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Roman History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2015

Lucy Grig
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Extract

I begin this review with a mega biblion that will be hugely welcomed by Roman historians of all stripes: Tim Cornell and his team's long-awaited new edition of the fragments of the Roman historians, featuring more than one hundred Roman writers of history, biography, and memoir. Cornell and his team have replaced the long-outdated edition of Hermann W. G. Peter with a state-of-the-art three-volume work. The first volume provides an excellent and comprehensive guide to the authors; the second features the parallel texts themselves, alongside new translations; the final volume comprises the commentary, plus the necessary concordances and indices. The clear layout makes it easy to match up the introductions to each author, their testimonia and fragments, and then the related commentary. The selection and presentation of the Roman authors is careful: the introduction describes the aim to present all that is known about the authors and their work but also emphasize ‘the limits of our knowledge’ (7). This is clearly a more conservative selection than before (and rightly so; the thirty-six Historia Augusta ‘historians’, for instance, are relegated to their own appendix). The coverage is broadly chronological, ending in the third century (which is of course slightly disappointing for those interested in the rich body of late Roman historiography). This is clearly a landmark achievement, and it is especially to be welcomed that it is unusually user-friendly, for students as well as for scholars. Another point might be of interest: out of the 111 Roman authors (or groups of authors) featured there is but one woman: Agrippina the Younger (no. 77), whose memoirs were cited by both Tacitus and Pliny the Elder. Of the ten historians involved in this project, incidentally, just one is a woman. These figures have led me to consider the gender ratio of the books under review this time and the results are striking: out of the sixteen books under review, just three have female authors.

Type
Subject Reviews
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , April 2015 , pp. 112 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2015 

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References

1 The Fragments of the Roman Historians. General editor Cornell, T. J.. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. lxvi + 2651 in 3 volumes. Hardback £295, ISBN: 978-0-19-927705-6Google Scholar.

2 Faustina I and II. Imperial Women of the Golden Age. By Levick, Barbara. New York, Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. xi + 248. 12 illustrations, 2 maps. Hardback £41.99, ISBN: 978-0-19-537941-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Cicero and the Rise of Deification at Rome. By Cole, Spencer. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. vii + 208. Hardback £60, ISBN: 978-1-107-03250-7Google Scholar.

4 Making Enemies. The Logic of Immorality in Ciceronian Oratory. By Hammar, Isak. Lund, Lund University, 2013. Pp. 381. ISBN: 978-91-7473-613-7Google Scholar.

5 Religion and Competition in Antiquity. Edited by Van Nuffelen, Peter and Engels, David. Brussels, Éditions Latomus, 2014. Pp. 307. Paperback €51, ISBN: 978-2-87031-290-3Google Scholar.

6 Taken at the Flood. The Roman Conquest of Greece. By Waterfield, Robin. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. xxiv + 287. 25 b/w illustrations. Hardback £20, ISBN: 978-0-19-991689-4Google Scholar.

7 Pliny the Younger. A Life in Roman Letters. By Winsbury, Rex. London and New York, Bloomsbury Academic, 2014. Pp. viii + 246. Hardback £65, ISBN: 978-1-4725-1458-5Google Scholar.

8 The Ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad. By Schwartz, Seth. Key Themes in Ancient History. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pp. xi + 190. Hardback £45, ISBN: 978-1-107-04127-1; paperback £17.99, ISBN: 978-1-107-66929-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 The Dragon and the Eagle. The Rise and Fall of the Chinese and Roman Empires. By Auyang, Sunny. London, M.E. Sharpe, 2014. Pp. xxvi + 230. Hardback £39.99, ISBN: 978-0-7656-4369-8; paperback £16.99, ISBN: 978-0-7656-4370-4Google Scholar.

10 Ancient Rome. An Anthology of Sources. Edited and translated by Francese, Christopher and Smith, R. Scott. Indianopolis, IN, Hackett Publishing Company. Pp. xxx + 548. 4 maps. Hardback £49.95, ISBN: 978-1-62466-001-6; paperback £18.99, ISBN: 978-1-62466-000-9Google Scholar.

11 Der Fall Roms. Die Auflösung des Römischen Reiches im Urteil der Nachwelt. By Demandt, Alexander. Munich, C.H. Beck Verlag, 2014. Pp. 719. Hardback €68, ISBN: 978-3-406-66053-5Google Scholar.

12 Die Spätantike. Der eine Gott und die vielen Herrscher. By Pfeilschifter, Rene. Geschichte der Antike. Munich, C.H. Beck, 2014. Pp. 304. 6 illustrations, 8 maps. Paperback €16.95, ISBN: 978-3-406-66012-2Google Scholar.

13 Die Römisch Kaiserzeit. Die Legionen und das Imperium. By Eich, Armin. Geschichte der Antike. Munich, C.H. Beck, 2014. Pp. 304. 10 maps. Paperback €16.95; ISBN: 978-3-406-66012-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Augustus und seine Zeit. Die 101 wichtigsten Fragen. By Junkelmann, Marcus. Munich, C.H. Beck, 2014. Pp. 160. 36 illustrations, 2 maps. Paperback €10.95, ISBN: 978-3-406-65895-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Rome's Economic Revolution. By Kay, Philip. Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. xv + 384. 3 illustrations. Hardback £80, ISBN: 978-0-19-968154-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Laughter in Ancient Rome. On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up. By Beard, Mary. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 2014. Pp. x + 319. Hardback £19.95, ISBN: 978-0-520-27716-8Google Scholar.