map” gets you plenty of links.  There may be better ones further down in the list.

Indeed, googling leads us to Maps at virgil.org and the Virgil Resources aka virgil.org.

The chats will take place September 15 and October 6 & 20.

new website: pompeiviva

POMPEIVIVA website now complete.

The site is in Italian, English and Spanish, and includes information about how to get to Pompeii, Herculaneum, Boscoreale, Stabiae and Oplontis, how to buy tickets, suggested tourist itineraries, opening hours, events and exhibitions and even rules for visiting.

An excellent interactive site.

blogging pompeii – a great blog

Blogging Pompeii

"This blog is for all those who work on Pompeii and the other archaeological sites of the Bay of Naples. Here we share news and information about Pompeii and the other sites, and we discuss current research."

Enjoy!

There is also a related Facebook page.

a new way of reading herodotus online

(Hat tip: N.S. Gill)

Herodotus Time Map is an interactive feature that combines Herodotus' text (in English and Greek) with maps.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could read Strabo's Geography the same way?

There are also two related PDF documents:

• Repurposing Perseus: the Herodotus Encoded Space-Text-Image Archive (HESTIA)
• Mapping an ancient historian in a digital age

Image: Bust of Herodotus. 2nd century AD. Roman copy after a Greek original.  On display along the portico of the Stoa of Attalus, which houses the Ancient Agora Museum in Athens. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

for military history buffs: the roman legions …

… all you wanted know and more

Just a few days ago I came across these excellent pages at livius.org:  The Roman Legions, and Geographical Overview of same.  Jona Lendering has put together an extensive catalog:

On this site, you will find an alphabetical and chronological catalogue of the imperial legions. An overview of the armies in certain provinces is here.

Don't miss the New at Lacus Curtius & Livius blog by Jona Lendering and Bill Thayer.

Irene's photo:

Titus Flavius Bassus Stele 2nd half of 1st century CE
Top section of the funerary monument for T. Flavius Bassus Mucalae, an eques of an auxiliary troop from Noricum Province, of the tribe of the Desenter. Romano-Germanic Museum, Cologne.

timelines of art history, metropolitan museum roman republic and roman empire

An e-mail from the MetMuseum today led me to its Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, and the subsections Roman Republic and Roman Empire.  Both pages have related timelines and links to Thematic Essays.

They are interactive in many ways, as the Fresco wall painting from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale shows.

Fresco wall painting in a cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
ca. 40–30 b.c., Late Republican Roman, Pilaster

Image courtesy www.metmuseum.org, click on it for interactive page.

musica romana

The Ensemble Musica Romana

…is bringing sounds of times long past to life again. By research of ancient music and reconstruction of ancient instruments they successfully revive archaic sounds and forgotten melodies.

The group Musica Romana was founded in 2001 and unites archaeologists, historians,ethnologist, musicians and interested technicians sharing an interest in Experimental Archaeology, Living History, museal paedagogics and of course, music and dance. We are having a lot of fun researching, planning and reconstructing our instruments correctly in detail, as well as studying, composing and rehearsing our music. We aim to make the music of times long gone comprehensible to our modern audience, to express our love for unconventional and non-commercial music and to respect scientific correctness towards the ancient sources of musical theory as well as towards contemporary research.

German site

Hat tip: Caroline Lawrence

play what the romans played, on your mac (sorry, windows users!)

hat tip Caroline Lawrence

Now you can play what the Romans played on your Macintosh computer.  Using the latest in Artificial Intelligence, we’ve recreated this ancient game for your enjoyment.  It’s completely free, and is licensed under an Open Source license.

Welcome to Latrunculi for Mac OS X

Latrunculi at Smith's Dictionary (LacusCurtius)

LATRUʹNCULI (πεσσοί, ψήφοι), draughts.  The invention of a game resembling draughts was attributed by the Greeks to Palamedes (Abacus, § 5).  The game is certainly mentioned by Homer, who represents the suitors of Penelope amusing themselves with it (Od. I.107). Others ascribed the invention to the Egyptian Theuth (Plat. Phaedr. p274d);  and the paintings in Egyptian tombs, which are of far higher antiquity than any Grecian monuments, not unfrequently represent persons employed in this recreation.   read on

public libraries in ancient rome

Robert blogged this yesterday and I find this very appropriate for our blog and reading group: we do rely heavily on public libraries. Robert writes:

Although Julius Caesar had planned to build a public library in Rome, he was assassinated before he could put his plan into operation. It fell to one of his adherents, Asinius Pollio, to build a public library in the Atrium Libertatis financed from the spoils of his 39 BC war against an Illyrian tribe, the Parthini. His library contained both Greek and Latin works, possibly in separate wings. Augustus, Octavia, and Tiberius also founded public libraries.

Unfortunately, we don't know precisely how the libraries worked: whether people were allowed to borrow books or only read them in the library, who was allowed to use the libraries and many other details. We do know that an east facing room was recommended to take advantage of the light, so presumably opening hours were in the morning rather than the late afternoon or evening.

Two general articles on libraries in the ancient world, one in French and one in English. An article on the location of the public libraries in Rome.

Go to Matters Arising

clickable plan of trajan's harbour in portus (ostia antica)

Ostia Antica presents a clickable plan of Trajan's harbour in Portus

… accompanied by a text-menu (main entry: Portus). The plan that we chose was made by Italo Gismondi and published by Lugli in 1935. We added short descriptions of many buildings and improved the descriptions of buildings that were already online. The ruins of Portus are mostly covered by earth today, after centuries of what we would call today plundering. It is extremely difficult to understand the site, and we hope that the clickable plan will make it a bit easier for you. Clickable plans will be added in the near future for the basin of Claudius and the north part of the Isola Sacra. We will keep consulting the recent publications by the Soprintendenza and the Portus Project, and summarize the results for you. Use Google Earth to get an idea of the tremendous challenge that the Soprintendenza is facing. Portus is "in the shade" of Leonardo da Vinci airport and "strangled" by roads, highways and railways. It is virtually impossible to visit the site on foot. There have been successful protection orders by the Italian State, but part of the site is still private property of the Torlonia family, part of it is rather unprotected. For an analysis of the current situation see especially Lidia Paroli writing in Keay 2005, p. 56.

(from Yahoo Group Ostia-L)

stuff you usually only find on jstor: 'the antiquary's shoebox'

The Antiquary's Shoebox
A Selection of Articles from Various Journals in the Fields of Classics and Archaeology

Courtesy Bill Thayer, who writes:  "The thumbnail I use to indicate this subsite is a colorized version of a drawing that seemed appropriate to me; I found it in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, on p978, s.v. Pyxis."

Hat tip Adrian Murdoch

'encyclopaedia romana'

Bill Thayer gently chided me in two comments of his that I mistook him for Jim Grout in posts of mine. 
So here are my apologies and Jim's website, which has the same host as Bill Thayer's:

ENCYCLOPÆDIA ROMANA
ROME. THE HOME OF EMPIRE AND ALL PERFECTION

Enjoy the site and the photos!

ostia antica

David Meadows tweeted Berlin-Kent Ostia Excavations, a nice blog, whence I got to this extensive and very active site:

Ostia, Harbour City of Ancient Rome (Ostia antica)

This website is dedicated to Ostia, the harbour city of ancient Rome.  Here you will find information for professional archaeologists and historians, for students of Roman archaeology and history, and for interested lay-people. The site is maintained by the Internet Group Ostia.

There are lots of things to explore, from the introduction with time line, history and maps to ancient texts, an amazing topographical dictionary, computer reconstructions, virtual museum, videos, Yahoo group, and more.

wikipedia and weasel words

Looking at Catiline on Wikipedia, I came across the term Weasel Words, very helpful for all of us who do look at Wikipedia but with the proviso "handle with care."

Weasel words are words or phrases that seemingly support statements without attributing opinions to verifiable sources. They give the force of authority to a statement without letting the reader decide whether the source of the opinion is reliable. If a statement can't stand on its own without weasel words, it lacks neutral point of view; either a source for the statement should be found, or the statement should be removed. If a statement can stand without weasel words, they may be undermining its neutrality and the statement may be better off standing without them.