The Portable Roman Reader

by Jane Wong and Basil Davenport

Book Overview

The Romans conquered most of the known world and detailed their conquests in calm, unapologetic histories. They were a supremely urbane people who longed poetically for the farming life. Valuing toughness and practicality in all things, they turned the love poem into a cynical rebuke and wrote tragedies in which the unfathomable actions of gods gave way to the staggering cruelties of man. As the empire slid into decay, Tacitus pulled back the curtain...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140150560
• ISBN13: 9780140150568
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 672 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.1" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Wonderful for a student

I'm a freshman in high-school and am very interested in Classical literature and history. This book is wonderful. It gives you a flavor for some of the greatest Roman authors, and also gives you a feel for the time they were written. The introduction is wonderfully written, and his insight on the Roman culture is really quite interesting. I wish Davenport had done more books, one on Greek literature would have been spectacular, but to my knowladge there are no more. :( I highly recomend this book for a young person interested in Roman authors. He'll take you from early Roman comedy through the Republic, the Golden and Silver Ages, to the bitter end of the Empire.