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    Hadrian and the Arts

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    Hadrian and the Arts

     

    In addition to Hadrian?s great provincial travels, and corresponding centralization of imperial government, Hadrian was an unrivaled patron of the arts and literature. Despite his extensive military background, certainly stemming from his relationship as a ward of Trajan, Hadrian was a student of Greek philosophy, culture and the arts. In addition to his studies abroad, he was a writer (his autobiography is unfortunately lost) a poet and an architect of some note...

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    New Webhost

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    We will be transitioning to a new host over the next couple of days. During this time, the forums will be offline to prevent any lost posts. The forums will be turned online once the UNRV.com domain name resolves to the new host.
     
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    Hadrian's Travels

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    Hadrian's Travels
     
    Hadrian arrived in Rome in the summer of AD 118, nearly a year after his actual succession to Trajan. His predecessor?s eastern conquests had facilitated a massive Jewish revolt which required an in kind legionary response. While these revolts were largely quelled while Trajan was still alive, Hadrian was forced to finish the work. As one part of his ultimate resolution of the matter, Hadrian understood the difficulty in controlling the east beyond the Euphrates River and gave up Trajan?s recent conquests...
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    Site down time

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    We apologize for any inconvenience resulting from recent outages of UNRV.com. Without going into elaborate detail, an error in the processing of our domain renewal resulted in the temporary (but very trying) 'expiration' of this site. We have already begun the process of preventing this sort of problem in the future.
     
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    Hadrian

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    Hadrian
     
    Publius Aelius Hadrianus was born on January 24, AD 76 likely in Rome but possibly in the same place of Trajan`s birth, Italica, Hispania Baetica. Regardless, Hadrian certainly spent much of his youth in Rome where his father, P. Aelius Hadrianus Afer, had served various magistracies including the praetorship. His family, though probably considered obscure and provincial by imperial standards (it had moved from Picenum in Italia to Hispania shortly after the Second Punic War some three centuries prior), was to gain rapid advancement along with the rise of Trajan in political and military significance...
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    In his introduction, Mackay explains he seeks to present a nuts-and-bolts, no-nonsense introduction to Roman history. He refers to his approach as "traditional" insofar as it internalizes the conventional sources and view points. By "traditional" we of course mean European males at the top of their particular socio-economic ladder, who seemed to act without regard to modern sensibilities concerning wealth and power. The author acknowledges that the new focus in modern scholarship is a revisionist agenda designed to either illuminate heretofore unsung segments of Roman culture, or radically overturn prevailing assumptions of Roman civilization...
    ...continue to the review of Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History by C. S. Mackay
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    The author in his epilogue states that his purpose in writing this book was to show the change in dynamics that a late Roman Emperor would have had to face and deal with and personally. I think he does an excellent job. He relies on primary sources such as Zosimus, Ammaianus and the Annonymous to name a few as well as several contemporary works by such historians as Peter Heather, AHM Jones and Ramsey MacMullen. The book is around 400 pages long and covers every aspect of the reign of Valens, (as well as his brother in the West Valentinian), from how they came to power, to the end of Valens reign. He covers the challenges Valens faced from simply being of Pannonian birth and of the extreme exertion of will needed to govern the East during the 4th century.
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    Parthian War

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    Parthian War
     
    Dating from the eastern conquests of Licinius Lucullus and Pompey Magnus in the 60?s BC and into the imperial period, Roman expansion made conflict with Parthia inevitable. During the reign of Nero (50?s ? 60?s AD), a major campaign to ensure Roman hegemony over Armenia was conducted under Cnaeus Domitius Corbulo...
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    This is another book published by Cornell University Press. The author is Donald Earl who wrote this book back in 1969... don't count on intense speculation but only what is completely known for sure to be examined deeply. The subject of this book is clearly about the 'Roman tradition', which is defined as the Roman aristocracy and its ideologies. Specifically, it focuses on the so called development of this tradition...
     
    ...read the full review of The Moral and Political Tradition of Rome by Donald Earl
    Viggen
    I was very pleased to find this book as I was aware of Mr Dalby's previous works, and it is evident that his sources are well researched and his excellent eye for language digs out subtle interperative nuances that may be lost to the monolingual. The thing that strikes me about this book is that it benefits from being "read" in the Roman manner, ie: out loud - to savour cadences and phrases like rich foods, indeed that is both a compliment and a type of critiscism. The difficulty with this work is, that if one sits and reads, without the slow discipline of speaking and proper phrasing, the detail of the text is actually almost too rich. That of course is a critiscism that most people would consider a compliment , my point is that it was apt for me to read this book over the Xmas period as its density mirrored a festive meal. ...continue to the full review of Empire Of Pleasures by Andrew Dalby
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