In this informal history of Roman civilization, Edith Hamilton vividly depicts the Roman life and spirit as they are revealed in the greatest writers of the time.
Among these literary guides are Cicero, who left an incomparable collection of letters; Catullus, the quintessential poet of love; Horace, the chronicler of a cruel and materialistic Rome; and the Romantics Virgil, Livy, and Seneca. The story concludes with the stark contrast between high-minded Stoicism and the collapse of values witnessed by Tacitus and Juvenal.
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About the Author
Edith Hamilton won the National Achievement Award in 1950, received honorary degrees of Doctor of Letters from Yale University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Pennsylvania, and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1957 she was many an honorary citizen of Athens and was decorated with the Golden Cross of the Order of Benefaction by King Paul of Greece.
--This text refers to the
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More About the Author
Edith Hamilton, an educator, writer and a historian, was born August 12, 1867 in Dresden, Germany, of American parents and grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her father began teaching her Latin when she was seven years old and soon added Greek, French, and German to her curriculum. Hamilton's education continued at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, and at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which she graduated in 1894 with an M.A. degree. The following year, she and her sister Alice went to Germany and were the first women students at the universities of Munich and Leipzich.
Hamilton returned to the United States in 1896 and accepted the position of headmistress of the Bryn Mawr Preparatory School in Baltimore, Maryland. For the next twenty-six years, she directed the education of about four hundred girls per year. After her retirement in 1922, she started writing and publishing scholarly articles on Greek drama. In 1930, when she was sixty-three years old, she published The Greek Way, in which she presented parallels between life in ancient Greece and in modern times. The book was a critical and popular success. In 1932, she published The Roman Way, which was also very successful. These were followed by The Prophets of Israel (1936), Witness to the Truth: Christ and His Interpreters (1949), Three Greek Plays, translations of Aeschylus and Euripides (1937), Mythology (1942), The Great Age of Greek Literature (1943), Spokesmen for God (1949) and Echo of Greece (1957). Hamilton traveled to Greece in 1957 to be made an honorary citizen of Athens and to see a performance in front of the Acropolis of one of her translations of Greek plays. She was ninety years old at the time. At home, Hamilton was a recipient of many honorary degrees and awards, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Edith Hamilton died on May 31, 1963 in Washington, D.C.
Hamilton returned to the United States in 1896 and accepted the position of headmistress of the Bryn Mawr Preparatory School in Baltimore, Maryland. For the next twenty-six years, she directed the education of about four hundred girls per year. After her retirement in 1922, she started writing and publishing scholarly articles on Greek drama. In 1930, when she was sixty-three years old, she published The Greek Way, in which she presented parallels between life in ancient Greece and in modern times. The book was a critical and popular success. In 1932, she published The Roman Way, which was also very successful. These were followed by The Prophets of Israel (1936), Witness to the Truth: Christ and His Interpreters (1949), Three Greek Plays, translations of Aeschylus and Euripides (1937), Mythology (1942), The Great Age of Greek Literature (1943), Spokesmen for God (1949) and Echo of Greece (1957). Hamilton traveled to Greece in 1957 to be made an honorary citizen of Athens and to see a performance in front of the Acropolis of one of her translations of Greek plays. She was ninety years old at the time. At home, Hamilton was a recipient of many honorary degrees and awards, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Edith Hamilton died on May 31, 1963 in Washington, D.C.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best survey of Rome,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Roman Way (Paperback)
I'd have to partially agree with the previous viewer. The Roman Way is boring at times. Hamilton's prose can be haulting, and her analysis somewhat pedantic. However, Hamilton was a product of a certain time and certain educational background, and one has to take that in mind when evaluating her style.The major problems with the book are two. The first is that this book, when compared to Hamilton's Greek Way, is almost an afterthought. It's easy to see which culture was nearer and dearer to Hamilton, and into which she invested more thought. It's almost as if, having done a survey of the Greeks, Hamilton said to herself: "I suppose I better humor the Romanophiles and say a few words about those Latins." The second problem is the method of analysis. Hamilton concentrates on the literature of the period, and from this draws her conclusions about Roman mentality. A lot of scholars from her era seem to think of classical society mostly in literary terms. Unfortunately, there is a lot more to a civilization than its poets and dramatists. Hamilton saw the Greeks as a pleasant people who saw beauty in every day nature, and who tried to place themselves in harmony with that nature. She saw the Romans as people who had little use for beauty, and were instead on a quest to control nature. These generalizations don't do much justice to either culture. Still, Hamilton is such a giant in the field, you almost have to read her works whether or not you find them sound. And her enthusiasm for the classical world, especially for Greece, is almost infectious.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
brilliant and thoughtful,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Roman Way (Paperback)
I read this book (actually is was a combo of The Greek Way and The Roman Way). I really enjoyed it a lot. Edith Hamilton has a style that seems to bring one back in time. One almost believes he is there experiencing that ancient time. But moreover, one receives a personal feel of all the charactors she so richly describes. Caesar, Cicero, Catullus, Horace, etc. all seem to come alive. Above it all, Ms. Hamilton has a wonderful writing style that manifests itself throughout. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read It Again,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Roman Way (Paperback)
I was first exposed to this classic in high school, but, of course, lacked the experience and maturity to appreciate it. I am glad I was exposed to it anyway because I was indeed impressed by it and remembered it in spite of my immaturity. I picked it up again and re-read it and was delighted. Hamilton is a voice from another time, a time not just of ancient Romans but a time when educated people in the modern West were really educated in what really matters and will always matter: the best that has been written and thought about the drama of human life throughout the ages. With that classic outlook, the reader cannot but help to recapture some of the balance, insight, sensitivity, and maturity that are the best fruits of a classical education. Now, more than ever, we need the classic restraint and equanimity that comes from the best of classical civilization. Reading Hamilton is a great tonic for a society increasingly fragmenting into more and more lunatic and decadent dead ends. The classics mature our personalities--and we need that in a time when egotism and undisciplined emotionalism are so rampant.
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