Customer Reviews

Ancient Rome

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I was a contributing editor for the 2001 edition and co-authored the preface with my colleague, Suzanne Cross.
We trust that the general reader will find this classic work by Robert Payne a fine introduction to the history of Rome and her remarkable civilization.

Fifteen centuries after her fall, ancient Rome still has the power to fascinate us. The ruins and rutted roads where her mighty empire once held sway - from Britain to Africa to Asia - are mute testament to the vast scope of her greatness and a sobering reminder of the mortality of glory. But Rome's powerful legacy in the imagination of the West isn't built on ruins. As the author of this book so ably relates, we are the heirs of her ideas, a legacy perhaps more relevant to us at this moment in history than ever before. The Romans have, in fact, never seemed more modern.

Consider:

Common currencies? Twelve nations of the European Union have adopted a common currency-the euro-with other member states working toward the same goal. An innovation? The Roman denarius was the common currency of the Mediterranean world for at least 450 years.

Globalization? The Romans struggled with the "globalization" of their economy and its undreamed-of potential for prosperity- and conflict- long before the World Trade Organization and it's foes. They contended with the political and sociological consequences of the gaps between rich and poor, the role of slavery, the abandonment of the individual farm and the high price of unemployment, homelessness and want. These difficult issues are as real to us today as they were in the time of the Caesars.

Cultural diversity ? At it's height, the Roman Empire embraced over 50 million people on three continents, of vastly different cultures, creeds,and ethnicity, and made them one in a system where merit could raise a simple soldier from a far-flung province to the center of power. The Romans understood and valued talent and rewarded the able-regardless of origin. One example is the story of Pertinax, the son of a freed slave, who rose from the ranks to reign-albeit briefly-as emperor in the late second century.

World peace ? The Pax Romana - the Roman peace- lasted more than 200 years, the longest period free from major conflict the western world has ever known. Rome became the universal symbol of a dream that has haunted the human imagination since her fall: one world, at peace, united under the rule of law. After 20 centuries, it haunts us still.

Mass communications? The vast network of Roman roads, as revolutionary in it's day as the internet is in ours, served to tie the disparate empire together as the arteries of commerce and defense, but more important still as the pathway for ideas that profoundly changed the world. As a result, the Roman stamp is everywhere- in architecture, government, law, language and popular culture.

Post-Imperialism and Democracy? After the collapse of Roman power in Western Europe, the painful transition from united Empire to a patchwork of feudal states sapped the energies of the Mediterranean world for centuries. As Rome's former provinces struggled, so many third-world countries contend with ambivalent colonial legacies today. Yet it was Rome's republican ideals and institutions that inspired the Founding Fathers of colonial America in creating the laws and government of their infant democracy and continue to inspire free peoples around the world struggling with the vexing issues of self government.

When the Horizon Book of Ancient Rome first appeared in 1966, it set the standard for a one-volume introduction to the city on the Tiber and her vast Empire. In the 35 years since it's publication, new research in archaeology,anthropology, historiography and social sciences have produced landmark studies in Roman demographics, women's studies, and other fields, often with the aid of cutting-edge computer technology and the vast resources of the Internet. (A special feature of this volume are computer-generated images of the Roman Forum using digital technology only available in the past few years.)
In popular culture, the fiction of Lindsay Davis and Steven Saylor, numerous television documentaries, the development of PC games like "Civilization" and "SPQR" and the popularity of movies like "Gladiator" shows that ancient Rome is vividly alive in the 21st Century imagination.

With this in mind,Payne's book remains surprisingly undated and fresh, a solid introduction to almost every aspect of Rome's long history: her wars, armies, legendary figures like Julius Caesar and Constantine,the impact of Christianity, city architecture, government, literature,art , engineering and more. An extensive bibliography is included as a guide to further study.

As a novice generally interested in ancient Rome, I found this book to be just what the doctor ordered to understand the complex history of ancient Rome. The books lays out the history of Rome and all of its complxity in realitively easy to read terms. It is a very "reader friendly" book for the person who wants an better understanding of how the empire was formed and how it operated.

I actually thought that reding this would be a bit of a chore, but a necessary one to achieve a better understanding of the subject matter. I was pleasantly surprised to find it far from a chore to read. I came away with a working knowledge of the empire.

I recommend this book to anyone whom is looking for a generalized Historical background on Ancient Rome. Not a good source for specific detail.

Written with a bright high school student in mind (which is fine with me), this introductory history of Rome is an excellent read. The prose is highly readable. There could be more on the fall of Rome, especially because of the many parallels between the decline of modern Europe and the collapse of Rome. Many, including me, also see parallels between modern USA and ancient Rome.

In any event, it is an exciting period in history and Payne does a good job bringing it alive. One suggestion: read a biography of Cicero and a few of his essays; also read The Aeneid. Cicero was a hero to several of America's founding fathers. His life and thought not only reveal him and his times, but also disclose the ideas and intentions of the founders of the USA.

narrative is superb, b ut you need 3-d glasses to see Forum the way the publisher intended.