Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent

Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent by Kim Bowes

How did the typical person live in Rome? It is amazing the quantity of data that they are about the piece together from a time a few millennia ago. Pompeii has provided a great source as things were suddenly stopped and frozen in time. Other archaeology work has been used to find details of the life, while written records provide some clue to wages and work. Analysis is influenced by those doing the work. What was needed to subsist? It appears that most of the family would work. Children would do work when they could. Farmers often had small plots that they would farm to live on and to trade with others. It was not a life of abundance, but did seem to be survivable.

Secret History of Justinian

Secret History of Justinian by Procopius

Procopius was not a fan of Justinian. This book takes many jabs at the man, the way he ran the empire and the way that other people were treated. "Justinian, a devil in the form of a man causes the destruction of millions of men." Justinian's wife Theodora gets off a little easier and is just a sex-obsessed woman who is extremely harsh to others. The book is not very long and would be similar to a political hit piece written by the opposing party.

Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World

Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World by Colin Elliott

A plague broke through the Roman world and killed a large portion of the population. It helped amplify some of the problems that were occuring in the empire. In some cases, the responses were worse than the problems. Price controls seem like a good solution until they cause a shortage. A form of religious piety also arose as an attempt to appease the gods. Alas, this also involved attacks on those that were "different" (like Christians). The Christian ended up doing better despite the persecution. They cared for the sick. This helped them gain immunity and thus greater numbers survived.

We are unsure what the plague was that hit Rome. Perhaps it was small pox, or perhaps it was something else. There seemed to also be a plague in China around the same time, so it could have been global. There seemed to be a significant reduction in human activity during this time. Records in the Greenland ice confirm some of this changes. The epidemic was likely spread via soldiers and trade. The city got hit harder, likely due to people living in close quarters without immunity. Modern medicine can also trace some of its roots to the Roman plague.

The book is very cautious in the analysis. There are many possibilities. We are not sure what happened, but it can be fun to analyze.

Pharsalia (On the Civil War)

Pharsalia (On the Civil War) by Lucan

This is an old epic poem talking about war and Caesar. It seemed like there was a lot of violence and conflict. I had trouble getting much more from it. Long translated poems are not the easiest to grasp.

The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire

The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire by Anthony Everitt

The early history of Rome is a mixture of legend and actual history. This book covers it all from Romulus and Remus up until Julius Caesar. The book presents the legends with the history to tell the full story. There is acknowledgement that some parts are likely not factual. However, there are other "legendary" bits of history that have been uncovered as truth. There is often a bit of truth mixed in with the legend. Even if if it is not truly historical, it does provide a window into what they thought of themselves.

As the history of Rome does get more historical, it appears there are a number of lucky breaks. Rome had a persistence and a refusal to play by the common rules of battle. That allowed them to snatch victory from seeming defeat. Rome had a revolving leadership, which would result in turnover from incompetent to visionary rulers. This helped them manage to prevent Hannibal from destroying Rome. Through history, Rome had institutions that we would recognize with a great deal of "rule by the people". However, strong rulers were able to take advantage of this, thus leading to the taking of power by Caeser.

Tragedy of Empire

The Tragedy of Empire: From Constantine to the Destruction of Roman Italy (History of the Ancient World Book 7) by Michael Kulikowski

The end of the Roman Empire was not super exciting. There were various battles and religious conflict. The Eastern and Western Empires had split off. There were plenty of attacks and mergers. (Germanic Francs attacked Rome and then gave their name to a Romance language.) The narrative of this book leans to the academic side and is not super engaging. It does not help that the characters are some of the less-well known. Justinian built the Hagia Sophia and helped provide the influences for the future Islamic and Medieval Christian worlds.

The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca

The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca by Emily Wilson

Seneca is best known today for his writing. This book explores his life and the Rome that he lived in. He came from a fabulously wealthy family. He had the ear of the Roman leadership. He had an enviable position - until he was (possibly falsely) accused of being involved in an insurrection, leading to his death by suicide. His writings expressed a distaste for Roman customs such as gladiator fights. While, he acknowledged them as part of culture and punishment for crimes, he felt they had a negative impact on the spectators. His early stoic philosophy led him to question the trappings of materiality. His writings helped to influence early modern writers such as Shakespeare. (I'm so used to thinking of Shakespeare as being old, that I had to pull a rest to remind myself that Seneca was over a millenia earlier.) Christians have tried to adopt him, in part through an apocryphal conversation with Paul. Seneca's thoughts have continued to be influential today - even if they are now influencing the influencers.

The Consolation of Philosophy

Boethius wrote this discussion with "philosophy" when he was in jail, awaiting his eventual execution. He questions the justice of a world where he is imprisoned unjustly after provide so much faithful service to the state. A significant portion of the work is spent discussion the topic of predestination. How can we have free will, while God knows what will happen. He has some explanations for the topic. The thinking and writing were likely very cathartic for him.

The Blood of Olympus: The Heroes of Olympus, Book 5

The epic battle for the security of the universe finally ends. Gaea has brought out her giants and has managed to get the blood needed to appear. The demigods have managed to get a statue of Athena in position to help them. However, it is not enough. There is also an imminent battle between Roman and Greek demigods. It is narrowly avoided. The leader of the attacking Romans ends up launching the crippling blow, which ends up being suicidal also. Leo also goes on a near-suicide mission with his mechanical dragon. His dragon gives him the "resurrection" position and they are able to meet with Calypso on the hidden island. The world is saved and the Greeks and Romans now live happily together... but Apollo is in trouble. There are new scenarios, but it is the same basic Percy Jackson that kids like.

The House of Hades: The Heroes of Olympus, Book 4

The epic "kids save the world" quest continues. There is a quest through the underworld that culminates in an elevator ride up. Leo ends up on an island and falls for Calypso. There are ghosts of Roman legions that come out and fight against bad demons. There is a mind-cleared "Bob the Titan" who comes in at various times to help the kids. (Memory erasure seems to be a common theme in this series.) We also find out that the gruff satyr coach is married. The Romans and the Greeks are somewhat working together. There is plenty of rolicking adventure, though the book is longer than others.

The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus, Book 2)

The first book in the Heroes series had Jason with the Greeks. This one has Percy Jackson hanging out with the Romans in San Francisco. He has some memory loss, but it was not as bad as Jason's in the first book. He teams with some Roman demigods (including a reluctant son of Mars) to go on a quest. They are treated as relative outcasts by the Romans who are already into their bureaucratic ways. They manage some trickery of luring a giant out of Alaska so as to defeat him outside his home turf. Like usual, there is plenty of action and end-of-the-world situations.

Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe

Ravenna spent a brief period of time as the capital of the Roman Empire. However, its influence extended beyond that. It lay on the Adriatic coast and was often pulled by the Eastern Byzantines. There was a strong culture that evolved there with many artistic mosaics. Eventually, the access to the see was silted up and nearby Venice became the prime seagoing port of the area.

Rome Is Burning: Nero and the Fire that Ended a Dynasty

Nero fiddled as Rome burned. Or did he? This book analyzes the great Roman fire during the time of Nero and the impact on his reign. Nero was a fairly popular emperor among the common men. The wealthy did not respect him as much, especially after they had to pay to rebuild after the fire's destruction. He lost his empire 3 years after the fire. His reputation steadily moved downward. It is unclear if many of the atrocities attributed to him were accurate - most of them were written well after the fact. It seemed that many negative accounts may have been written as means to further bring down the reputation of the already dead leader.

Some later writers attributed the fire to Nero. Contemporaries generally did not. Nero did encourage post fire construction that was spaced further apart to decrease further blazes. He also set out a new grand architecture tradition in the rebuild. Fires had been a longstanding occurrence in Rome. The new changes helped to make them less destructive. 

A Torch Against the Night: An Ember in the Ashes, Book 2

A Torch In the Night continues right where the first book leaves off with the two leads running away. There is plenty of violent activity. Many of the characters are conflicted between loyalty towards the imperial oaths and individuals. This book gets a little more "magical" than the first book. The connection between the current world and the afterlife is explored, with somebody gaining some power there. One girl learns to better control her ability to remain invisible. People sacrifice their family for the good of the empire, even though it is obvious that it is in poor leadership. There is plenty of romance on all levels. While some characters are fairly complex, others can be much more black and white in the "good and evil" department. The novel alternates the first person perspective among a number of these characters. Overall the book feels dark with flames burning. "A torch against the night" is an adequate description.

Plutarch's Lives Volume 1

Plutarch's Lives presents the biographies of Romans and Greeks. The translation is freshly well done. However, the audiobook narration is dry and of low quality. This work is really long - and is only volume one. He presents complete biographies of important Roman and Greek people. There would be bits of similarity and repetition. (There seemed to be a ancient desire to watch people get killed. Has our media violence now satiated that morbid desire?) He compares the different people with a good amount of opinion. (Somebody was described as a great leader, though he would have been greater if he were not a drunk.) This is not the best book to read through. However, it would serve as a good source for research on important figures of antiquity.

Bronze Bow

A Jewish boy (Daniel) vows vengence against the Romans. He joins a band of mountain robbers that are fighting for the cause of freedom. One task he has is to help capture a large slave being transported by some traders. This slave ends up being one of his "burdens" (though he later realizes he is a friend.)

He ends up caring for his disabled sister after her previous caretaker dies. He comes to know life in the town better. He also knows the people who are being hurt by the acts of the robbers. However, he still supports them and their cause of freedom. One day, one of his friends (Joel) is caught. When the leader of the band of robbers refuses to help him, Daniel organizes a group on his own to rescue him. He does it, but at the cost of the black slave and another friend.

During this time, he also meets with Jesus. He marvels at his understanding of doctrine and his simple explanations. He hopes he will be their leader. However, he is not willing to drop the hatred that he feels towards the Romans.

His sister had made great progress towards normalcy. However, it turns out she had been talking with a homesick Roman legion. This drove Daniel nearly to the breaking point. He wanted to kill the Roman to seek his revenge. This hatred, however, nearly led to the death of his sister. Finally at the end of the story, after his sister has been healed by Jesus he gets the courage to forgive the Roman and let him know about his sister.

The story provides the powerful contrast between the force of hatred and the force of love. The Roman legion was also serving from a conquered land. He was just a normal person with normal emotions. Daniel's hatred made it difficult for him to see through the uniform to the person beneath.

Daniel observed that some people may not really want to be healed from their ailments. (Perhaps the blind man would be disturbed by what he would see.) However, he failed to see the same with his country's condition. (The Romans were rather benign rulers and their overthrow could leave somebody even worse in power.) The blinders of hatred can cause bad things to happen and end up destroying the hater even more than the target of their vengeance.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

The Roman Empire lasted for a long time. Thus, a work tracing the details of the empire takes up a lot of space. Gibbons focuses on the Empire itself, leaving out the history of Rome before it became an "empire".

I listened to the audiobook which alternated between the actual text of Gibbon and brief synopses of abridements. Alas, this gave it an encyclopedic tone and broke the narrative flow. It seemed as if they were intentionally trying to make it boring with the abridgment and musical interludes.

One point that I did get from his work is that he considers the institutionalization of Christianity as a primary factor leading to the empire's fall. Ironically, this institution lead to the one remaining empire emanating from Rome, the Catholic church. This religious "empire" ended up supplanting the remnants of the worldly one in Constantinople. Maybe Rome is doing right after all.

The Ruin of the Roman Empire: A New History

[From 2009] O'Donnell attempts to tell the history of the Roman Empire through our modern multicultural sentiments. He is somewhat successful at removing the biases of the historians of antiquity - but then steers the history directly through the biases and modern day worldview.
The book's biggest downfall, however, is the lack of focus. He shows his knowledge by bringing in Wagner-playing Ipods and various Shakespeare characters. However, he fails to provide a compelling narrative. Whole sections often appear to do nothing more than show off his literary knowledge, rather than advance the narrative. With a little more focus, this book could have potential.

Hebrews, Greeks and Romans: The Foundations of Western Thought

Hebrews , Greeks , and Romans : The Foundations of Western Civilization ( Course Guide ) (THE MODERN SCHOLAR)

It starts out good, but my interest faded when he started going in to details about the Greeks and Romans. I had recently heard a lot of the similar material and was hoping for more details putting everything together. Instead it was a big narrative of the Odyssey, Illiad, Socrates, Aneid, and how they are all important. That is all nice, but more useful would be how they all built upon each other and how the different areas combined to give us our modern western thought. For that, we do have bits and pieces such as descriptions of how some Greek philosophical views are the root in communist arguments. However, we really didn't get much more until the last lectures where he finally ties everything together. If the middle lectures kept up the quality it would have been much more enlightening.

The Aeneid of Virgil

I had always thought if the Aeneid as simply a Roman rip-off of the Odyssey. That might still be true. However, these lectures help show the importance it has on its own. It has endured as one of the most studied Latin texts, and thus is useful in understanding many subsequent literary works. It also was written at a time when many Greek sources were available, and thus has additional clues about the Trojan war that are not available today. And perhaps of greatest importance, it is useful for understanding the Roman psyche.

Virgil composed the Aeneid in the time of Augustus Caesar, and used it as chance to showcase the current Roman view of themselves. The adventures of Aeneas can be easily compared with those of the Greeks in the Odyssey and Iliad. The differences showcase different worldviews that the Romans had of themselves vs. the Greeks. The Romans saw themselves as "rulers" who came from elsewhere to adopt good points of others' cultures and rule over them. Loyalty to the state was important.

The lectures here start with a general Roman historical background, then go through the Aeneid,providing a summary of each section before it is discussed. This provides a quick introduction to the Aeneid, as well as background to understanding it. Events such as "funeral games" are explained in the context of their day to help with the interpretation of the work. Historical tidbits (like the fact that Virgil thought it was unfinished and wanted it destroyed) are also intriguing. Now I just need to learn enough Latin to slog through the original.