Customer Reviews

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Roman World (Oxford Illustrated Histories)

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It's just a text book, not much flavor but well put together. I would strongly recommend as the Romans Did as a supplemental, or for the casual reader pick up something by Goldsworthy or Anthony Everitt.

I purchased this book expecting it to be a good historical overview, albeit an illustrated one, and was disappointed. This Oxford history of the Roman world is a collection of essays on various aspects of Roman history, government and society. There is no coherent narrative history here, although the republican period is covered better in this regard than the imperial period (i.e. before Caesar in the first century). The essays are pretty good, but a history they do not make.

N.B. - This book is textually identical to the "Oxford History of the Roman World" - the difference between the two is illustrations. Also, the non-illustrated is more compact, whereas the illustrated is more of a coffee table book. Because of its bulk, it will more likely be damaged in shipping, so if you move around, get the non-illustrated version.

The first three chapters, covering the regal period (up to 500 BC) to the first century, was the closest to a real history; the first two chapters were largely narrative, then the third chapter is about early Latin writers. I thought the chapter covering the supremely important period of the Roman revolution - "Cicero and Rome" - was framed in an odd way, although I grant the author's premise that Cicero's voluminous surviving writings bias the traditional history of the period. After the Augustan period which immediately followed, there is no attempt to maintain a historical narrative. The fact that each essay is written by a separate author undermines the book's coherence as well.