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Author Topic: Recommended Reading Thread...  (Read 95173 times)

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Offline commodus

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #100 on: February 08, 2011, 01:20:09 pm »
I just read Stacy Schiff's recent biography of Cleopatra. It is by far the best treatment of the queen's life I have read.
Eric Brock (1966 - 2011)

Emanuele Giulianelli

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #101 on: February 09, 2011, 12:01:16 pm »
Anyone can suggest good book about III century in Roman Empire?
thanks

Offline mcbyrne21

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #102 on: February 09, 2011, 12:57:07 pm »
Anyone can suggest good book about III century in Roman Empire?
thanks

I had a great book about this time period once.  I think it was called "Climax of Rome" (can't remember if this was the title or subtitle).  I can't remember the author's name right off hand but it covered roughly the period from M. Aurelius to Constantine. Had different sections dealing with the military/government, arts/culture, economy, religion, etc.  Lots of good detailed information without being too academic.  I will check with the person I passed it onto and try and get full title/author.

Offline Bud Stewart

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #103 on: February 09, 2011, 01:51:35 pm »
I had a great book about this time period once.  I think it was called "Climax of Rome" (can't remember if this was the title or subtitle).  I can't remember the author's name right off hand but it covered roughly the period from M. Aurelius to Constantine. Had different sections dealing with the military/government, arts/culture, economy, religion, etc.  Lots of good detailed information without being too academic.  I will check with the person I passed it onto and try and get full title/author.

Michael Grant's "Climax of Rome" Published by Phoenician Paper (1997)

Emanuele Giulianelli

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #104 on: February 09, 2011, 05:53:06 pm »
thanks, guys ;)

Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #105 on: February 09, 2011, 07:10:18 pm »
Anyone can suggest good book about III century in Roman Empire?
thanks

Pat Southern's "The Roman Empire: From Severus to Constantine" is a very good introduction to the period. Highly recommended.

Offline mcbyrne21

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #106 on: February 09, 2011, 09:16:16 pm »


Michael Grant's "Climax of Rome" Published by Phoenician Paper (1997)
[/quote]

That's the one!  While I'm thinking about it, can anyone recommend something similiar covering the II century/adoptive emperor period?

Offline Bud Stewart

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #107 on: March 13, 2011, 07:11:04 pm »
I just finished Anthony Everitt’s Cicero.  I thoroughly enjoyed this work.  What great insights into the man and his times.  I must admit I was a little apprehensive at first, I thought that the work would be dominated by long excerpts of Cicero’s orations, but it turned out to be so much more.  As we all know, Cicero was a witness and participant in some of the most turbulent events of Republican History, and Mr. Everitt lets us view these events through the eyes of one of the Republic’s greatest defenders.  I highly recommend this work not only for the educational aspects, but because it is highly entertaining. 

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #108 on: March 22, 2011, 03:49:10 pm »
Quote from: Bud Stewart on March 13, 2011, 07:11:04 pm
I just finished Anthony Everitt’s Cicero.  I thoroughly enjoyed this work.  What great insights into the man and his times.  I must admit I was a little apprehensive at first, I thought that the work would be dominated by long excerpts of Cicero’s orations, but it turned out to be so much more.  As we all know, Cicero was a witness and participant in some of the most turbulent events of Republican History, and Mr. Everitt lets us view these events through the eyes of one of the Republic’s greatest defenders.  I highly recommend this work not only for the educational aspects, but because it is highly entertaining. 

Just started reading this one again!

Also just finished Pat Southern's "Mark Antony A Life".  It really peels away the propaganda of Octavian and shows Antony as a very good decision maker and not the bewitched follower of Cleopatra so often conveyed.  At the same time it points out his flaws.  Highly recommended.

Offline benito

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #109 on: March 22, 2011, 04:11:35 pm »
The relation between Mark and Cleo was cleverly exploited politically by Augustus . The figure of Cesarion ( Cleopatra"s  son) too ( by both). Thats why I mentioned the  political maneuvers precceding the battle of Actium. In fact Augustus was much nastier than Mark,and in politics you know.......

Offline Soxfan

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #110 on: March 29, 2011, 07:56:53 pm »
Just finished "Nero's Killing machine" by Stephen Dando Collins. This book is all about the 14th Gemina Legion, and I thought it was a fantastic read. It actually is what got me thinking about that Germanicus coin.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #111 on: March 29, 2011, 08:10:11 pm »
Just finished "Nero's Killing machine" by Stephen Dando Collins. This book is all about the 14th Gemina Legion, and I thought it was a fantastic read. It actually is what got me thinking about that Germanicus coin.

Cool!  I've recommended all of his books on the Roman Legions.  I don't always agree with his conclusions though...

Offline Soxfan

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #112 on: March 29, 2011, 08:51:36 pm »
Maybe not, but I thought he did a good job of recreating battles and personalities. I was pretty amazed at the end of the book where he states that it was 32 years in the making...:)

Offline museumguy

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #113 on: March 30, 2011, 07:31:04 am »
I just finished Richard Gabriel's, "Philip II of Macedonia: Greater Than Alexander", and I must say it was an excellent read.  In very clear and interesting language he lays out the case that Philip was a much better diplomat and tactician than Alexander was and that Philip set the stage for Alexander to become the general he eventually became.  Without all of Philip's "advance" work, Alexander might not have become a world conqueror.  I highly recommend this book.

Steve

Offline cicerokid

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #114 on: March 31, 2011, 09:08:48 am »

Richard Gabriel's, "Philip II of Macedonia: Greater Than Alexander",

Yes I read it too :brilliant. I have no doubt that he would have taken the Persian Empire as well, with Alexander being one of his top generals. And if Alexander suceeeded him after that then he , Alexander, might have conquered ALL the known world.

Does anybody know of a book about Hellenistic Athens?


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Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #115 on: May 06, 2011, 05:11:02 pm »
Just bought "The Poison King: The Life and Legand of Mithriadates" by Adrienne Mayor.  Not too many books on this most interesting and important historical figure.  Looking forward to reading it.

Offline Will J

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #116 on: May 13, 2011, 09:05:10 am »
I enjoyed When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome by Richard Rubenstein

It begins with Diocletians persecution of the christians and the events leading to the Nicean council and the involvement of Constantine. It goes into the struggles after the council to the end of the 4th century with the emperor Theodosius.

Offline mcbyrne21

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #117 on: May 13, 2011, 10:27:37 am »
Just bought "The Poison King: The Life and Legand of Mithriadates" by Adrienne Mayor.  Not too many books on this most interesting and important historical figure.  Looking forward to reading it.

I just finished this, very glad I had a chance to pick it up.  Found it a great read with lots of good information, definitely recommend. 

I was a little confused though by some of her contentions (he was an absolute monarch setting up a personal empire who was somehow anti-imperial?) and apologetic tone.  Don't want to rehash here in this thread but does anyone know if this book has been discussed previously, either on FORVM or elsewhere?  I'd like to get some other opinions. 

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #118 on: May 14, 2011, 12:20:33 am »
I had never heard of it until I saw it in the bookstore. I'm only on chapter 2 so I'll let you know once I'm finished.  so far I'm into it.

Offline daverino

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #119 on: June 23, 2011, 01:15:11 am »
"The Man in the Roman Street" by Harold Mattingly

Before you buy another Roman coin read this book! Mattingly was the principal author behind the RIC series and while he scarcely mentions numismatics, this short volume (~150 pages) basically explains what the amateur needs to know and can expect to learn about the Roman mind from the study of Roman coins.

Best yet, the book is probably available in the local library or, if not, very cheaply on Amazon in paperback. It was written in the 1950's, before word processors and publishers who paid authors by the pound for printed matter. Mattingly is easy to read once you get used to his condensed style of writing.

Offline daverino

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #120 on: August 03, 2011, 10:06:47 pm »
Another great book which I read several years ago is "The Bones of St. Peter" by John Walsh, published in 1982. When Constantine built St Peter's in Rome he constructed it over what he believed to be the grave of St. Peter located in (not surprisingly) a cemetery. Just before WW II the Vatican authorized a group of archaologists to begin excavations in the basement of St Peters which had been rebuilt on the old foundations in the Renaissance. They discovered that Constantine's basilica had frozen in time and place the alleged grave of St. Peter's.

The book is an excellent archaeological read with a lot of reflections on Roman history and the history of St. Peter's. The book has been published on the web, almost in its entirety.

http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Necropolis/JW/TheBonesofStPeter-8.htm#theory

....but is best read in book form.  It's probably in the library. A real page-turner written with scientific objectivity

Offline SkySoldier

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #121 on: August 08, 2011, 01:51:24 pm »
I just finished "Constantine the Great: The Man and his Times" by Michael Grant.  Grant refers quite a bit to coin evidence, and the book is an easy read, but overall, its a tad purile; not up to his previous work.  The overall tone is almost snarky, and at 227 pages of text, only glosses over the man and his period.  

Jacob Burkhardt's work on Constantine is 100 times better, and is written in a dispassionate, scholarly tone.  Much superior to Grant's work, as well as being much older.

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #122 on: August 09, 2011, 12:53:12 pm »
I just remembered two really good books related to Byzantine coinage:

"Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy" by Michael Hendy, who just died a couple of years ago.  Very good book of essays and everything you wanted to know about the development of the solidus and monisma.

"Byzantine Coinage" by Phiilip Grierson.  Not bad compendium of Byzantine coinage.  It's not even remotely similar to Sear, but goes into much more depth on the economic and social context of the coins.

"Economy, Fiscal Administration, & Coinage of Byzantium" by Michael Hendy.  Another outstanding work on the Byzantine economy.

Offline SC

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #123 on: October 14, 2011, 10:38:14 am »
I have to give a friend's book a plug.

A colleague of mine, another Canadian diplomat, has published a novel set in the 2nd century Roman Empire.

It is called Last of the Ninth, by Stephen Lorne Bennett, 2010.  It is only being e-published.  I got my copy on Smashwords and chose a PDF option though it is also available via several other e-book services:

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/ebooks/search/?keywords=stephen%20lorne%20bennett&pageSize=12
 
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/21565
 
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Last-of-the-Ninth/Stephen-Lorne-Bennett/e/2940011099717/?itm=1&USRI=stephen+lorne+bennett
 
http://kobobooks.com/ebook/Last-of-the-Ninth/book-LUHgiu2dx0-sSncwrDpBiw/page1.html
 
http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/stephen-lorne-bennett/last-of-the-ninth/_/R-400000000000000284339
 
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/item/SW00000021565/Bennett-Stephen-Lorne-Last-of-the-Ninth/1.html
 
(Also available as an I-Book for the Apple I-pad or on Scrollmotion if you have those aps.)

[Hopefully this does not break forvm rules as they are not coin vendors.]

Though admitedly biaised I thought the story was great fun.  It is set in a variety of places - Danube limes, Rome and the East - in the early 160s AD.  The story is very well researched over all (he tells me it was a ten year venture) and includes a numismatic plot element!  (I have to say that there is an error regarding the numismatics but it certainly does not detract from the plot or the enjoyment.)  A few genuine figures appear in it including Lucius Verus and Lucian of Samosata.

Shawn

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Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #124 on: November 14, 2011, 07:55:27 am »
I will check that out. Thanks Shawn!

I will recommend a book I just started:

The Pursuit of Italy by David Gilmour.

It's a History of the different Italian people, their culture and language and why it may not have been a good idea for unification. I must say it is a very interesting book and doesn't get bogged down but gives a really good overview of the regions and cities and then focuses on a specific example to make the point. It starts in the pre-Roman world and right now i'm up to the Popes of the 1500's. I'm really enjoying this one.

 

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