Reviews (5)

One of the Major Military Conflicts of the Ancient World
Military history has been slighted in recent years, with the possible exception of John Keegan's insightful books. In part it is because focusing on the role of the military runs counter to the modern bias that social currents determine the nature of wars and not wars the direction of the times. We also embrace a moralistic tendency to believe that violence never really solves anything. But violence has solved many things even in modern times and until we stop resorting to war to resolve inter-state conflicts, the study of war is --or should be-- of importance to us.
A pleasure to read
When I first purchased this book, I was a bit hesitant as I thought that I have read so much on the subject already. Yet I am glad I did. The book is well written and explains the subject well.
Invigorating and modern
Definitely a great read. Despite the fallacious pitch on the back "The cast of endlessly fascinating characters includes the generals Hannibal and Scipio, as well as treacherous chieftains, beautiful princesses, scheming politicians, and tough professional warriors.", a great and entertaining read. Almost reads like a novel, while still solidly argumented and avoiding the easy melodrama.
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Subjects:  1. Ancient - Rome    2. History    3. History - Military / War    4. History: World    5. Military - General    6. Punic wars    7. Western Europe - General    8. Ancient Rome    9. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    10. History / Europe / Western    11. Prehistory    12. STUDY NOTES - SparkNotes    13. World history: BCE to c 500 CE   

Reviews (2)

such a beautiful book
Not long after my grandmother's death, I went to a Borders store and was looking through the books on sale.I saw this lovely book and picked it up to leaf through it.The first page I opened the book to was the one with the little handwritten recipe.The recipe was unfamiliar to me, but the small neat handwriting was amazingly like my grandmother's, and the slip of paper it was written on was exactly like a page from one of the little notebooks she used to write in.I didn't have to look at another thing in the book to know I had to buy it.When I got the book home and actually read it, I LOVED IT!The book itself is really good, but all of the little bits that are tucked inside really make it worth the money.It's a lovely book.

Something you'll treasure
As you'd expect in a book like this, it tells the tale from Columbus to Madonna, and tells it well, concisely, entertainingly, without being annoyingly fulsome or reverent. What makes this a treaure, though, are all the surprises--you turn a page and find, actually tucked into a corner or attached by glue, replicas of ancient passports, or hand-written recipes, or coupon books from some old immigrant mutual-aid insurance policy. There's even a St. Lucia prayer card from somebody's funeral and the jury's verdict form from a trial of Al Capone. It brings the history to life in a way beyond mere words. If you buy one copy, you'll end up buying more as gifts, without a doubt.It's a beautiful object and a terrific book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe - Italy    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History - U.S.    5. History: American    6. Immigrants    7. Italian Americans    8. Miscellanea    9. North American    10. United States    11. United States - General   

Reviews (18)

We Too Are a Religious People
One of the more neglected aspects of early Church history is the view of the Church from the Roman pagan point of view. Accounts of the rise of Christianity within pagan Roman culture often wrongly portray traditional Roman religion as in an advance state of decay and incapable of countering the religious vigor of its new opponent. Such accounts, based on the Roman pagan culture's lack of what constitutes evidence of religious commitment within a culture steeped in two millennia of Christian belief, fails to recognize the Greco-Roman perspective on religion had an entirely different outlook on the purpose of religion than the Christian culture that would follow and the lack of the normative indicators of religious fervor that would hold in the latter does not indicate a lack of commitment on the part of adherents to the former.
The Christians as their Roman critics saw them, rather.
A well-written and accesible work of history on the Roman period, trying to explain the point of view of some eminent intellectual figures concerning Christianity. The tricky thing is, the book does not do justice to its author's intention, as stated in the title. All the personages studied here stand on the same side of the aisle. They criticize Christ and his followers, and defend paganism, with varying grades of skillfulness. The match is 'played' against the Christian apologists of the early church like Origen or Augustine. In the end, the intellectual fight seems to end in a tie, since it couldn't be otherwise, and will always be.
Essential but Inadequate
This is an essential treatment of the topic -- and the only one generally available that analyzes the whole of pagan Roman reaction to the Christian phenomenon from Pliny the Younger to Julian the Apostate.But it is abominably written and often inexplicably unreflective.It needs to be supplemented (at least) with Stephen Benko's "Pagan Rome and the Early Christians."
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Subjects:  1. Ancient - Rome    2. Christianity - History - General    3. General    4. Religion    5. Religion - Church History    6. Ancient Rome    7. BCE to c 500 CE    8. Early Church    9. History of religion    10. Religion / Church History   

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Rome    2. Ancient and Classical    3. Gender identity    4. History    5. History - General History    6. Literary Criticism    7. Medicine, Greek and Roman    8. Rome    9. Women in medicine    10. Women patients    11. Ancient Rome    12. Classical Studies | Ancient History | Roman    13. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    14. Hellenic languages    15. History of medicine    16. Literary Criticism & Collections / Ancient & Classical    17. Women's studies   

Reviews (15)

Worth Knowing
The dimensions discussed are worth knowing about, or for one who has lived in Italy, worth remembering.All nations are complex.Italy being such a beautiful country one forgets that it has, like any other, a side to it that is not all milk and honey.

Illuminating!
When I saw the title of this, at first I thought, "hatchet job".But even the introduction drew me right in.I love to travel, and it's always easy to think the grass is greener elsewhere.That's why now and then I like to get a more critical view of a place.It's easy to be seduced by a place as beautiful as Italy.
Italian Dessert
This is a cleverly constructed book of several parts and a few recurring motifs. Jones, a Welsh Methodist, Everton FC supporter, London hack and Oxford (Arts?) graduate, goes to live in Parma, Italy where his beloved has established herself. He divides his book into nine separate chapters and tries to weave them together as well as his excellent English and his motifs will allow. The first chapter discusses nuances of the Italian language and he uses those nuances to propound that Italy is a much more nuanced country than England and that its culture is infinitely more refined. An entire chapter brings the nuances of Italian culture to bear on football and he waxes very lyrical about the local youth and whatever immigrants are around playing ball as the sun goes down. The football allows us to place Italian village life in our minds and to empathize very much with it.
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Subjects:  1. Europe - Italy    2. History - General History    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Travel / Europe / Italy   

Subjects:  1. Ancient - General    2. Ancient - Greece    3. Ancient - Rome    4. Civilization    5. Essays    6. Greece    7. History    8. History - General History    9. History: World    10. Rome    11. Ancient Greece    12. Ancient Rome    13. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    14. History / Ancient / General    15. History/Ancient; Classics/Ancient Archaeology   

Subjects:  1. Catholic Church    2. Church music    3. Church musicians    4. Congresses    5. History & Criticism - General    6. Italy    7. Music    8. Music Of The 15th And 16th Centuries    9. Music/Songbooks    10. Religious - Christian    11. Religious - General    12. Rome    13. Sacred Music    14. Cultural studies    15. Medieval & Renaissance music (c 1000 to c 1600)    16. Music / History & Criticism    17. Music | Music History, Western | Early Music, Medieval, & Renaissance    18. Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church    19. Sacred & religious music    20. c 1000 CE to c 1500    21. c 1500 to c 1600   

Reviews (4)

Don't walk run and buy this book!
This is one of the best books I have ever read. And I do not mean just books about ancient Rome or history books. I have read it three times and just for the kick of it. I am neuroscientist and not a classical scholar but I love history and this is history writing at its best: scholarly, fair, witty, and elegantly written (sometimes donwright dazzling). Cornell lets the readers into his secret cabinet and shows them the raw materials the professional historian works with. Amazingly, this does not detract from the magic of the "story" but makes it all the more enthralling. Don't walk run and buy this book!

Excellent background on the beginnings of Rome
A book that was much needed in the field. Scholarly but not overly pedantic and certainly not impenetrable.
First rate scholarly work
This is an excellent book that I think is primarily intended for a scholarly audience (experts in the field, professional historians and archaeologists, etc.) but is also very valuable to an interested amateur like myself.Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Rome    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Kings, 753-510 B.C    6. Rome    7. Ancient Rome    8. Cultural studies    9. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    10. History / Ancient / General    11. Italy    12. Social history   

Editorial Review

Just as the Italian peninsula itself was a patchwork of widely divergent city-states up until the 19th-century Read more

Reviews (1)

The utmost beauty.
In appreciation of beauty, perhaps the only difference between a layperson and an artist is that the latter can see and openly render that beauty. Unfortunately, sometimes "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Beautiful paintings of women by this ingenius artist has been considered (by some) in the same class with eroticism, or even pornography.Read more

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Art & Art Instruction    3. Criticism and interpretation    4. History - General    5. Individual Artist    6. Individual Painters - Renaissance    7. Techniques - Painting    8. Titian,    9. Women And Art    10. Women in art    11. ca. 1488-1576    12. Art / Individual Artist    13. Individual artists    14. Italy    15. Painting & paintings    16. Renaissance art    17. Titian   

Editorial Review

One measure, perhaps, of a book's worth, is its intergenerational pliancy: do new readers acquire it and interpret it afresh down through the ages? The Read more

Reviews (85)

Wisdom for Today
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is really a manual for living.So much of what he teaches is very relevant for today."If you don't have a consistent goal in life, you can't live in a consistent way."
meditations
this is the finest translation of marcus aurelius's meditations that i have read. previous translations i have read were loaded with so many thee's and thou's that the reading was tedious and slow. i found my self scanning the pages instead of reading until i would come across an obvious jem. this made me oblivious to the hidden jems that make up this excellent work.this book gives the emperor's words a modern flair that doesn't lose the original flavor. i highly recommend it.

More of a reference
As part of the Dover Thrift Editions, this is a very affordable look into Stoic philosophy and insight into one of the emperors of the Roman Empire.
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Subjects:  1. Ancient - Rome    2. Ancient and Classical    3. Early works to 1800    4. Ethics    5. Ethics & Moral Philosophy    6. History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical    7. Life    8. Literary Criticism    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Literature: Classics    11. Stoics    12. Ancient Western philosophy to c 500    13. Classical Studies | Ancient Philosophy    14. Hellenic languages    15. Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy   

Reviews (2)

great book
I learned about the book after reading Holland's "Rubicon" (also a very good book), in which it was used as one of the primary sources. The translation is very readable and really reads as a novel. Appian wrote the history a few centuries after the events described, but it remains the only continuous narrative of the period between the fall of the Gracchi and rise of Augustus. This is obviously an event-filled and fascinating period in Roman history. For those interested in the period, I would recommend Holland's book and follow it up with this one.

Amazing
One of the best comprehensive histories of the Roman civil wars. Contains almost everything you want to know and more. A must for any Roman history fan or buff. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Rome    2. Civil War, 43-31 B.C    3. Civil War, 49-45 B.C    4. Greek Literature    5. History    6. History: World    7. Literature - Classics / Criticism    8. Republic, 265-30 B.C    9. Rome    10. Ancient Rome    11. Civil war    12. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    13. History / Ancient / Rome    14. Italian   

Reviews (12)

I was not impressed
I bought this book because I thought it would give me a more indepth look into this remarkable man's life. Instead, I found myself severly dissapointed. The book does give a good overview of the world around St. Assisi, but really didn't give me any new insight into the facts surrounding the man. Not only that, the author seems to be delving into an almost Jungian religious view. I would not have minded a Catholic view (because St. Assisi was obviously Catholic)or a secular view, but I found the author's choice of religious viewpoint to be completely without rational or support.

Francis was the "Real Deal."
I checked out this book at the library a couple of years ago and was so impressed by it that I had to have a copy of it in order to reread it at my leisure. That's saying something, my friend. Adds more context than insight to Francis' spirit
The strongest parts of this biography are in House's relation of the changing feudal world around Assisi and Perugia to the papal-German battles in Italy and the rise of the mercantile class into which Francis was born. Also, the chapter that looks into the early spirituality of the first friars adds valuable understanding to what must have inspired many to take up the evangelical and mendicant challenge.
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Subjects:  1. 1182-1226    2. Assisi    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Christian saints    8. Francis,    9. History    10. Italy    11. Religious    12. of Assisi, Saint,   

Reviews (1)

Not Quite Magical
This heavy volume of beautiful if somewhat over-colorized photos helps fill a void in books about the unspeakably beautiful Amalfi coast, and highlights some truly gorgeous works of art, but still fails to capture the magic of the area on a few points. First, the photography almost uniformly focuses on sunny, picture-perfect days - and thus fails to capture the coast's most amazing feature, the play of sunlight and shadow, mist and shade that constantly transforms each breathtaking vista. Second, the text is awkwardly written, or at least translated. The author is apparently a renowned journalist, so I will blame the translation and editing of the text, which is scattershot and often throws out terminology that assumes a knowledge of Italian or Latin. Third, there is almost no mention of Ravello, and only one small photo or two of the most magical place in the entire region! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Amalfi Coast (Italy)    2. Description and travel    3. Photo Techniques    4. Photography    5. Pictorial works    6. Scenic Photo Collections    7. Sorrento Peninsula (Italy)    8. Subjects & Themes - Travel - General    9. Travel - General    10. Italy    11. Museum, historic sites, gallery & art guides    12. Photography / Travel   

Subjects:  1. Architecture    2. Architecture, Domestic    3. Architecture, Medieval    4. Domestic    5. History - General    6. International Architecture - European    7. Italy    8. Mansions    9. Venice    10. Palaces, chateaux, country houses   

Subjects:  1. Europe - Italy    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Business & Economics / Government & Business    6. European history: c 1500 to c 1750    7. European history: c 500 to c 1500    8. Italy    9. Modern period, c 1500 onwards    10. c 1000 CE to c 1500   

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Art & Art Instruction    3. European    4. General    5. Art / History / European    6. Decorative Art; interior design; art    7. Interior design    8. Italy   

Reviews (14)

A look into an ancient world...
This book includes the writings of the ancient Roman writer, Tacitus, as he follows the campaigns of Agricola into Anglesey and northern Scotland. He also follows closely the campaigns into Germania, a country as untamed as Scotland.
Two classics of one of the greatest Roman historians
This edition brings Tacitus' biography of Agricola (his father-in-law) who consolidated Roman rule in Britain. It also contains his geographical, historical and anthropological survey of the ancient Germanic tribes.
Rewarding Even For The Non-Classicist
A rewarding surprise.Sheer chance dropped this book into my hands.Found it lying in mint condition (with a fair number of other volumes) in the alley behind my building, abandoned and unread by some student who will never recognize his loss.A bit obscure, not being a classicist or an historian, even by my somewhat obscure tastes, but I picked it up, started the introduction, and soon found myself spending an evening intriguingly engaged in a world very different from my own.Whether it be the excellence of the translation or Tacitus' own abilities as a writer, the prose is pleasantly crisp and renders reading the straightforward observations presented here into something not unlike receiving a letter sent a long, long, time ago which has only just finally managed to arrive.While I certainly wouldn't take any of Tacitus' observations of Roman era Britain and Germany for fact; it is the fact ofhis very attempt to try to describe these foreign peoples and what he sees in them and how they make him reflect on his own people that comes through as honest and true.A great portrait of virtue in the midst of a bankrupt society -- it is hard not to make contemporary parallels, or to try and take away lessons.Technocrats v. tyrants, assimilation v. tribalism, decadent civilization v. noble barbarism, terrorism v. occupation: Tacitus faces all these issues and can still be surprising after 1900 years.Read more

Subjects:  1. 40-93    2. Agricola, Gnaeus Julius,    3. Early works to 1800    4. Europe - Italy    5. General    6. Germanic peoples    7. Historical - General    8. History    9. History - General History    10. History: World    11. Agricola, Gnaeus Julius    12. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    13. Germany    14. History / Military / General    15. Other prose: classical, early & medieval    16. United Kingdom, Great Britain   

Subjects:  1. Europe - Italy    2. General    3. Guidebooks    4. History    5. Italy    6. Jewish - General    7. Jews    8. Travel    9. Travel - Foreign    10. Venice    11. Venice (Italy)   

Reviews (10)

Very good read about a very turbulent time
D.G. Kousoulas's "The Life and Times of Constantine the Great:The First Christian Emperor" was for me a wonderful book.
Constantine The Great
An important book, "Constantine the Great" is a concise history about the first Emperor to legalize Christianity after a three-hundred-year struggle for survival.D.G. Kousoulas brings into focus the diversity of religious culture and political intrigue that helped to shape Christianity's long standing tradition and doctrinal values.The figure of Constantine is carefully portrayed in the mutifaceted aspects of his ever changing family, political, and social world. Individual chapters grant the reader a well-focused account of specific events without distraction or confusion.D.G. Kousoulas bases his findings on well documented facts without appology for any of history's blank pages. Rather, he uses them to enhance the reader's sense of involvement in the making of history. Also, Kousoulas' gentle narrative style was a refreshing, much appreciated change of pace, the likes of which I hope to see more of in the future.

A Good Book about one Tough Customer
I had read a little about Constantine the Great before, but this book filled in a lot of the gaps. It also made me extremely glad that I did not live during his period of time! While he justly deserve the title "The Great".(No one else could of pull off the stabilisation of the tottering and rotten Roman Empire as he did even for a little while or establish the Byzantine Empire)The reader also is made aware by the Authors excellent writing and storytelling skills of certain not so nice facts. In that Constantine was one very hard, ruthless and extremely dangerous man to have around. Just ask his murdered by his orders & hand Son and Wife. I just wish the Author had spent a little more time on the founding of Constantinople but hey you can't have everything! Right? ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient Rome - History    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Christian saints    6. Church history    7. Emperors    8. General    9. Historical - General    10. History - General History    11. Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600    12. Rome    13. Constantine   

Reviews (8)

Great tract on Roman morals just before the fall of the Republic
The two tales in this were hugely influential historical essays more or less up to the early 20C; they served as models of moralistic writing as well as clear exposition in Latin. I remember studying both the content and writing style while (inexplicably) attempting to master Latin in college.
Sallust's works
Sallust was adept in the writing of history as these works attest.A reason not to read this work is if you are able to read it in the original Latin.A good primary source for those interested in this period of the Republic.
The more things change.........
The more things change, the more they stay the same.With Enron,Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Rome    2. History - General History    3. Ancient Rome    4. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    5. History / Military / General    6. Other prose: classical, early & medieval