Customer Reviews

Ancient Rome: An Introductory History

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent introduction to the history of ancient Rome. It seems to be aimed at high school students, as an adjunct to their study of Latin. Older readers will enjoy it as well. Before digging into something heavier, like Grant's history, or Dudley, or a college-level text such as Sinnigen & Boak, it's good to get an overview and a idea of the main themes; if you start out with those heavier volumes, it's easy to lose sight of the main currents, and get caught up in the details and minutiae.

It follows a fairly traditional path, and concentrates on political and military history. In style, this book reminded me of the two histories of Rome that Isaac Asimov wrote. It does not assume any previous knowledge of Rome, and the author includes many edifying and entertaining episodes from Livy, stories that are part and parcel of our Western heritage.

Note: this work is heavily weighted toward early Rome and the Republic. The author doesn't get to the Principate until page 227 out of 284. (An aside: the book has a total of 300 pages, not the 320 mentioned above.) For full information about the Empire, you'll want to supplement this book with something else.

The book could have done with some more pictures and maps, but all in all, a good value for the price, and a wonderful way to start learning about our Latin heritage.

Zoch has done an excellent job in bringing about an easy reading yet very informative book on the history of Rome. The author has treated the myths Rome held important to their founding and throughout their culture as key to understanding Rome and her culture, so one will get an excellent glimpse of Rome and her legendary figures. The book goes up until the time of Augustus then it slows down. He gives basically an epitome of Rome's Imperial period. It is intended for a general study and intoduction to Roman history and is written more for the high school level than anything. I will say that this is not a bad thing as it provides a good study and is very simple to read. One area that I found frustrating was, was his lack of dates. But overall the book is a good resource to have, especially if one is just starting a study of Rome, and although is written rather simple and straightfoward, is written in such a way to convey the information to an audience that ranges from jr. high on up. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good introductory history to Rome, especially her myths.

Zoch taught high school Latin to an audience which knew relatively little about the ancient Romans: his contribution is this title, which reveals Roman history, culture, and society. The introductory format makes it easy for students to quickly learn about Roman history and culture and Ancient Rome is recommended for any high school student of Latin or Roman history.

As a high school latin teacher, Mr. Zoch is an interesting indiviual. After taking his class for two years, we have come to find that his personal opinions and preferences contribute to his teaching philosophy and view on history. His love for the Greatful Dead and "Locked up Abroad" have come to shape his class discussions. These odd subjects of fascination have contributed to his styles of writing. In his book Ancient Rome: An Introductory History, he uses these views to shape interesting stories. All in all this book shows what Paul Zoch can teach and his ability to shape uninteresting topics into stories that are easy to remember.

Sincerely,
Latin 2 2008/2009

I have not read the book first of all, but i would like to say that i know Mr. Zoch, he is my Latin teacher at my high school. I would like to read this book, because he uses it in class. He has fun in the class, and adds humor to the class while getting a serious point across.

As I pondered what to write in this lonely page of the internet, i found that no words came to my mind. This is because this book did not arouse my senses or captivate me.I decided that my own personal opinion mattered not to the future readers so i researched by testing this book in many different street corners. I found a young clean cut mexican gentleman who stood on my street corner meeting up with large darken windowed vans exchanging small ziplock bags. (Most probably bologna sandwiches) I asked this young man, Brutus Hidalgo Tetanya, to read this book written by (in my opinion from the picture on the back of the book) a very good looking man. He took the book. Read it. Got up from his ripped up lawn chair. I never saw him again.

Enough said.