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    War with Clodius Albinus

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    Septimius Severus? victory over his eastern rival Pescennius Niger opened a new opportunity to cement himself as sole emperor and his family as an imperial dynasty. Despite an earlier arrangement with the governor of Britain Clodius Albinus, to keep him from also making a claim for the throne, Severus initiated a policy to establish connections and continuity between himself and imperial predecessors...

     

    Civil War with Clodius Albinus

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    Rome and the Black Sea Region

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    A review by Andrew Dalby...
     
    Let?s face it, there are problems with this book. Does the title adequately represent its contents? No. Does it cover an easily definable subject? No. Is it totally without merit? Again, no.
     
    I can?t review the book as a whole, because there is no whole. So I?ll review the papers separately. And I?ll start with the best, the star performance, the one that some on this site will devour like a juicy steak.
     
    ?The Roman army as a factor of Romanisation in the North-Eastern part of Moesia Inferior? by Liviu Petculescu ... perhaps you think I?m joking. I?m not, I promise. If only this paper were longer, I?d tell you to buy the book for it alone. With a name like Liviu, this author was predestined to be a classicist. In fact he is a specialist in Roman Dacia, and his doctorate, in 1999, was for a dissertation on Roman armour as used in the province. Now he is at the Muzeul National de Istorie at Bucharest and he is prominent in Roman archaeological work...
     
    Read the full review of Rome and the Black Sea Region by Tonnes Bekker-Nielsen (editor)
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    This comprehensive list of Roman laws and constitutional policy details the legal history of the Republic from its founding to its fall. Organized by era and in chronological order, over 200 entries provide the year, type of policy (rogatio, lex, decretum, etc.) and a detailed summary of it's purpose. Each entry is fully attributed to ancient source material.
     
    Legal and Institutional Chronology of the Roman Republic
     
    Additionally, we've provided a simple Roman Law Glossary as an aid in understanding some basic terminology.
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    Spartacus DVD Review

    By Guest, in News,

    As a departure from reviews of historical literature, community member "Ursus" has delved into a classic film of the Hollywood era of epics...
     
    A young and ambitious Kirk Douglas apparently did not care to lose the title role of Ben-Hur to Charlton Heston. On the policy that outdoing rivals is the best revenge, Douglas plotted a new project. A best selling novel on a Roman slave revolt, light on history but heavy on drama, was written into a screenplay by a writer blacklisted as a Communist sympathizer. A nearly all-star cast was assembled, which included Laurence Olivier (who reputedly thought he would perform better in the title role than Douglas, and only grudgingly excepted a secondary role). The original director of the project was fired, and in his place was brought the artistic Stanley Kubrick (whose eye for dehumanization clashed with Doug' humanism). The Spanish army was enlisted to ape Roman legionaries, and an epic score was composed to bring orchestral notes. The result, whether foreseen or not, was one of the best films Hollywood ever produced. But it is not about history, and never was...
     
    Read the full review of Spartacus DVD
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    New Essay Contest

    By Guest, in News,

    Continuing in the tradition of past contests, UNRV is excited to announce a new writing contest for August/September.
     
    This will be a non-fiction historical essay writing contest.
     
    Prizes are gift certificates to Amazon.com or .co.uk (or any other regional extension based on preference of the winner) in the amounts of US$75 for 1st, $50 for 2nd and $25 for 3rd. Please follow the link for contest information and details
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    War with Pescennius Niger

    By Guest, in News,

    While Septimius Severus was settling affairs in Rome after his successful coup of Didius Julianus? government (AD 193), the governor of Syria was still preparing his own bid for Roman supremacy. The source information on Gaius Pescennius Niger is relatively obscure, be he seems to have been an Italian of equestrian heritage and was born in approximately AD 135. After serving with some military acclaim in Dacia, he seems to have been made a suffex consul (late 180?s AD) and had been appointed to govern Syria as a trusted lieutenant of Commodus in AD 191...
     
    War with Pescennius Niger
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    Roman Architecture

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    Another review has been submitted by community member "Ursus"...
     
    Architecture is the most visible legacy of any culture, and often survives other elements of the culture that have sunk into oblivion. One could rightfully extol Rome?s contributions to law and government, language and literature, religion and philosophy. Yet all those attributes would require lengthy discourse and study to appreciate; a simple aqueduct wordlessly conveys a more manifest appreciation of Roman imperial grandeur, especially if that aqueduct is still in use after some twenty centuries. Throughout the classical world the Empire of the Romans was littered with enduring monuments to their gods and military leaders, even the ruins of which still possess the capacity to awe their observers. In an era where pagan deities are blas? and military triumph eschewed, those monuments have instead become hallowed testaments to the engineering skill of the architects who designed them. Indeed, the Roman legacy has dominated Western architecture until fairly recently. Nigel Rogers and Hazel Dodge provide in their Roman Architecture a delicious visual survey of the subject...
     
    Read the full review of Roman Architecture by Nigel Rogers.
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    Pompeii - The Living City

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    A review presented by community member "Pertinax"...
     
    This is not to be confused with the work ?Pompeii? by Harris, though I happen to believe that both books fall into a similar category: an entertaining fictional repopulation of Pompeii that would be excellent bed time reading for a first time visitor to the City. This title would also be a good choice for stimulating an interest in Roman history in a friend with no great background knowledge or as a pleasant conceit for a confirmed Romanophile...
     
    Read the full review of Pompeii the Living City by Alex Butteworth.
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    Practically even before a child of Roman parents was conceived, during the period of the Republic his or her name was already prescribed by a rigid system of personal identification. During the Principate, however, naming practices began to change, making this period a particularly interesting one for Roman onomastics.
     
    Of the tria nomina, the three-part name borne by most freeborn male Roman citizens, the Roman praenomen came first and was the only one of the three names that offered parents some choice in naming their son. Even so, there had always been for Roman parents a limited number of praenomina from which to choose when naming a son and, of these, a mere seventeen constituted 98% of all praenomina in use by Roman males during the Regal and Republican periods...
     
    Roman Naming Practices During the Principate
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