UNRV Ancient Roman Empire History

As a German-American I try to be conversant with the contributions of Germanic speaking peoples to history, from Mozart to Mercedes-Benz. And yet I only have the dimmest knowledge of German civilization before the 1600s. Trying to correct that problem, I read The Early Germans. Malcom Todd delivers a serviceable overview of the barbarians who [...]

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill has a strong association with Italy and specifically with Herculaneum having been director of the British School at Rome between 1995 and 2009. Since 2001 he has been the director of the Herculaneum Conservation Project, tasked with addressing the many ills that had befallen Herculaneum in previous centuries of excavation and display. This [...]

In 1993, R W Mathisen, currently Professor of History at the University of Illinois, wrote Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul: Strategies for Survival in an Age of Transition. At the time of its publication the book was acclaimed as an excellent, scholarly examination of the impact of the barbarian invasions on the “Roman” aristocrats of [...]

Alan Cameron (born 1938) is a British classicist, Charles Anthon Professor of the Latin Language and Literature at Columbia University. Cameron gained a BA from Oxford University, and his MA in 1964. He has taught at Columbia University since about 1977. In March 1997 he was awarded the American Philological Association’s Goodwin Award of Merit [...]

This 521 page book by Richard Miles, a specialist in the history of Punic, Roman and late antique North Africa, is claimed to be “the first full-scale history of Carthage in decades” and as such “draws on a wealth of new archaeological research”. With a bibliography containing 5 pages of ancient texts, 29 of modern [...]

Through Hollywood films, Television documentaries and re-enactments by the Ermine Street Guard, everyone now knows what an Imperial Roman soldier looks like. He wears a red tunic over which he has segmented iron armour, the famously distinctive Imperial-Gallic helmet, hobnailed sandals and a heavy rectangular shield. This image has become deeply associated with ancient Rome [...]

The Druids. Priests of a savage race who delighted in human sacrifice? Or wise men in white robes who communed with nature? These are the usual two views of Druidism served to the public; the first based on a Roman stereotype and the latter a Romantic reinvention. Somewhere between these extreme views lies a historical [...]

Zonaras was a major functionary in the Byzantine court of the twelfth century. His Epitome Historiarum (Extracts of History), in eighteen books, covered the history of the world from the creation to the twelfth century. It is one of the few sources covering the history of the third and fourth centuries, and it is therefore [...]

In his new novel, following on from Wounds of Honour and Arrows of Fury, Riches returns to the tale of Marcus Aquila, in his faltering guise as Centurion Corvus amongst the Tungrian cohorts. A man hiding in plain sight from the Emperor`s covetous rage and the actions of Imperial agents sent from Rome to ensure [...]

Had I not been committed to reviewing these DVDs for UNRV, I might have taken a hammer to them halfway through and gladly forgotten about the whole thing. In seeking to present “the other side of Roman history” and rescue Europe’s other peoples from Roman propaganda, Terry Jones demonizes Ancient Rome as a brutal oppressor [...]

In the sixth century the tension between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanid Empire of Persia dominated the political landscape in the “Fertile Crescent”. To all intents and purposes the Arabs were sandwiched between these two monolithic empires and were often forced to choose between them. Unfortunately, the dominance of Rome and Persia resulted [...]

Russell is the author of the novels Gladiatrix and Roma Victrix. The first visceral adventure, set in 1st century Asia Minor, was suggested by the famous Gladiatrix stele found near Halicarnassus in the 19th century. Roma Victrix takes Lysandra to a new arena where she must face the greatest challenge of her life – a [...]

Melanie McDonald`s Eromenos, is a fictional journal in the voice of the youthful Antinous of Bithynia, second century beloved of the hellenophile Emperor Hadrian. In this richly worded and well-researched novel the author skillfully imagines Roman history`s most famous same sex relationship. As confidants we accompany Antinous while he unburdens his heart in chapters titled [...]