Customer Reviews

The Maritime World of Ancient Rome (Supplements to the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome)

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I ordered this expensive collection of essays on various aspects of Roman maritime interests in the hope that it would provide crucial information in preparing my own book on the sea power of the Roman Empire. I should have paid more attention to the table of contents. The book is interesting as a potpourri of several aspects of Roman naval history. I did find snippets of data that was helpful to my research. However, as the list of contents illustrates, this is a compilation rather than a focused thesis. Each essay concentrates on information vital to the research interest of the contributor. As such, the book is kind of fragmented and has no over-arching theme about the Roman maritime world. As I said, it is interesting and informative, but don't look for a coordinated presentation about how Rome exercised maritime and naval influence.