Ancient Medicine by Vivian Nutton
May 31, 2007
Thanks to community member Pertinax, we have added another review...
This is a dense and wide ranging work, with heavy annotation and a formidable bibliography. The earnest scholarship is to be expected from titles published by Routledge.
This is not a work for casual reading, though its structure allows one to move between major subject areas without reading all of the text. This is a work of considered scholarship and makes great efforts to give the reader intellectual and social bearings in the classical world,. The essence of the book is that it is the first large scale history of ancient medicine in a single volume since the Victorian era...
The entire review of Ancient Medicine by Vivian Nutton
Septimius Severus
May 23, 2007
The assassination of Commodus, followed by the short reign of Pertinax and the auction of the empire to Didius Julianus, led to civil war and the rise of Septimius Severus. Though the concept of the soldier emperor was not a new development (i.e. Vespasian, Trajan), Severus’ life was strictly of the military, both before and after his accession to rule Rome. His victory led to a moderately stable administrative reign, though his continued military exploits would strain the treasury and his somewhat harsh measures would taint his relationship with the aristocracy...
Septimius Severus
The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West by Adrian Murdoch
May 15, 2007
Thanks to community member 'Decimus Caesar', we have added another review...
"Although I know their names well, I won’t mention them at all…they only lived a short while…and as a result accomplished nothing worth mentioning." So wrote the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea of the last emperors of Rome. His opinion has been shared by many people ever since, and as a result, the last decade of the Western Empire has been largely ignored outside of academic circles. It is therefore a breath of fresh air to come across a title like ‘The Last Roman’. For in this book, Adrian Murdoch has attempted to write the first popular history of Romulus Augustulus – a difficult job considering, as Murdoch tells us:
"It is not known when he was born ; it is not known when he died; it is not known where he was buried. No speeches, pronouncements or epigrams have survived. There is no hint of his likes or dislikes; there is not hint of sexuality, conventional or otherwise, to add a frision of historical excitement; there is not even any particularly gory violence."...
The entire review of The Last Roman: Romulus Augustulus and the Decline of the West by Adrian Murdoch
Carthage: A History
May 02, 2007
Community member Pantagathus provides an addition to our growing stable of ancient subject reviews...
"If you’ve ever tried to put together a decent bibliography on Carthage and Punic culture & history you know that it’s no easy task. The combination of the seeming monopoly the French had over North Africa archaeology for much of the 19th and 20th Centuries, the lack of reliable primary sources, the scarcity of experts on Punic epigraphy and advances made with each new dig all come together to ensure that finding a definitive, up to date source on the subject in English is a tall order indeed..."
Read the full review: Carthage: A History by Serge Lancel.
Didius Julianus - Auction of the Empire
May 01, 2007
The reign of Marcus Didius Severus Julianus is largely insignificant and unremarkable except for the nature in which it began, and its direct influence on the outbreak of civil war. It was Didius Julianus who bought the throne from the very same praetorians who assassinated Pertinax, his imperial predecessor.
Didius Julianus was born January 29, AD 137 likely in Mediolanum (Milan) into a prominent political family of the era. He was raised in the house of Domitia Lucilla (the mother of Marcus Aurelius) and enjoyed her support, as well as her son’s, throughout his early career. As such, Didius Julianus rose steadily through the ranks of the cursus honorum reaching the post of quaestor a year before the ‘legal’ age (such legalities were often overlooked for the immediate court of the imperial family)...
Didius Julianus - Auction of the Empire
