Customer Reviews

Imperium Romanum: Politics and Administration

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

 

 

There really aren't many positive things to say about Andrew Lintott's book on Roman administration. The forward says this is an important addition to the study of administration in the Roman era. If this is true, we are all in a lot of trouble. Lintott tries to maintain an organizational structure to the book, but fails because he constantly veers from presenting his own specialized research to generalized themes. The result is a book that is awkward to read and awkward to study. My professor said it best: "Lintott claims to be writing this for his students. One wonders what they must think of him."

Lintott examines the effects of Roman administration in both the city and the province. I'm not going to waste much time discussing details here. There are too many of them and most of them are boring. In short, he looks at provincial administration, economics, etc. Lintott's conclusion is interesting. He feels that we shouldn't claim too much for the Roman Empire because it couldn't provide the kind of coherence that a city/state or constitution could. But Rome as a political and geographical expression lasted for 1500+ years. Who cares if it didn't provide city/state coherence? The economic and social links sufficed to hold Rome together. That should be enough.

Beware Lintott's writing style. It is so tedious due to misplaced clauses that you'll be ready to toss this one into the fireplace by the time you get to the end. I should probably lump this into the editing problems. For an academic text, the editing is atrocious. Mistakes abound everywhere. Lintott also drops so many Latin phrases, without explanation, that even Julius Caesar would have had trouble reading this. If you have to read this book for a class (as I did), take a deep breath before diving in.