A History of the Roman World 753 to 146 BC

by H.H. Scullard

Book Overview

With a new foreword by Tim Cornell 'Can anyone be so indifferent or idle as not to care to know by what means and under what kind of polity almost the whole inhabited world was conquered and bought... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0416298605
• ISBN13: 9780416298604
• Release Date: January 1969
• Publisher: Methuen
• Length: 494 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent concise history of Rome

After reading the primary sources (Livy, Tacitus,Virgil etc.) and specialized period histories (early and late Empire, etruscan), I realized that I needed to fill gaps. Scullard is the perfect answer--detailed but not so detailed that you lose the mental structure of Roman history you build as you read. I now have a much better grasp of the political history of the early Republic, as well as of the legal and religious systems of the Republic. That being said, several words of caution are in order. First, as noted in other reviews, this is not the most recent history, and as such does not reflect the archaeological discoveries of the last decade or so. Second, because it was originally written 50 years ago (hasa been updated, but not rewritten since), Scullard expresses his preference for old Roman virtues versus barbarian cultures--an approach that can seem quaint. Third, the maps, which are essential to understanding what you're reading about since the Romans are fighting somewhere all the time, are few, badly located and hard to read. For me, though, these are minor defects in comparison to the excellent writing and scholarship evident throughout the book.

Best Basic text book

Scullard's work has been and continues to remain the single best introductory text book to Roman history. I have used this book at the Graduate and undergraduate level, and even chosen to use it in my own classes. Scullard makes the subject learnable at all levels and using a clear thematic scheme aids even the novice reader. I highly recommend this book to anyone desiring to gain a good foundation of Roman history.

a good solid history

This is a well-written, if a little dry and pedantic, book that covers all you wanted to know about Roman history until 146 b.c., which the author thinks is about the time Rome started getting nasty and lost its traditional moral and cultural pillars. The first few chapters are basically devoted to interpreting archeological and literary evidence; you'll learn a lot about all the ancient peoples of Italy and interpretations of the Romulus/Remus and Aeneid legends. The rest of the book is more straightforward (political and military) narrative, with large appendixes on religion, culture, law, and government. This is a good, but not really exciting or brilliant, comprehensive book.

An excellent source for Roman history

Scullard has done an excellent job of bringing to life Rome's history from her tradtional founding to the time of the conclusion of the Third Punic War. Scullard covers not only the military aspects of the Roman Republic, but looks at her social, literary, economic, and political atmospheres as well. His use of archeology and his knowledge of the geographical lay of the land helps bring a very scholary critique of his ancient sources and very much brings the book to life. It is very well written and is easy to read while at the same time being very informative. Scullard's History of the Roman World is a very useful source for any study of Early Rome (at any level) and I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

An informative overview of the Roman Republic

This book covers Rome from its founding to its becoming the premier Mediterranean power. The disussion of Rome's origins (incl. the two main theories of the origin of the Etruscans) is quite good. There is also good background on the Italic tribes and the Greek cities that surrounded Rome. It covers the various phases of Rome's rise to power in a well-organized and well-written fashion. The primary emphasis is on constitutional and geo-political history (my main interest). There is, however, a section covering Rome's cultural aspects that concludes the book.