The Book Depository Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire by SIMON JOHNS

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The Book Depository Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire by SIMON JOHNS
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Description: Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire : Paperback : Ebury Publishing : 9781846072840 : 1846072840 : 01 Jun 2008 : Focusing on six momentous turning points that helped to shape Roman history, this work charts the rise and fall of the world's first superpower - a political machine unmatched in its brutality, its genius, its lust for power. It also covers powerful men such as Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero and Constantine. The Book Depository Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire by SIMON JOHNS - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk

 

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Author: Chris Wood

Rating: 5

Review: I am interested, like many others, in this period of history and was looking for a book that wasn't too learned but still informative. This book is certainly very accessible to the ordinary reader and provides a lot of insights into some of the main protagonists and the events in which they were involved. Some of the facts/opinions presented are surprising and likely to overturn many of the preconceptions we have, mainly created by Hollywood, regarding the Roman Empire, it's people and it's leaders. An example being Nero, he who fiddled while Rome burned, according to the author he didn't, in fact was venerated by the people and did all he could to provide relief and aid during and after the fire. There are occasional moments of dry humour usually at the expense of legendary figures and their doings and the things they said as apposed to the things they did. The author though obviously having a great knowledge of and love for the period is not overawed by the momentous events he describes nor is he unduly reverential when discussing the towering main characters. This has the effect of humanising the characters and giving a perspective on their doings that is accessible to the modern mind. I had one regret with the book - it is not a massive tome and therefore does not go into quite as much detail as I would have liked, for example the destruction of Rome's traditional and long standing enemy, Carthage, is dealt with in a short chapter without going into the gory military details, the battle of Cannae is more or less dealt with in a paragraph. To be fair this was not the authors intention which was to provide an overview of the historic events. It left me wanting to read more on the subject especially the military details of some of the world changing conflicts that occurred. I recommend this book as an excellent, enjoyable and informative read

 

Author: taylor

Rating: 3

Review: Although I haven't finished this book, I can discern from the first one hundred pages that it needs a lot more detail in places. And that is coming from someone who had no prior knowledge of even the basics of ancient Roman history. I think the prose-like style into which the writing occasionally devolves is acceptable, but the lack of detail in places is really quite saddening. An example of this would be Gaius Marius and his military reforms. This book, in one particular section, just refers to him as a successful consul. I became aware of Gaius and his reforms through the game Rome: Total War and was suprised to see no mention of said reforms in this book. The book also fails to cover most of the larger wars that took place around the Republican era. Its focus is clearly on the politics of the Republic, and I'm alright with that, but there are some things that really shouldn't have been excluded.

 

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