Following my review a while ago of my old school book about Republican Rome, Ion of the Archduke Piccolo blog told me about this book, by the same author, which is the follow up volume. Of course I just had to buy a copy and secured this used "as new" paperback. Thanks Ion for bringing this book to my attention.
I have now read the book and it is excellent. I really like the writing style and it complements the previous volume perfectly. The transformation of Republican Rome to Imperial Rome is clearly described. It is strange that, at the time, the Emperor was not so, just First Citizen. Romans had a great historical aversion to the idea of a Monarchy so the move towards an Emperor was carefully disguised using the old Republican terms of Consul etc. It is also clear that most Romans had no desire to repeat the misery of the Civil Wars so were happy to accept the peace and prosperity bought by an all powerful "First Citizen" who curbed the ability of individual Senators to enrich and empower themselves at the expense of the nation.
I have looked for the logical next volume covering the Emperors after Nero but can find nothing written by Scullard which is a great shame. However as I am more interested in the early history of Rome I will not worry too much about finding an alternative author.
On a general note, in reading about Rome, it never ceases to amaze me just how sophisticated Roman society actually was some 2000 years ago. I often wonder, if Roman civilization had not given way to the Dark Ages but had continued to advance without interruption, just where would we be today. It is at least arguable that a good 500 years of development were lost to Mankind. On that basis the civilization of today could have existed in 1521. Now that is a thought !!!!
Hi Tony -
ReplyDeleteIf you ARE interested in Imperial Rome after Nero, you could go to the source and see if you can't pick up a copy of Tacitus (in translation, of course). I have a copy of 'Complete Works of Tacitus' Moses Hadas (ed) The Modern Library Random House, 1942.
'The Annals' is a history from AD14 through to AD66 - two years before the end of Nero's reign. But you might was to look at 'The History' which begins in January 69 and continues to AD70. He also wrote upon Cnaeus Julius Agricola, Tacitus's own father-in-law, and successful governor of Britain for several; years.
Cheers,
Ion
Possibly the 'golden years' of Rome's empire begins with Vespasian, and continues with Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.
ReplyDeleteHi Ion... My main interest is Republican Rome and I really like Scullards writing style so thanks for the suggestion but I think Tacitus might not be so interesting to me. The books I have now give me all the information I need so its just an overview of the emperors after Nero that I need. I will keep looking as there are a lot of potential books available.
ReplyDeleteThe "five good emperors" certainly do represent all that was great about Rome and things just went down hill afterwards.Regards.