The Coming of Rome (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

The Coming of Rome, first published in 1979, examines some basic features of Roman Britain: the cities, the towns, and the monuments of an urban culture. J.S. Wacher considers the evidence, mainly from inscriptions, of the people who inhabited or visited Britain during approximately the first two centuries of Roman rule. The Roman conquest of Britain and the progressive extension of Roman control marked a dramatic transformation of British society. Although there was much contact between pre-Roman Britain and the Continent, the advent of Romanisation meant incorporation into a much larger economic system. But Britain stood on one of the most distant frontiers of the Roman world, and the Romano-British society which gradually evolved was thus distinctive. Profusely illustrated throughout, The Coming of Rome will appeal to historians and archaeologists, as well as the general reader interested in some of the most formative centuries of Britain’s development.




War, Women and Children in Ancient Rome (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

J.K. Evans’ pioneering work explores the profound changes in the social, economic and legal condition of Roman women, which, it is argued, were necessary consequences of two centuries of near-continuous warfare as Rome expanded from city-state to empire. Bridging the gap that has isolated the specialised studies of Roman women and children from the more traditional political and social concerns of historians, J.K. Evans’ investigation ranges from Cicero’s wife Terentia to the anonymous spouse of the peasant-soldier Ligustinus, charting the severe erosion of the very institutions that kept women and children in thrall. War, Women and Children in Ancient Rome will be of interest not only to classicists and historians of antiquity but also to sociologists and anthropologists, while it will similarly prove an indispensable reference work for historians of women and the family.




Rome and the Friendly King (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

Rome and the Friendly King, first published in 1984, offers a functional definition of what is usually called client kingship – to show what a client king (or ‘friendly king’, to use the Roman term) was in practice. Each aspect of this complex role is examined over a period of six centuries: the making of a king; exposure to Roman institutions and individuals; formal recognition as a friendly ruler. Professor Braund shows how the king’s power related to Roman authority, and to his subjects. The role of Romans in royal wills, principally as recipients of bequests, is also examined, and it is also shown how some kings were assimilated completely into Roman society to become senators in their own right. In conclusion, Professor Braund considers the ways in which both sides benefited from client kingship and, in doing so, helps to explain the persistent use of such relationships throughout history.




A History of Earliest Italy (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

In A History of Earliest Italy, first published in 1984, Professor Pallottino illumines the wide variety of peoples, languages, and traditions of culture and trade that constituted the pre-Roman Italic world. Since the written sources are fragmentary, archaeology provides the central reservoir for evidence of the societies and institutions of the varied peoples of early Italy. This incisive and immensely readable account unfolds from the Bronze Age to the unification of the Italian peninsula and Sicily by Rome following the flourishing Archaic period. It examines the relationships among the peoples of the peninsula and the influence of Mycenae and Greece in trade and colonisation. In telling the story of the early stages of the eternal dialogue between national vocation and local diversity in Italy, Professor Pallottino demonstrates that it is no less deserving of our attention than its contemporary Greek and later imperial Roman counterparts.




Pompey the Great (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

To Romans of later generations the three decades between the dictatorships of Sulla and of Caesar were the age of Pompey the Great. In spite of the central role he played in Roman history, he remains a shadowy figure compared with the likes of Caesar and Cicero. Pompey the Great, first published in 1978, traces the career of this enigmatic character from his first appearance in public life on the staff of his father Strabo during the Social War, through his early military campaigns as Sulla’s lieutenant in the Civil War 83-82, as the Senate’s general in Italy and Spain during the 70s, to his first consulship with Crassus in 70. The important commands against the pirates and Mithridates, the alliance with Caesar, its eventual collapse into civil war, and the significance of Pompey’s constitutional position for an understanding of the later Augustan settlement war are all discussed with clarity and insight.




Pannonia and Upper Moesia (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

In Pannonia and Upper Moesia, first published 1974, András Mócsy surveys the Middle Danube Provinces from the latest pre-Roman Iron Age up to the beginning of the Great Migrations. His primary concern is to develop a general synthesis of the archaeological and historical researches in the Danube Basin, which lead to a more detailed knowledge of the Roman culture of the area. The economic and social development, town and country life, culture and religion in the Provinces are all investigated, and the local background of the so-called Illyrian Predominance during the third century crisis of the Roman Empire is explained, as is the eventual breakdown of Danubian Romanisation. This volume will appeal to students and teachers of archaeology alike, as well as to those interested in the Roman Empire – not only the history of Rome itself, but also of the far-flung areas which together comprised the Empire’s frontier for centuries.




A History of Seafaring in the Classical World (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

A History of Seafaring in the Classical World, first published in 1986, presents a complete treatment of all aspects of the maritime history of the Classical world, designed for the use of students as well as scholars. Beginning with Crete and Mycenae in the third millennium BC, the author expounds a concise history of seafaring up to the sixth century AD. The development of ship design and of the different types of ship, the varied purposes of shipping, and the status and conditions of sailors are all discussed. Many of the most important sea battles are investigated, and the book is illustrated with a number of line drawings and photographs. Greek and Latin word are only used if they are technical terms, ensuring A History of Seafaring in the Classical World is accessible to students of ancient history who are not familiar with the Classical languages.




Ovid (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

Ovid, Rome’s most cynical and worldly love poet, has not until recently been highly regarded among Latin poets. Now, however, his reputation is growing, and this volume is an important contribution to the re-establishment of Ovid’s claims to critical attention. This collection of essays ranges over a wide variety of themes and works: Ovid’s development of the Elegiac tradition handed down to him from Propertius, Catullus and Tibullus; the often disparaged and neglected Heroides; the poetry of Ovid’s miserable exile by the Black Sea; the poetic diction of the Metamorphoses, Ovid’s lengthy mythological epic which codified classical myth and legend, and has strong claims to be considered, with the exception of Virgil’s Aeneid, Rome’s greatest epic poem; humour and the blending of the didactic and elegiac traditions in the Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris. Finally, Ovid’s incomparable influence in the Middle Ages and sixteenth century is examined.




Athens in Decline (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

Athens has, at different times and from different points of view, been cited as a model of moderate democracy and triumphant humanism, or, on the contrary, as an illustration of the disorders due to demagoguery and misguided imperialism. Professor Mossé looks beyond these judgments to discuss the exceptional destiny of Athens – a city which for two centuries dominated the Eastern Mediterranean world, but then faded from the political scene when Rome extended its control over the whole Mediterranean. The history of Athenian democracy does not end in 404 BC, as is sometimes thought, when the city capitulated to Sparta at the end of its Golden Age. Athens in Decline, first published in 1973, demonstrates how the city experienced another seventy-five years of greatness, and survived, more or less curtailed, under Macedonian domination. She examines the reasons for the final collapse and follows the stages of a decline which was not wholly without grandeur.




Latin Literature of the Fourth Century (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

This volume, offering an insight into the literary world of Rome in the fourth century AD, reflects an increased interest in the writers of the 150 years before the collapse of the Western Empire, who have long been over-shadowed by the pre-eminence accorded since the eighteenth century to the Golden and Silver ages. Among the writers examined are Ausonius, the poet, Imperial official and tutor to Gratian; Claudian, the last major ‘classical’ poet; Prudentius, and Paulinus of Nola, two of the founders of Christian Latin poetry; Symmachus, the letter writer and supporter of die-hard paganism; and St. Augustine, whose influence on Christian thought and the Middle Ages is incalculable. These essays consider how such writers responded to a world where vitality was ebbing from the old forms of political life, religion and literature, giving way to new institutions, modes of life and horizons of reflection.