Which of lost works do you miss most?

[Julius Ratus]

The Emperor Claudius wrote two histories, one on the Etruscans and another on the Carthaginians. Both are lost and both are about cultures we know next to nothing about.

 

By the way, I had heard that Claudius had a good reputation as a historian. Is this correct or just too much I CLAVDIVS?

[The Augusta]

Like everyone else, I mourn the gaps in Livy and Tacitus, as well as the earliest accounts of Rome's history and other sources used by Livy and Tacitus. Didn't Asinius Pollio write a history? That would have been interesting as he was an Antonian.

 

I also greatly regret the loss of Agrippa's biography and Agrippina's memoirs. Had Agrippina's memoirs survived (and they were never going to, were they?) it would at least provide us with a major work by an imperial Roman woman. Whatever truth or nonsense is to be found in personal memoirs, although they may not be as historically valuable as an objective history, they would at least have given us some insights into the personalities involved.

[metforce]

Many of the lost works of the Later Roman Empire. Ammianus Marcellinus is our chief historian for the period and there is a lack of good readable texts (of the quality of Tacitus,Suetonius etc) to be found for this era, but that doesn't mean that they didn't exist.

 

Along this line, Priscus. If his works were complete we might have a better idea what was going on when the empire was fragmenting. I also find his material easier to read than Macellinus or Sidonius, which in my opinion get too formal for my tastes.

[Capri]

Livy and Tacitus work but also Pliny the Elders books on how to fight the germans which become an instruction manual for the legions in Germany.

[Vibius Tiberius Costa]

I mourn for the lost bok of Tacitus and the missing booksof livy, I would also like to add the petty scholar (whos name has esacped me) of Marcus Aemillius lepidus who drew a line with a stick around King Antiochus the 2nd (i think). He sounds like a man worth recording with more grandeur but most of his biographys were destroyed by Sulla. Please correct me if im wrong or you can remember the name of his biographer?

BTW fantastic topic, you should really do a poll

[Gladius Hispaniensis]

I think it's a crying shame that we do not have a historian of Josephus's calibre to record the second and final Judean revolt, the one led by Bar Kokhba. From hindsight it seems to have been far more bloody and destructive than the previous result of the '60s CE. A detailed account of the campaign and a fulsome description of the Roman Army's tactics in that era is something I really crave.

Also if someone wrote a history of the early following of Jesus and his immediate disciples - St. James etc. that is something I really miss a lot

[Caesar CXXXVII]

I think it's a crying shame that we do not have a historian of Josephus's calibre to record the second and final Judean revolt, the one led by Bar Kokhba.

 

Agreed !

 

 

From hindsight it seems to have been far more bloody and destructive than the previous result of the '60s CE.

 

Not so sure , we have the Jewish Talmud where the revolt of 66 to 70 is described as "המרד הגדול" that is "The great revolt" and the revolt of 132 to 135 as "מרד בר כוכבא" that is just "the bar Cochba revolt" .

[Northern Neil]

All the Christian writings destroyed in the 4th - 5th centuries. Also, the Dead Sea Scrolls which were bought up by the Vatican. Whether they were subsequently destroyed or simply placed 'beyond use' on account of their content, they are effectively lost.

[spittle]

Any of the autobiographical material that Augustus wrote during his lifetime would be a major find. I believe its all lost and we just have fragments in the form of quotes in other peoples works.

 

The best possible memoir (IMHO) would have been if Livia had told ALL on her death bed to a scribe. It would have been far more exciting than I,CLAVDIVS! From her near death as a rebel against Octavian (running through a burning forest clutching the infant TIBERIUS to her chest) to her being one of the three people that made AUGUSTUS into the man he became (The other two were AGRIPPA and MAECEANAS).

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

What about the Sibylline Scrolls?

 

The original Sibylline Books were closely-guarded oracular scrolls written by prophetic priestesses (the Sibylls) in the Etruscan and early Roman Era as far back as the 6th Century B.C.E. These books were destroyed, partially in a fire in 83 B.C.E., and finally burned by order of the Roman General Flavius Stilicho (365-408 C.E.).

 

It would have been pretty interesting to see what all the fuss was about.

[Gladius Hispaniensis]

I think it's a crying shame that we do not have a historian of Josephus's calibre to record the second and final Judean revolt, the one led by Bar Kokhba.

 

Agreed !

 

 

From hindsight it seems to have been far more bloody and destructive than the previous result of the '60s CE.

 

Not so sure , we have the Jewish Talmud where the revolt of 66 to 70 is described as "המרד הגדול" that is "The great revolt" and the revolt of 132 to 135 as "מרד בר כוכבא" that is just "the bar Cochba revolt" .

Ave Caesar

You may have a point there. I was just saying that because the Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in not only the final diaspora of the Jewish people from the Holy Land, but effectively the changing of Jerusalem into a totally pagan city, as you probably know. There were many Jews in Judea still after the first revolt.

[spittle]

SIBYLINE SCROLLS.

 

There is quite a lot of reference to these in RUBICON by Tom Holland. The part that sticks in my mind was something to do with burying a Gaul and a Greek alive, under the forum (?) to prevent some catastrophe.

[Caesar CXXXVII]

I think it's a crying shame that we do not have a historian of Josephus's calibre to record the second and final Judean revolt, the one led by Bar Kokhba.

 

Agreed !

 

 

From hindsight it seems to have been far more bloody and destructive than the previous result of the '60s CE.

 

Not so sure , we have the Jewish Talmud where the revolt of 66 to 70 is described as "המרד הגדול" that is "The great revolt" and the revolt of 132 to 135 as "מרד בר כוכבא" that is just "the bar Cochba revolt" .

Ave Caesar

You may have a point there. I was just saying that because the Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in not only the final diaspora of the Jewish people from the Holy Land, but effectively the changing of Jerusalem into a totally pagan city, as you probably know. There were many Jews in Judea still after the first revolt.

 

Hi G xx

 

Off topic again - Yes , the Bar Cochba's/Cozba's revolt sealed Jews fate for some 1,800 years , no doubt . It is a possibility that without the 132-135 revolt the Jews could have survived as a political entity despite the destruction of the temple in 70 . Hadrian edicts about Judaea/Palestina , Jerusalem/Aelia Capitolina etc' were too much for them .

Edited January 19, 2007 by Caesar CXXXVII

[The Augusta]

Any of the autobiographical material that Augustus wrote during his lifetime would be a major find. I believe its all lost and we just have fragments in the form of quotes in other peoples works.

 

The best possible memoir (IMHO) would have been if Livia had told ALL on her death bed to a scribe. It would have been far more exciting than I,CLAVDIVS! From her near death as a rebel against Octavian (running through a burning forest clutching the infant TIBERIUS to her chest) to her being one of the three people that made AUGUSTUS into the man he became (The other two were AGRIPPA and MAECEANAS).

 

 

Give me a chance, Paul - I'm doing it...I'm doing it.... But she's not telling it to a scribe - far too old hat!

[P.Clodius]

All of what you have all mentioned plus the writings of the first roman historian, Q. Fabius Pictor