[spittle]

After checking Abebooks.com I know that volumes 3,4,5,6 and 7 are available (at considerable cost) and a volume simply entitled Roman Papers.

My question is this:
Is Roman Papers just volume one?

Has anyone seen the full set?
Opinions valued on this expensive set of books.

This post has been edited by spittle: 04 October 2006 - 11:53 AM

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Wow these books really are expensive!!

Your talking nearly £500 for volumes 3-7

I'm not sure about the first two volumes it dosn't give any information as to the contents of the books

By the way, what are these books about anyway?

[spittle]

A series of essays.

It says on one of the Abebooks listings that 'Before his death in 1989 Sir Ronold Syme gave permission for the publication of his Roman Papers. They are the culmination of his lifes work...'

A few of the really fanatical forum members speak very highly of Syme.

[phil25]

Syme studied Roman familial relationships - I think the technical word is "prosopography" (spelling may be wrong, it's 6.30am as I type!!).

The papers may well be his work in that field - short essays on who married who, filling in blanks in the record. Syme used the relationships to extrapolate political alliances etc.

He wrote interesting stuff and added much to our knowledge, but I don't know how widely accepted ALL his conclusions are today.

I haven't seen these volumes so cannot comment or be specific about their content. A good university library (or even a good public library) should be able to get them on loan for you though, surely? Does the US operate an inter-library loan service as in the UK?

Phil

[Divi Filius]

AHM Jones also wrote a good Prosopography of the late Roman Empire, I have only gotten a chance to skim through it when i was in an upstate NY University which my friend attends. Its still pretty expensive at 300-400.
Neverthless, I can hardly picture myself reading such a thing without falling over dead...

This post has been edited by Divi Filius: 05 October 2006 - 06:55 PM

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Divi Filius, on Oct 5 2006, 07:54 PM, said:

Neverthless, I can hardly picture myself reading such a thing without falling over dead...

Hehe, i know what you mean, i imagine it will be pretty intense stuff, i'm sensing a headache coming on just thinking about it :P