Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One can find any number of books on ancient Rome. Many of them deal only with one particular period, or with very specific aspects of ancient Rome. But Rome endured, in one form or another, for a quite staggering length of time. So much happened during that period that I've always found it hard to get a handle on Roman history--to place the isolated events and the strange-sounding names in some sort of context. Nelson's book provides a broad overview of the entire pageant of Roman history and culture from 800 B.C.E. through the fall of Constantinople in 1453 C.E. This book is *precisely* what I'd been seeking for the last couple of years. Besides being informative, it's quite a fun read. One gets a sense of the Romans not as mere historical archetypes, but as people, facing problems similar to those we face today--sometimes with exasperation, often with humor. I especially liked Juvenal's description of the joys of a traffic jam, circa 234 C.E.!

The history and culture of Rome are long and complex. This delightful book is a great roadmap for the interested reader.

This book is a great place to start for anyone who's curious about expanding their knowledge of the Romans. It starts off with the Beginnings of the Roman Republic and goes through the eventual sucession of Emperors and their heirs. Also talks about the sexcapades and offers personal insights of each highlighted Emperor. The book concludes with the decline and fall of the empire and the Barbarian Invasions. My only complaint that fails to make it a 5 star selection is the lack of depth of each period of the Empire. But then again it is an idiots guide and a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about one of the greatest and most influential empires in world history.

I just finished this book, and found it a very good read, though the effect is somewhat undone by many typos, such as unneeded or misplaced commas, misspelled or misused words ("straights" when "straits" is meant), and the occasional outright error (a couple of references to the non-existent "Year 0"). Once the reader deciphers these mistakes, though, he or she finds a generally well thought out and organized book, that covers both political and social aspects of Roman history from the founding of the city to the fall, followed by a brief section on Byzantium and the West in the middle ages. The author translates Roman writings in sidebars using colloquial English or even slang. I liked this informal approach, though others might not. He has a penchant for puns, such as Commodus wanting to rename Rome after himself, i.e. "Commodeville". I also was brought up with a start when he said at points in Roman history women had more freedoms than at any time until the last century--by which I realized he meant the 20th! The book contains several maps and photographs. Without the typos, I would have rated the book five stars.

This book is great for an armateur interesting in learning more about the Roman Empire, or for students studying the subject! I have been a student of Eric Nelson's at PLU for the past 4 years and have taken Roman Civilization, two years of Latin, and Classical Mythology from him. He is a wonderful writer and an amazing professor who can make any subject come alive!

On a subject that can quickly become very, VERY complicated,
this issue does a very good job of making it simple.
It is - as I'm sure even the author would agree - "Rome Light" ... but that's the entire point!
Very well organized. Entertaining asides, inserts and "factoids" on almost every page.
Similar to the "For Dummies" series of books.
One rather thoughtful feature I found helpful: At the end of each chapter, the author includes
"The Least You Need To Know".
A brief, one sentence each description of the main facts you should take away from the chapter, if nothing else.
Recommended.

More coverage on the transition from Republic to Empire,
Julius Caesar to Augustus, the topic I was mainly interested
in, and less on the later emperors keeps this from being 5 stars, in my opinion.

I got interested in reading up on the Roman Empire after I started playing a PC game called "Rome Total War".

I just started reading this book and I'm totally hooked. I think it has everything that I need to know in order to get a truly, full grasp of ancient Rome.

To all newly Rome civilization enthusiasts I also recommend "Life, Myth, and Art in Ancient Rome" by: Tony Allan. Read Tony Allan's book before you read the "Idiot's Guide".

In "Life, Myth, and Art", you will really get your appetite wet for all things Rome. Tony Allan has beautiful, half-poster sized pictures of ancient Rome and Roman artifacts on every page, in color, and so it's partly a picture book. After reading that book and immersing in the sights and images of Ancient Rome you will be hungry for more. That's what happened to me, but if you can't afford two, then just get "The Idiot's Guide . . . ". It's a truly great read and has everything except color pictures of Rome.

P.S. As you might have guessed I gave 4 stars instead of 5 because of the absence of color pictures. But that's just because I was spoiled by the first (Tony Allan's) book.

For those of us who have never heard of Caracalla and can't tell Nero from Nirva, this book is a godsend. In simple terms, it tells the story of the Roman Empire from its humble beginnings to it fabulous heights to its disintegration. I read this book prior to a trip to Rome and found it very helpful.

SPQR - The Senate and the People of Rome all speak as one: Hail, Complete Idiot's Guide!

This book is very easy to read and clearly defines all the aspects of Rome - it's complex history, government, culture, engineering skills, etc. It is a great introduction to Roman history.

I've been a Rome buff for awhile now having first learned about the great civilization in middle school. My interest was piqued again during a trip on Italy and watching HBO's 'Rome' drama.

I've always been a bit wary of historical narrations and books, particularly about something as broadly scoped as a guide to Rome (from foundation to fall). In my experience books on the subject fail in framing the subject in a way that's coherent, exciting and innovative. Hence, I thought I would give the traditional books a pass and try something like the 'Idiots Guide'.

Forget the Oxford and Cambridge guide. This IMHO is the new golden standard. The book delivers an outline of Rome in a creative way that's `out of band', not necessarily chronological. Eric frames Rome beautifully by tackling the various aspects of Rome first before settling into a chronological overview of the Empire. All the while he provides tidbits of critical and interesting information in context using sidebars. Eric also dispels myths and provides a very compelling and insightful (may I say unbiased) account of early Christianity. It really becomes clear that a lot of beliefs that where written down over the first millennia since Christ by successive people were highly influenced by other religions and political tensions in the time (ex: the myth about Romans being intolerant overall, exaggeration of accounts of persecutions of early Christians, etc).

The book finally wraps up with a timeline that helps one consolidate all the information. Here's what I think this you can get out of this book
1) Feel well-informed of Roman history at a basic level and be armed with pointers to sources for follow-up depending on interest.
2) Appreciate this amazing civilization and the profound impact it has on us today.
3) Have common misconceptions on Rome dispelled
4) Realize that history does repeat itself and these people thought and acted just like us 2 millennia ago (things haven't really changed). For example, even in the golden era of Rome citizens grumbled about `foreign influences' and moral decay of society and how things were better 'back in the day'!

Eric I wish you had written this over a decade back so I could have been taught this in school rather than some boring thorny compilation written by multiple authors. Two of my friends have purchased this book on my recommendation and I will continue send folks down the way of your 'Idiots Guide'. (And I threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain for you during my visit in Nov 09!)

A few years ago, I took a road trip with a grad student friend of mine. We had about eight hours to kill so asked him to give me the Roman Empire in a nutshell since it was an era of history that I had little knowledge of. We arrived at our destination with his very interactive lecture closing at about the fall of the Empire. At that point, I knew I was hooked. I picked up this book the following week, read it through and within six months I was enrolled in a local B.A. of History program.

Now, after finishing up my most recent semester, during which I had taken a course of Greek and Roman history, I picked up the book again out of curiosity and still found it as enjoyable to read as I had the first time. A very fun and interesting book! When I read it the first time, I didn't appreciate how easy to read, yet content rich, it was. Now, after a couple years of reading texts (some enjoyable, some not so much so), it is refreshing to read it again and with more understanding of the period under my belt than I had during the first read, I am impressed with just how much detail there is. You'd think that the "Idiot's Guide" format would lend itself to being very shallow detail-wise, but that is not the case. Lots of good information presented in a fun style!

My only gripe is that Dr. Nelson doesn't teach at my University... I'd love to take one of his lecture courses!