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Roman warfare
Par Adrian Goldsworthy. 2023
From an award-winning historian of ancient Rome, a concise and comprehensive history of the fighting forces that created the Roman…
Empire Roman warfare was relentless in its pursuit of victory. A ruthless approach to combat played a major part in Rome's history, creating an empire that eventually included much of Europe, the Near East and North Africa. What distinguished the Roman army from its opponents was the uncompromising and total destruction of its enemies. Yet this ferocity was combined with a genius for absorbing conquered peoples, creating one of the most enduring empires ever known. In Roman Warfare , celebrated historian Adrian Goldsworthy traces the history of Roman warfare from 753 BC, the traditional date of the founding of Rome by Romulus, to the eventual decline and fall of Roman Empire and attempts to recover Rome and Italy from the "barbarians" in the sixth century AD. It is the indispensable history of the most professional fighting force in ancient history, an army that created an Empire and changed the worldGlobal bestselling author of River God and The New Kingdom , Wilbur Smith, returns with the next epic book in…
his brand-new Ancient Egyptian series. FROM THE RUINS OF BATTLE A HERO MUST RISE FOR THE GLORY OF EGYPT Years of Hyksos rule have seen the plunder of once-mighty Egypt. Though the two kingdoms have now been reunited by the armies of the true Pharaoh, his position is perilous, his rule under threat from those who seek to take advantage of the turmoil created by the overthrow of the Hyksos. Desperate to keep Egypt united, Taita the Magus summons his protégé, Piay, to solve a millennia-old riddle which has the power to secure Egypt's future forever. But in the tumult of war, an evil has thrived. Malevolent followers of Seth, the god of chaos, are determined to claim this power and usher in a new age of darkness. The fate of Egypt is at stake. Can Piay prevent their land falling into the hands of those who would see its ruin?Emperor of rome: Ruling the ancient world
Par Mary Beard. 2023
In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome, from its slightly shabby Iron Age…
origins to its reign as the undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean. Now, drawing on more than thirty years of teaching and writing about Roman history, Beard turns to the emperors who ruled the Roman Empire, beginning with Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) and taking us through the nearly three centuries—and some thirty emperors—that separate him from the boy-king Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Yet Emperor of Rome is not your typical chronological account of Roman rulers, one emperor after another: the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Instead, Beard asks different, often larger and more probing questions: What power did emperors actually have? Was the Roman palace really so bloodstained? What kind of jokes did Augustus tell? And for that matter, what really happened between the emperor Hadrian and his beloved Antinous? Effortlessly combining the epic with the quotidian, Beard tracks the emperor down at home, at the races, on his travels, even on his way to heaven. Along the way, Beard explores Roman fictions of imperial power, overturning many of the assumptions we hold as gospel, not the least of them the perception that emperors one and all were orchestrators of extreme brutality and cruelty. Here Beard introduces us to the emperor's wives and lovers, rivals and slaves, court jesters and soldiers, and the ordinary people who pressed begging lettersinto his hand—whose chamber pot disputes were adjudicated by Augustus, and whose budgets were approved by Vespasian, himself the son of a tax collector. With its finely nuanced portrayal of sex, class, and politics, Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman fantasies (and our own) about what it was to be Roman at its richest, most luxurious, most extreme, most powerful, and most deadly, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented beforeThe wandering mind: What medieval monks tell us about distraction
Par Jamie Kreiner. 2023
The digital era is beset by distraction, and it feels like things are only getting worse. At times like these,…
the distant past beckons as a golden age of attention. We dream of recapturing the quiet of a world with less noise. We imagine retreating into solitude and singlemindedness, almost like latter-day monks. But although we think of early monks as master concentrators, a life of mindfulness did not, in fact, come to them easily. As historian Jamie Kreiner demonstrates in The Wandering Mind, their attempts to stretch the mind out to God-to continuously contemplate the divine order and its ethical requirements-were all-consuming, and their battles against distraction were never-ending. Delving into the experiences of early Christian monks, Kreiner shows that these men and women were obsessed with distraction in ways that seem remarkably modern. Drawing on a trove of sources that the monks left behind, Kreiner reconstructs the techniques they devised in their lifelong quest to master their minds. She captures the fleeting moments of pure attentiveness that some monks managed to grasp, and the many times when monks struggled and failed and went back to the drawing board. Blending history and psychology, The Wandering Mind is a witty, illuminating account of human fallibility and ingenuity that bridges a distant era and our ownThe war that made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium
Par Barry S Strauss. 2022
One Tiny Bubble: The Story of Our Last Universal Common Ancestor
Par Karen Krossing. 2022
Comparative insights on astronomy, divination, and medicine from ancient textsScientific Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East presents a…
collection of articles by leading scholars on scientific practices in the ancient world, with emphasis on the fields of medicine, astronomy, astrology, and other forms of divination. The essays engage with a wide variety of textual sources in many different languages and scripts from Egypt and the Near East spanning more than a millennium, including some texts that are edited and discussed here for the first time. The contributors to this volume were tasked with approaching their texts not only as specialists, but also from a cross-cultural perspective, and the resulting body of work reveals new and exciting evidence for the transfer of scientific knowledge across cultural borders in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East.This book will be of interest primarily to specialists in the history of medicine, science, divination, and magic, as well as to papyrologists, Egyptologists, and Assyriologists.Cataclysm 90 BC: The Forgotten War that Almost Destroyed Rome
Par Philip Matyszak. 2014
A dramatic account of a rebellion against the Roman republic—by a confederation of its Italian allies. We know of…
Rome&’s reputation for military success against foreign enemies. Yet at the start of the first century BC, Rome faced a hostile army less than a week&’s march from the capital. It is probable that only a swift surrender prevented the city from being attacked and sacked. Before that point, three Roman consuls had died in battle, and two Roman armies had been soundly defeated—not in some faraway field, but in the heartland of Italy. So who was this enemy that so comprehensively knocked Rome to its knees? What army could successfully challenge the legions which had been undefeated from Spain to the Euphrates? And why is that success almost unknown today? These questions are answered in this book, a military and political history of the Social War. It tells the story of the revolt of Rome&’s Italian allies (socii in Latin), who wanted citizenship—and whose warriors had all the advantages of the Roman army that they usually fought alongside. It came down to a clash of generals—with the Roman rivals Gaius Marius and Cornelius Sulla spending almost as much time in political intrigue as in combat with the enemy. With its interplay of such personalities as the young Cicero, Cato, and Pompey—and filled with high-stakes politics, full-scale warfare, assassination, personal sacrifice, and desperate measures such as raising an army of freed slaves—Cataclysm 90 BC provides not just a rich historical account but a taut, fast-paced tale.Lost Cities of the Ancient World
Par Philip Matyszak. 2023
A fascinating tour of cities that have been lost to history—from the Neolithic period to the late Roman Empire—that offers…
a fresh perspective on the roots of urban life. The ruins of ancient Athens, Luxor, and Rome are familiar cornerstones of world history, visited by travelers from across the globe. But what about the cities that have dropped off the map? That have been submerged under water, or swallowed up by the sands of time? Where are they, and what can they tell us about our past? In this compendium of forgotten cities, Philip Matyszak exploresthe trials, tribulations, and triumphs these cities faced, revealing how people have embarked on the shared endeavor of living together since we first settled down twelve thousand years ago. Illustrated throughout with important artifacts, ruins, and maps, Lost Cities of the Ancient World brings to life the sites and settlements across Europe, the Middle East, and beyond that time forgot, from the sunken city of Pavlopetri in the Mediterranean to the deep cave dwellings of Derinkuyu in Turkey. Four thousand years of human history are covered in this volume, offering unique insights into forgotten cities and ways of life. Matyszak reveals a dynamic network of peoples and cultures who fought and traded between themselves, exchanging inventions, ideas, and philosophies, with the result that people as far apart as Catalhöyükin Turkey and Skara Brae in Scotland’s Orkney Islands shared a common heritage. By examining the motivations that first drew populations to gather and settle together, as well as the challenges that led to their cities’ abandonment, this visually striking and often surprising book offers us a fresh perspective on our urban origins.Gladiators & Beast Hunts: Arena Sports of Ancient Rome
Par Christopher Epplett. 2016
Gladiators and Beasthunts is a comprehensive survey of arena sports in ancient Rome, focusing upon gladiatorial combat and the beast-hunts…
(venationes). Whilst numerous books have already been written on arena spectacles in ancient Rome, they generally neglect the venationes, despite the fact that the beast-hunts, in which men were pitted in mortal combat against various dangerous wild animals (including lions, tigers, elephants and rhinos), were almost as popular as gladiatorial spectacles and were staged over a longer period of time. Dr Christopher Epplett, gives a full and detailed treatment of both types of spectacle. The author starts by explaining the origins of these bloody combat sports in the late Roman Republic, before surveying the growth of these events during the first two centuries of the Empire, when emperors possessed the resources to stage arena spectacles on an unmatched scale. The details of the training, equipment and fighting styles used by different types of combatants are covered, as are the infrastructure of the arenas and behind-the-scenes organization that was essential to the successful staging of arena events. Particular attention will be paid to the means by which Roman spectacle organizers were able to procure the countless wild animals necessary for the staging of venationes throughout the Empire. This is a gladiator book with added bite and sure to be welcomed by scholars and general readers alike.Outpost of Hellenism: The Emergence of Heraclea on the Black Sea (UC Publications in Classical Studies #14)
Par Stanley Mayer Burstein. 2023
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out…
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1976.The Greek State at War, Part V
Par W. Kendrick Pritchett. 2023
The volumes of The Greek State at War are an essential reference for the classical scholar. Professor Pritchett has systematically…
canvassed ancient texts and secondary literature for references to specific topics; each volume explores a unique aspect of Greek military practice. In Part V he takes up stone throwers, slingers, and booty.Pax Romana
Par Paul Petit. 2023
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out…
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1967.The Roman Stamp: Frame and Facade in Some Forms of Neo-Classicism
Par Robert M. Adams. 2023
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out…
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.Singer of the Eclogues: A Study of Virgilian Pastoral
Par Paul Alpers. 2023
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out…
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1979.Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army
Par Donald W. Engels. 2023
"The most important work on Alexander the Great to appear in a long time. Neither scholarship nor semi-fictional biography will…
ever be the same again. . . .Engels at last uses all the archaeological work done in Asia in the past generation and makes it accessible. . . . Careful analyses of terrain, climate, and supply requirements are throughout combined in a masterly fashion to help account for Alexander's strategic decision in the light of the options open to him...The chief merit of this splendid book is perhaps the way in which it brings an ancient army to life, as it really was and moved: the hours it took for simple operations of washing and cooking and feeding animals; the train of noncombatants moving with the army. . . . this is a book that will set the reader thinking. There are not many books on Alexander the Great that do."—New York Review of BooksPausanias' Guide to Ancient Greece (Sather Classical Lectures #50)
Par Christian Habicht. 2023
A Greek who lived in Asia Minor during the second century A.D., Pausanias traveled through Greece and wrote an invaluable…
description of its classical sites that is a treasure trove of information on archaeology, religion, history, and art. Although ignored during his own time, Pausanias is increasingly important in ours—to historians, tourists, and archaeologists. Christian Habicht offers a wide-ranging study of Pausanias' work and personality. He investigates his background, chronology, and methods, and also discusses Pausanias' value as a guide for modern scholars and travellers, his attitude toward the Roman world he lived in, and his reception among critics in modern times. A new preface summarizes the most recent scholarship.Pachomius, who died in 346, has long been regarded as the "founder of monasticism." Available again, Philip Rousseau's careful reading…
of the available texts reveals that Pachomius's pioneering enterprise has been consistently misread in light of later monastic practices. Rousseau not only provides a fuller and more accurate portrait of this great teacher and spiritual director but also gives a new perspective on the development of monasticism. In a new preface Rousseau reviews the scholarly developments that have modified his views and emphases since the book was published. The result is to make Pachomius an even less assured pioneer, a man likely to have been more involved in the village and urban society of his time than previously thought.Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocractic Competition in the Middle and Late Republic
Par Nathan S. Rosenstein. 2023
Given the intense competition among aristocrats seeking public office in the middle and late Roman Republic, one would expect that…
their persistent struggles for honor, glory, and power could have seriously undermined the state or damaged the cohesiveness of the ruling class. Rome in fact depended on aristocratic competition, since no professional bureaucracy directed public affairs and no salary was attached to any public office. But as Rosenstein adeptly shows, competition appears to have been surprisingly limited, in ways that curtailed the possible destructive effects of all-out contests between individuals.Imperatores Victi examines one particularly striking case of such checks on competition. Military success at all times represented an abundant source of prestige and political strength at Rome. Generals who led armies to victory enjoyed a better-than-average chance of securing higher office upon their return from the field. Yet this study demonstrates that defeated generals were not barred from public office and in fact went on to win the Republic's most highly coveted and hotly contested offices in numbers virtually identical with those of their undefeated peers. Rosenstein explores how this unexpected limit to competition functions, reviewing beliefs about the religious origins of defeat, assumptions about common soldiers' duties in battle, and definitions of honorable behavior of an aristocrat during a crisis. These perspectives were instrumental in shifting the onus of failure away from a general's person and in offering positive strategies a general might use to win glory and respect even in defeat and to silence potential critics among a failed general's peers. Such limits to competition had an impact on the larger problems of stability and coherence in the Republic and its political elite; these larger problems are discussed in the concluding chapter. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.An Archaeology of Greece: The Present State and Future Scope of a Discipline (Sather Classical Lectures #53)
Par Anthony M. Snodgrass. 2023
Classical archaeology probably enjoys a wider appeal than any other branch of classical or archaeological studies. As an intellectual and…
academic discipline, however, its esteem has not matched its popularity. Here, Anthony Snodgrass argues that classical archaeology has a rare potential in the whole field of the study of the past to make innovative discoveries and apply modern approaches by widening the aims of the discipline.