Customer Reviews

Roman Republics

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This is a great read. I like how she tries to think through problems in periodization, in sorting out the details of the structure of the Republic as it is altered through time. To me it makes more sense of how events worked. The Republic after Sulla was unlike the Republic of Maruis, and even more, of the Gracchi. That helps us understand the quickening pace of events as they spin toward empire.

This book is a solid, brief and challenging history of the Roman Republic. I always thought of the period 509-31BC as a single aggressive republic, increasing its territories, money and population and dealing with the pros and cons this expansion bought and building a civilization within laws and protocols. The author sets out 3 parts; part 1 deals with the development of the framework of the Republic, then part 2 deals with innovation and change and the last part is concerned with the breakdown and aftermath from Sulla to Octavian. The author ends up detailing thirteen periods of time including six republics.

The period 509 to 451 BC consists of a pre republic and a proto republic, so the first Republic starts around 450 BC. l am just a lay historian but l thoroughly enjoyed this book, crisply written and logical with a deep insight into the multi layered history of Rome, and a joy to read.

Harriet Flower's statements that Emperor Vespasian's son Titus deliberately burned the Temple of Jerusalem to the ground is baseless. Of all the books I have read on the Flavian Dynasty I have found no reference to the Temple being deliberately burned. Rather, I have read that it was an accident and that the soldier who started the fire was disciplined. Titus had given strict orders that the Temple was not to be touched.