About book De Geboorte Van Rome. De Opkomst Van Het Grootste Wereldrijk Aller Tijden (2012)
I quoted these lines aloud to my wife and we laughed:* "the powerful Greek foundation of Cumae, then under the eccentric but highly effective rule of an effeminate despot who first made his name as a male prostitute, Aristodemus the Queen"* "They were fighting Jugurtha, a very able but unscrupulous grandson of the old Numidian king Masinissa."... this book has a thousand of 'em. It was enjoyable reading, just letting the phrases roll by: the crazy improbable facts which, are as much poetry as they are history.Late one night I was dwelling on history, and I had an intuitive vision: Recorded history goes back about 5,000 years, at most. And the earliest history is very vague, basically odd facts and legends and not lucid in that way that modern history is. However, anthropologists and archeologists tells us that "modern" human history goes back about 100,000 years, and humans became distinct from the apes about 1-2 million years ago ...So in my vision I just saw the endless procession: kings following wars following kings following wars, 99% of which we have completely forgotten. Take this book with all its details about wars and "effeminate despots", each one of which real requires a book of their own but which it glosses over in a sentence or a paragraph ... multiply this infinitely and just contemplate ... what does it all mean?My basic critique of Anthony Everett's book is that, I think it's good at telling the stories of Roman history but it's short on figuring it all out. There are so many books about Rome, there must be better books out there. Ordinarily this sort of book would not be my first choice for a summer read but things happen. So, yes, this went to the beach with me. Not because I couldn't put it down so much as because I wanted to finish this mofo and get on with my summer. Sorry. Not that it wasn't a very fine book because it was and Anthony Everitt does pop-history a good turn here. If I have criticisms they sound like: a lot of the material is based on speculative evidence which is not the author's fault but makes it hard for me to care. Which is why I will never be a historian specializing in the ancient world. The book started to really pick up for me at the point where we have more grounded evidence but that's also the point where the book pretty much ended. Still I do recommend this to anyone interested in the topic.I'm reading Everitt's biography of Augustus right now and that's great fun.
Do You like book De Geboorte Van Rome. De Opkomst Van Het Grootste Wereldrijk Aller Tijden (2012)?
Very interesting book that traces the development of the Roman Republic until it's fall.
—Sammie
Spotty writing in parts, but this is a good introduction to the Roman Republic.
—KB_Xi
a tad slow the book seems to repeat the same information without much flash..
—gothgirl
Fantastic book. Not everywhere 100% historically correct,but a great read!
—Adri
