The Romans: From Village to Empire

by Daniel Gargola, Mary T. Boatwright, Richard J.A. Talbert, et al.

Book Overview

How did a single village community in the Italian peninsula eventually become one of the most powerful imperial powers the world has ever known? In The Romans: From Village to Empire, Mary T. Boatwright, Daniel Gargola, and Richard J.A. Talbert explore this question as they guide readers through a comprehensive sweep of Roman history, ranging from the prehistoric settlements to the age of Constantine.
Vividly written and accessible, The Romans...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195118758
• ISBN13: 9780195118759
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 2.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 9.6" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Good and well illustrated overview of Roman history

The Romans is a competently written overview of Roman history with an abundance of good illustrations. It is written and organized like a school textbook for a survey course on Roman history and in that capacity does its job very successfully. As other reviewers have mentioned, the writing is not terribly engaging, although in my opinion it is satisfactorily written and most will find it to be very straightforward to read. This book is recommended for anyone who wants a straightforward overview of Roman history, although those who are already well versed in the subject are not likely to find anything new or interesting in this volume to make it a worthwhile read.

Though basic I liked this book!

How do you fit almost 1100 years of roman history into a book? You dont so your not going to get the full story from this book. But it is easy to read with many good pictures and hits on alot of the main events and gives a nice basic overview of the emperors. There are so many books out there on rome that it is not neccasary to put down this book for what it lacks. If you want a specific time period then there are hundreds of books dedicated to almost every aspect of Rome and Roman life. Or you can allways read Gibbons The rise and decline of the Roman empire. Although some of his history has been proven not acurate this is still the largest volume on Romen history and worth the read. As far as The Romans this is a great way to get a basic overview of the Roman people and events that shaped there lives. I think this is a good book to read if you have never read anything about Rome. From this book you can pick and chose subject matters that might interest you from the entire span of Roman history. This is something many books do not do since they are very subject orientated for the most part.

I got it fast.

I got the book fast when my local bookstore did not have it. I spent less money getting this product shipped priority than I would have getting a new book locally. The book is in excellent condition.

A solid introduction

'The Romans: From Village to Empire' is a new book by the Oxford University Press meant to be a companion to their earlier volume on the Greek civilisation. This text, written by scholars Mary T. Boatwright, Daniel J. Gargola, and Richard J.A. Talbert, in intended for several audiences - those with a general interest in history, beginning undergraduate students in historical survey courses, those with interest in archaeology, culture, and military events, and those who want a better understanding of the secular and sacred empire that preceded but gave rise to the current world of Christendom and European nation-states. The book is not one that is heavy on details, but is very well documented and annotated, with pictures, maps and drawings complementing most pages. Maps are generously provided throughout, including maps on the front and back binding pages. The authors do not limit themselves to a particular historical method - sometimes the events will be see primarily through the biographical sketches of particular people (there are some historical periods for which the only surviving text evidence is later biographical writing about key figures), sometimes the events will be recreated through interpretation of archaeological finds, and sometimes on analogy and speculation based on other contemporary settlements and writers, although not Roman. The authors make clear at many points in the text that our textual evidence is most certainly a biased report - historians in the ancient world did not strive to write objective history as it is considered today, but rather often wrote with a specific intention, often the glorification of Rome or some family or person in Rome. The authors cite the Greek influence on Roman historical production - there were three primary ways to write a history: one, concentrate on a particular significant event or person; two, write a complete history of the city from its foundation to the present; and three, write a comprehensive history of the whole known world. Most Roman historians opted for the first two; the histories of founding-to-present done by different hands at different times highlights the difficulty of working with history, when events are so far removed from the author's time. The conflicting and contradictory tales of Rome's early days only add to the frustration of knowing the history before the Republic and Empire. Rome did at one point have a king - the authors list the seven kings according to Varro's list, including their dates (Romulus, from 753 BC to Tarquin, who died in 510 BC). These dates and identities are far from uncontroversial, as are the figures who follow. Some consuls, tribunes and other leaders are well-known names because of the significant events and accomplishments with which their names are attached, but the political instability of a growing city-state with (for most of this early history) strict safeguards against tyranny that include one-year, usually non-renewable te

Self Learner Likes Book

I like this book very much. In reference to the previous review that labeled this book as 'devoid of the humanizing spark that makes history so much fun': I don't require everything I read to take the form of a bedtime story. I am woefully ignorant of history and so I picked this book up to learn about the establishment of Rome. I found it an excellent source - informative, unambiguous, and well written. It wasn't Lord of the Rings, but that's not what it's meant to be. If you are interested in educating yourself about history, like I am, you are probably mature enough to handle something that isn't written like a spy novel. Also, you probably don't want maps littered with troop counts, as one of the other reviewers suggested. This isn't a military history, it's a broad overview. It suited my needs precisely. Now I can move on to a book that takes up where this one leaves off and continues to into the Dark Ages. After that, I can come back and read the military histories and political dramas.