Persian Fire
November 26, 2007
A review by forum moderator "Ursus"...
"If I told you that you could profit from reading the historical treatise of a writer of vampire novels, you might look at me askance. But what if the novelist in question were educated at Cambridge and Oxford, and had written extensively on the classics? What if he were the author of the unforgettable Rubicon? Yes, indeed, Tom Holland is back. Having offered us the fall of the Roman Republic, Holland now enmeshes us in even grander topics"...
Read the full review of Persian Fire by Tom Holland
Justinian's Flea by William Rosen
November 12, 2007
A review by forum moderator "Pertinax"...
"When I was sent this work I had initially supposed I would be receiving an account of the first of the Justinian epidemiological episodes in 541 CE (which re-appeared thereafter in various “waves” of subsiding deadliness for nearly two hundred years). However the work is something wider than that, and therefore of greater interest to a more catholic audience. It could be recommended as a “ general view of the Justinian World” with its notable judicial and architectural excellence, or as a study of a great Chief Executive (perhaps equal or greater than Augustus dare I say?), his able wife Theodora and very able general Belisarius. It is a litany of geo-political triumphs engineered by these enormously important figures and others within their political and social orbit..."
Read the full review of Justinian's Flea by William Rosen.
Alexander the Great by Paul Cartledge
November 01, 2007
A review by "Ursus"
"The legacy of Alexander the Great should be apparent to any Romanophile. While there had been cultural diffusion occurring between East and West for some time, Alexander’s politico-military schemes radically facilitated the trend. The subsequent Greco-Oriental fusion of the Hellenistic era penetrated Rome, and through it Western Europe. It is hard to think of Roman imperial era religion in general, and Christianity in particular, developing as it did without Alexander. Alexander’s legacy also created an imperial idea that influenced Romans such as Pompei and Caesar. Alexander’s former domains would later form the basis of the Eastern half, and many would say the culturally and financially richer half, of Rome’s vast dominion..."
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