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    When I first picked up Theogony, I admit that I did not have high hopes. Being a very small book, written by a poet I never heard of before, with a lengthy introduction bigger than the poem itself, I considered putting it down in favour of Homer or Virgil. However, despite my initial misgivings, I read it, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing, and how enjoyable this little poem really was to read...

     

    ...read the full review of Theogony by Hesiod (translation by Richard S. Caldwell)

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    The study of Late Antiquity always has to face up to one overriding factor: in 476 (the traditional date), the Western Empire of Rome ceased to exist. The difficulty with reading many books on the period is that the story and analysis revolves around this pivotal date.
     
    Analysis of events prior to 476 are seen in hindsight as leading to the Fall, whilst events after 476 are interpreted as if the participants at the time knew that a major event had just occurred. Obviously, such interpretations are misleading. The vast majority of the people living at the time saw only gradual change, with only the rapid turnover of ineffectual political leaders and the now-omnipresent barbarian settlements indicating that something was going wrong...
     
    ...read the full review of 428 AD An Ordinary Year at the End of the Roman Empire by G. Traina
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    The Eagle is not a terrible movie, but neither is it a good movie. Those who read the novel on which it was based can relive their childhood fantasies. The rest of us get a plot riddled with cliches but backed up by some action scenes and nice scenery. Marcus Flavius Aquila is a man who, by his very name, is destined to live and die by the eagle. His father commanded the Ninth Legion who (for some reason) marched into the vast wasteland of the Scottish highlands, never to be seen again. The legionary eagle, as we eventually learn, was captured by a particularly nasty set of barbarian natives who keep it as a trophy to inspire their young warriors...
     
    ...read the full review of The Eagle (2010) by Kevin Macdonald
     
     
     
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    Many tomes have been written about Rome`s army and the battles it fought on land. The role and achievements of its navy, however, has received relatively scant attention. This is odd given the number of recorded naval engagements and the role the navy played in enforcing Roman authority by patrolling the rivers of the northern frontier and the expanse of the Mediterranean Sea. This is not for lack of interest in ancient warships either. Several have been built over the years by different groups in Europe, including the Victoria by the University of Hamburg based on the remains of a Roman patrol boat found at Oberstimm. Even as I write, a team of enthusiasts is building a liburna at Millingen in The Netherlands which will soon patrol Rhenus flumen as its ancestors once did...
     
    ...read the full review of Roman Warships by Michael Pitassi
     
     
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    The author Valerie M. Hope lectures in the Department of Classical Studies at the Open University and focuses her research on Roman funerary customs and funerary monuments. She already has published several books on this topic. The present volume is part of the "Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World" series which are compilations of Ancient sources on certain topics. Concerning Death in Ancient Rome the sources include literature such as poetry, letters and philosophical works as well as epitaphs and inscriptions and of course funerary monuments and cemeteries...
     
    ...read the full review of Death in Ancient Rome: A Sourcebook by Valerie Hope
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    First published in 1999, this is one of a series of books published by the San Marino Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Social Stress (CIROSS). It is the result of a three day conference in which eleven papers were presented. The papers cover topics from before the foundation of the Visigoths until virtually the end of the Visigothic Kingdom in Spain. The layout of the book follows a chronological sequence, comprising the following chapters...
     
    ...read the full review of The Visigoths: from the Migration Period to the Seventh Century edity by Peter Heather
     
     
     
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    As a German-American I try to be conversant with the contributions of Germanic speaking peoples to history, from Mozart to Mercedes-Benz. And yet I only have the dimmest knowledge of German civilization before the 1600s. Trying to correct that problem, I read The Early Germans. Malcom Todd delivers a serviceable overview of the barbarians who inherited the mighty Roman Empire. The written record of the Germanic tribes is far from substantial, and it is viewed from the eyes of Roman writers who had their own agendas. It is left largely to archaeology to elucidate these nebulous peoples. Fortunately, Malcolm Todd is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Exeter, and formerly a Senior Research Fellow of the British Academy...
     
    ...read the full review of The Early Germans by Malcolm Todd
     
     
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    Andrew Wallace-Hadrill has a strong association with Italy and specifically with Herculaneum having been director of the British School at Rome between 1995 and 2009. Since 2001 he has been the director of the Herculaneum Conservation Project, tasked with addressing the many ills that had befallen Herculaneum in previous centuries of excavation and display. This important work has received strong support from the Packard Humanities Institute. In his new book, Herculaneum Past and Future, Wallace-Hadrill has seamlessly blended his own experience with the history as well as current work on the site and possibilities for future developments to stunning effect...
     
    ...read the full review of Herculaneum: Past and Future by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill
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    In 1993, R W Mathisen, currently Professor of History at the University of Illinois, wrote Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul: Strategies for Survival in an Age of Transition. At the time of its publication the book was acclaimed as an excellent, scholarly examination of the impact of the barbarian invasions on the "Roman" aristocrats of Gaul. Unfortunately, in the intervening years anyone wishing to buy the book has had to pay ever-more inflated prices, until at the time of writing (June,2011) copies of the original hardback are being offered for sale in excess of $150. Now, 18 years later, the University of Texas Press have released a paperback edition, selling for less than $25. To those of us with an interest in Late Antiquity, this is a great relief and will hopefully act as an example for other publishing houses to reprint and so help lower the extremely high prices being asked for vital textbooks...
     
    ...read the full review of Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul by Ralph W Mathisen
     
     
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    Alan Cameron (born 1938) is a British classicist, Charles Anthon Professor of the Latin Language and Literature at Columbia University. Cameron gained a BA from Oxford University, and his MA in 1964. He has taught at Columbia University since about 1977. In March 1997 he was awarded the American Philological Association's Goodwin Award of Merit in classical scholarship. Alan Cameron is the author of the recently reviewed The Last Pagans of Rome...
     
    ...continue to the Interview with Alan Cameron
     
     
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