Download or read book The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans written by Carlin A. Barton and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This inquiry into the collective psychology of the ancient Romans speaks not about military conquest, sober law, and practical politics, but about extremes of despair, desire, and envy. Carlin Barton makes us uncomfortably familiar with a society struggling at or beyond the limits of human endurance. To probe the tensions of the Roman world in the period from the first century b.c.e. through the first two centuries c.e., Barton picks two images: the gladiator and the "monster."
Download or read book Roman Honor written by Carlin A. Barton and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an attempt to coax Roman history closer to the bone, to the breath and matter of the living being. Drawing from a remarkable array of ancient and modern sources, Carlin Barton offers the most complex understanding to date of the emotional and spiritual life of the ancient Romans. Her provocative and original inquiry focuses on the sentiments of honor that shaped the Romans' sense of themselves and their society. Speaking directly to the concerns and curiosities of the contemporary reader, Barton brings Roman society to life, elucidating the complex relation between the inner life of its citizens and its social fabric. Though thoroughly grounded in the ancient writings--especially the work of Seneca, Cicero, and Livy--this book also draws from contemporary theories of the self and social theory to deepen our understanding of ancient Rome. Barton explores the relation between inner desires and social behavior through an evocative analysis of the operation, in Roman society, of contests and ordeals, acts of supplication and confession, and the sense of shame. As she fleshes out Roman physical and psychological life, she particularly sheds new light on the consequential transition from republic to empire as a watershed of Roman social relations. Barton's ability to build productively on both old and new scholarship on Roman history, society, and culture and her imaginative use of a wide range of work in such fields as anthropology, sociology, psychology, modern history, and popular culture will make this book appealing for readers interested in many subjects. This beautifully written work not only generates insight into Roman history, but also uses that insight to bring us to a new understanding of ourselves, our modern codes of honor, and why it is that we think and act the way we do.
Download or read book Invisible Romans written by Robert Knapp and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-24 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What survives from the Roman Empire is largely the words and lives of the rich and powerful: emperors, philosophers, senators. Yet the privilege and decadence often associated with the Roman elite was underpinned by the toils and tribulations of the common citizens. Here, the eminent historian Robert Knapp brings those invisible inhabitants of Rome and its vast empire to light. He seeks out the ordinary folk—laboring men, housewives, prostitutes, freedmen, slaves, soldiers, and gladiators—who formed the backbone of the ancient Roman world, and the outlaws and pirates who lay beyond it. He finds their traces in the nooks and crannies of the histories, treatises, plays, and poetry created by the elite. Everyday people come alive through original sources as varied as graffiti, incantations, magical texts, proverbs, fables, astrological writings, and even the New Testament. Knapp offers a glimpse into a world far removed from our own, but one that resonates through history. Invisible Romans allows us to see how Romans sought on a daily basis to survive and thrive under the afflictions of disease, war, and violence, and to control their fates before powers that variously oppressed and ignored them.
Download or read book Are We Rome written by Cullen Murphy and published by HMH. This book was released on 2008-05-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What went wrong in imperial Rome, and how we can avoid it: “If you want to understand where America stands in the world today, read this.” —Thomas E. Ricks The rise and fall of ancient Rome has been on American minds since the beginning of our republic. Depending on who’s doing the talking, the history of Rome serves as either a triumphal call to action—or a dire warning of imminent collapse. In this “provocative and lively” book, Cullen Murphy points out that today we focus less on the Roman Republic than on the empire that took its place, and reveals a wide array of similarities between the two societies (The New York Times). Looking at the blinkered, insular culture of our capitals; the debilitating effect of bribery in public life; the paradoxical issue of borders; and the weakening of the body politic through various forms of privatization, Murphy persuasively argues that we most resemble Rome in the burgeoning corruption of our government and in our arrogant ignorance of the world outside—two things that must be changed if we are to avoid Rome’s fate. “Are We Rome? is just about a perfect book. . . . I wish every politician would spend an evening with this book.” —James Fallows
Download or read book Feast of Sorrow written by Crystal King and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A Massachusetts Book Award “Must Read” Set amongst the scandal, wealth, and upstairs-downstairs politics of a Roman family, this “addictively readable first novel” (Kirkus Reviews) features the man who inspired the world’s oldest cookbook and the ambition that led to his destruction. In the twenty-sixth year of Augustus Caesar’s reign, Marcus Gavius Apicius has a singular ambition: to serve as culinary adviser to Caesar. To cement his legacy as Rome’s leading epicure, the wealthy Apicius acquires a young chef, Thrasius, for the exorbitant price of twenty thousand denarii. Apicius believes that the talented Thrasius is the key to his culinary success, and with the slave’s help he soon becomes known for his lavish parties and sumptuous meals. For his part, Thrasius finds a family among Apicius’s household, which includes his daughter, Apicata; his wife, Aelia; and her handmaiden Passia, with whom Thrasius falls passionately in love. But as Apicius draws closer to his ultimate goal, his dangerous single-mindedness threatens his young family and places his entire household at the mercy of the most powerful forces in Rome. “A gastronomical delight” (Associated Press), Feast of Sorrow is a vibrant novel, replete with love and betrayal, politics and intrigue, and sumptuous feasts that bring ancient Rome to life.
Download or read book The Lure of the Arena written by Garrett G. Fagan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-17 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Were the Romans who watched brutal gladiatorial games all that different from us? This book argues they were not.
Download or read book Imagine No Religion written by Carlin A. Barton and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Shed[s] new light on the fascinating transformations of these words [religio, threskeia] in the shadow of Roman imperial power.” —Brent Nongbri, award-winning author of God’s Library What do we fail to see when we force other, earlier cultures into the Procrustean bed of concepts that organize our contemporary world? In Imagine No Religion, Carlin A. Barton and Daniel Boyarin map the myriad meanings of the Latin and Greek words religio and threskeia, frequently and reductively mistranslated as “religion,” in order to explore the manifold nuances of their uses within ancient Roman and Greek societies. In doing so, they reveal how we can conceptualize anew and speak of these cultures without invoking the anachronistic concept of religion. From Plautus to Tertullian, Herodotus to Josephus, Imagine No Religion illuminates cultural complexities otherwise obscured by our modern-day categories. “An excellent attempt to approach translational issues with fresh eyes . . . this book presents a fresh methodological challenge to students of the ancient world and especially to scholars interested in the ‘religion’ of the ancient Mediterranean.” —Reading Religion “A timely contribution to a growing and important conversation about the inadequacy of our common category ‘religion’ for the understanding of many practices, attitudes, emotions, and beliefs?especially of peoples in other times and contexts.” —Wayne A. Meeks, author of In Search of the Early Christians
Download or read book Invisible Romans written by Robert C. Knapp and published by Profile Books(GB). This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Knapp brings invisible inhabitants of Rome and its vast empire to life. He seeks out the ordinary men, housewives, prostitutes, freedmen, slaves, soldiers, and gladiators, who formed the fabric of everyday life in the ancient Roman world, and the outlaws and pirates who lay beyond it. He finds their own words preserved in literature, letters, inscriptions and graffiti and their traces in the nooks and crannies of the histories, treatises, plays and poetry created by members of the elite. He tracks down and pieces together these and other tell-tale bits of evidence cast off by the visible mass of Roman history and culture, and in doing so recreates a world lost from view for two millennia. We see how everyday Romans sought to survive and thrive under the afflictions of disease, war, and violence, and to control their fates before powers that variously oppressed and ignored them. Chapters on each of the main groups reveal how their worlds were linked in need, dependence, exploitation, hope and fear. Slaves and ex-soldiers merge into the world of the outlaw; slaves become freedmen; the sons of freedmen enlist as soldiers; and the concerns of women transcend every boundary. We see them all at last in the tumult of a great empire that shaped their worlds as it reshaped the wider world around them.
Download or read book The Fate of Rome written by Kyle Harper and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How devastating viruses, pandemics, and other natural catastrophes swept through the far-flung Roman Empire and helped to bring down one of the mightiest civilizations of the ancient world Here is the monumental retelling of one of the most consequential chapters of human history: the fall of the Roman Empire. The Fate of Rome is the first book to examine the catastrophic role that climate change and infectious diseases played in the collapse of Rome’s power—a story of nature’s triumph over human ambition. Interweaving a grand historical narrative with cutting-edge climate science and genetic discoveries, Kyle Harper traces how the fate of Rome was decided not just by emperors, soldiers, and barbarians but also by volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climate instability, and devastating viruses and bacteria. He takes readers from Rome’s pinnacle in the second century, when the empire seemed an invincible superpower, to its unraveling by the seventh century, when Rome was politically fragmented and materially depleted. Harper describes how the Romans were resilient in the face of enormous environmental stress, until the besieged empire could no longer withstand the combined challenges of a “little ice age” and recurrent outbreaks of bubonic plague. A poignant reflection on humanity’s intimate relationship with the environment, The Fate of Rome provides a sweeping account of how one of history’s greatest civilizations encountered and endured, yet ultimately succumbed to the cumulative burden of nature’s violence. The example of Rome is a timely reminder that climate change and germ evolution have shaped the world we inhabit—in ways that are surprising and profound.
Download or read book Ancient Rome as a Museum written by Steven Rutledge and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Rome as a Museum considers how cultural objects from the Roman Empire came to reflect, construct, and challenge Roman perceptions of power and identity. Rutledge argues that Roman cultural values are indicated in part by what sort of materials Romans deemed worthy of display and how they chose to display, view, and preserve them.
Download or read book The Book of the Ancient Romans written by Dorothy Mills and published by . This book was released on 1937 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rome Is Burning written by Anthony A. Barrett and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Nero became Emperor in A.D 54. On the evening of July 18, 64 A. D., it seems that a lamp was left unextinguished in a stall still heaped with piles of combustible material. Whether this was accidental or deliberate we cannot now determine, and normally it would not have led to anything that would have attracted even local attention. But there was a gusty wind that night, and the flickering flame was fanned onto the flammable wares. The ensuing fire quickly spread. Before the onlookers could absorb what was happening one of the most catastrophic disasters ever to be endured by Rome was already underway. It was a disaster that brought death and misery to thousands. In Nero and the Great Fire of Rome, Anthony Barrett draws on new textual interpretations and the latest archaeological evidence, to tell the story of this pivotal moment in Rome's history and its lasting significance. Barrett argues that the Great Fire, which destroyed much of the city, changed the course of Roman History. The fire led to the collapse of Nero's regime, and his disorderly exit brought an end to Rome's first imperial dynasty, transforming from thereto, the way that emperors were selected. It also led to the first systematic persecution of the Christians, who were blamed for the blaze. Barrett provides the first comprehensive study of this dramatic event, which remains a fascination of the public imagination, and continues to be a persistent theme in the art and literature of popular culture today"--
Download or read book The Book of the Ancient Romans written by Dorothy Mills and published by Putnam Publishing Group. This book was released on 1937 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ancient Rome written by Matthew Dillon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-28 with total page 808 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A companion volume to the highly successful and widely used Ancient Greece, this Sourcebook is a valuable resource for students at all levels studying ancient Rome. Lynda Garland and Matthew Dillon present an extensive range of material, from the early Republic to the assassination of Julius Caesar. Providing a comprehensive coverage of all important documents pertaining to the Roman Republic, Ancient Rome includes: source material on political developments in the Roman Republic (509–44 BC) detailed chapters on social phenomena, such as Roman religion, slavery and freedmen, women and the family, and the public face of Rome clear, precise translations of documents taken not only from historical sources, but also from inscriptions, laws and decrees, epitaphs, graffiti, public speeches, poetry, private letters and drama concise up-to-date bibliographies and commentaries for each document and chapter a definitive collection of source material on the Roman Republic. All students of ancient Rome and classical studies will find this textbook invaluable at all levels of study.
Download or read book Gladiators written by Roger Dunkle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The games comprised gladiatorial fights, staged animal hunts (venationes) and the executions of convicted criminals and prisoners of war. Besides entertaining the crowd, the games delivered a powerful message of Roman power: as a reminder of the wars in which Rome had acquired its empire, the distant regions of its far-flung empire (from where they had obtained wild beasts for the venatio), and the inevitability of Roman justice for criminals and those foreigners who had dared to challenge the empire's authority. Though we might see these games as bloodthirsty, cruel and reprehensible condemning any alien culture out of hand for a sport that offends our sensibilities smacks of cultural chauvinism. Instead one should judge an ancient sport by the standards of its contemporary cultural context. This book offers a fascinating, and fair historical appraisal of gladiatorial combat, which will bring the games alive to the reader and help them see them through the eyes of the ancient Romans. It will answer questions about gladiatorial combat such as: What were its origins? Why did it disappear? Who were gladiators? How did they become gladiators? What was there training like? How did the Romans view gladiators? How were gladiator shows produced and advertised? What were the different styles of gladiatorial fighting? Did gladiator matches have referees? Did every match end in the death of at least one gladiator? Were gladiator games mere entertainment or did they play a larger role in Roman society? What was their political significance?
Download or read book Exemplary Ethics in Ancient Rome written by Rebecca Langlands and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-13 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The well-known mythographer Marina Warner has described the process of reading fairy tales and folktales as 'tasting the dragon's blood' - a magical and transformative process by which one's ears are opened to the voices of the past and of other worlds. Roman exempla, which constitute a national story-telling tradition, are very different in many ways from the dream-like fantasies of fairy-tales and other narrative folk traditions that have been the subject of Warner's studies. In (supposedly) true stories from history, battle-hardened warriors, noble maidens and honourable sons of the soil face impossible dangers, take terrible decisions and sacrifice their lives, their limbs and even their own children for the sake of justice, discipline and the Roman community. Yet for the ancient Romans too, hearing the blood-soaked stories of their ancestral heroes was an intimate and potent experience, and this 'taste of the hero's blood' had an intoxicating effect similar to the blood of Warner's dragon: evoking other worlds, shaping understanding of their own world"--
Download or read book The World of Ancient Rome 2 volumes written by James W. Ermatinger and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-08-11 with total page 864 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of Ancient Rome offers a fascinating glimpse of what Roman society was like—from fashion, to food, to politics and recreation—gathered from literary works, art, and archaeological remains. While the political history and prominent figures of Ancient Rome are well known, accounts of daily life in that time and place often remain untold. This fascinating encyclopedia explores this period from a social and cultural perspective, digging into the day-to-day activities of how Romans dressed, what they ate, how they worked, and what they did for fun. Drawing from recent archaeological evidence, author James W. Ermatinger explores the everyday lives of Roman citizens of all levels and classes. This book is organized into ten sections: art, economics, family, fashion, food, housing, politics, recreation, religion, and science. Each section contains more than two dozen entries that illuminate such topics as slavery as a social movement; the menus of peasants, slaves, and the elite; and the science and engineering solutions that became harbingers for today's technology. The work contains a selection of primary documents as well as a bibliography of print and Internet resources.
