Customer Reviews

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages, Vol. 4, 1003-1199

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

 

 

I know. It's a VERY long book (in several volumes!). But you don't have to read it all in one month. I am tasting it piece by piece since two years. It is really the best book I can suggest on the history of Rome.

Ferdinand Gregorovius, despite his name, was a German who happened to be living in Rome during the end of the papal Government of the Heternal City (second half of XIX Century). He was so fascinated by this magnificent city - ok, I admit that I was born in Rome, but it IS a magnificent city - that he decided to write a history of it, from the fall of the Roman Empire untill the XVI Century. After that, he wrote, nothing special happened to the City, at least accourding to his artistic and historicist taste.

In the first volume of the book, I enjoyed mostly the description of the Gothic Wars, between Goths and the Eastern Roman Empire during the first half of the VI Century. It is really a fascinating story, it would be a wonderful script for a historical movie. I was so intrigued that I read the story from the original witness of the time, Procopius, a delightful reading as well.

Gregorovius was a histroian, but also a German of the time, and you can tell that just by reading how he describes (and defends) the Goths (followers of the arianism) and the German barbarians. While the late Romans are described as lost in lust and viciuos, barbarians have "fresh blood" and righteus morale. This nationalistic view had some fortune until our days, just remember what nazis thought of arians...

But the protagonist is Rome of course. If you read this book you will know pretty much everything about this city, at least until the end of the Middle Age. If you are interested in Rome this book CANNOT be missed. Every single historian of the city of Rome has to deal with it. The good news is that it is so well written and the content is so fascinating, that even the general public can be delighted by this book.