I said earlier that I listened to Mike Duncan‘s podcast The History of Rome. Along with the podcast, I also picked up quite a few books on Roman history.
Sure, I could have spread those books out in the blog’s monthly reading list posts. But what’s the fun in that? Instead, I thought I’d create a special list for books on Roman history.
Enjoy!
Mary Beard – SPQR
Beard is a well-known UK classics professor. And here she writes a general survey of Roman history from the founding of the city to the early 3rd century CE. So, she covers a thousand years!
As with any broad history of Rome, the boundaries Beard draws reveals much of what she wants to say. So, what’s so special about the early 3rd century CE? It’s when Emperor Caracalla gave citizenship rights to all free men in the Empire. Beard wants to show the Romans’ evolving understanding of what it means to be Roman. Roman myths of the founding of the city lay out even the very first Romans as foreigners. Then, as it expanded its sphere of influence, Rome unevenly folded various other tribes into the full Roman order. And finally, with Caracalla’s move, it bestowed ‘Romanus’ on all peoples of the Empire.
I think Beard succeeds at what she sets out to do. A reader should finish the book with a sense for how Rome built and rebuilt its notion of being a Roman. And readers will learn a great deal about the Republic and the Empire along the way.
Averil Cameron – The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity
Cameron provides an overview of the Roman Empire from the split of the empire after Theodosius in 395 to the end of the 6th century. Tackling this period in just 200 pages is a challenge. But Cameron performs the task nicely.
As with any book on late antiquity, Cameron contributes to the question of the fall of the Roman Empire (at least in the West). But, unlike most authors, she stresses very heavily the role of continuity and change. She points out how the classical era gives way to the medieval one. But she also stresses how many of the actors involved – Roman officials, German tribes, Arabians, and so on – adapt to their situation in the best way they can.
And so, Cameron avoids the trap of stressing only the doom and gloom of late antiquity and the loss of civilization involved. She points to how people created it anew.
Kyle Harper – The Fate of Rome
Yes, another book on the fall of the Roman Empire. But this one approaches from a mostly new angle. Harper shows the role played by climate change and disease as factors in the fall of the Empire. While many other authors do discuss disease as a factor, they rarely center it to the extent Harper does. And few other authors discuss climate change, certainly none at the depth Harper reaches.
Harper lays out the climate patterns that helped create the conditions for empire in the Mediterranean around the first centuries BCE and CE. And he discusses the epidemiology of the diseases that struck the Empire at the worst times a few centuries later.
For what it’s worth, I think Harper persuasively makes his case that both climate change and disease were factors in the fate of Rome. Especially in the ending of the Justinian resurgence in the 6th century. However, I think he tends to exaggerate their importance. For one example, Harper lays out climate as a cause of the crisis of the third century. But to get there, he has to date the start of the crisis to 248, which places it after the start of a major climate event. However, the widely accepted start date for the crisis is the end of the Severan dynasty in 235. By providing a later date, Harper takes what was just one minor factor in the crisis and elevates it to a major cause.
But overall, Harper gives us a great book. It’s very well-written and breathes new life into an old topic.
Adrian Murdoch – The Last Pagan
Murdoch writes a biography of Emperor Julian, a 4th century CE Emperor better known to history as Julian the Apostate. Julian is perhaps the most polarizing Emperor in Roman history. To put the point mildly, that’s really saying something.
Julian rose to the throne several decades after Constantine adopted Christianity as the religion of the Empire. Not to mention a couple of generations after Rome transitioned from the Principate to the Dominate. Julian attempted to undo all this. He wanted to re-establish Roman paganism, rule the Empire as a philosopher in the mold of Marcus Aurelius and the Neoplatonists, and decentralize the Roman Empire by empowering local town councils.
Did it work? Well, no. Julian did a great deal during his very short time as ruler. And then he died on the battlefield while retreating from Persia.
Murdoch’s biography is rather sparse. He tells the story of Julian from beginning to end with little in the way of deeper interpretation, insight, or historical explanation. But with a figure as polarizing a Julian, that could be a valuable service in itself.
Bronwen Riley – The Edge of the Empire
Riley takes a close look at Roman Britain at a particular slice of time: the early 2nd century CE. And she does so using a novel literary device. Riley tells the story through a historical reconstruction of the journey a new governor would take from Rome all the way to Hadrian’s Wall at the border between the Roman Empire and the Caledonian tribes to the North of the Empire.
Along the way, the Roman governor passes through many of the Empire’s divisions, contradictions, and unifying points. He sees urban and rural life. He passes through deep parts of Roman history as well as recently built cities. And he finally makes his way across the English Channel into a world of recently conquered Celtic tribes and Roman migrants.
Riley’s device turns out to be an excellent way to bring the second century to life. In addition to all that, she makes extensive use of the relevant Latin sources. Not to mention she draws tentative, but compelling links between Roman Britain and the current patterns of British cities.
