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Lives of Famous Romans
Presents the lives of twelve famous Romans, including Cicero, Julius Caesar, and Marcus Aurelius.
- GenresHistory
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
3 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Olivia E. Coolidge
31 books21 followersOlivia Coolidge was born in London, England, in 1908. She received her education at Somerville College, Oxford University, where her main subjects included Latin, Greek, and philosophy. These studies helped her earn her place in the pantheon of children's literature through her mythological re-tellings demonstrating careful research and the adroit capacity to bring the past to life.
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January 19, 2018from the back fly-leaf:
“Although Plutarch has served long and well, there has been a need for a book in the light of the present-day knowledge. Olivia Coolidge has written such a book. Here she brings to life twelve famous Romans: emperors such as Trajan and Augustus, skilled politicians such as Seneca and Cicero, literary figures such as Horace and Virgil.
With her usual skill and artistry Mrs. Coolidge paints strong and vivid portraits and her subjects fairly breathe the air of the hurly-burly world of power and intrigue in which they lived. Here we see the wily Julius Caesar, who recognized that military strength alone would determine the future—his and Rome's—and who set about getting what he needed with remarkable energy and efficiency. In his successors we see dramatically what power can mean in the hands of men of different character and talent. The intelligent organization of Caesar Augustus contrasts with the disastrous results of Nero's viciousness. The conversion of one man to Christianity transforms the civilized world when the man is Constantine.
As Olivia Coolidge's readers well know, she is uniquely qualified to write of the ancient world. All her books have been widely acclaimed as brilliant fiction, and now she demonstrates that she handles biography with an equally sure hand.”
Introduction to the book (by Olivia Coolidge herself)
“The Lives of Plutarch, from which we generally gain our knowledge of the great Romans of history, are strictly limited by the age in which they are written and the purpose of the author. Writing for Romans, as Plutarch did, he was concerned with the traditions of the race as with its achievements. It was the opinion of the ancients that the purpose of studying history was moral. Lives of famous men were shining examples or alternatively awful warnings. Knowledge of the past, in fact, was good for character.
There is considerable truth in this view in the sense that a nation's traditions have a steadying influence on its citizens. From Plutarch's standpoint, he was right to lay emphasis on the legend of Romulus and Remus or the glorious victories of Scipio Africanus over Hannibal. These have less importance for us today because our interest has shifted. We have our own traditions, heroes, and legends.
It is true our civilization reaches back to the Roman world and that therefore it is wise to study it. To us, however, it is not the process of Roman history which is important, but the result. The rise of the Romans counts less today than their accomplishments. Romulus and Remus mean nothing personal to us, and Scipio Africanus himself is a foreign general. What we look back to are things like Roman roads, the Roman legal system, architecture, language, ethics, theology even, all the complexities of that Greco-Roman Mediterranean culture which flourished and faded under the Roman Empire.
For reasons of this kind, our point of view is not Plutarch's. We are in addition much better positioned than he to see the panorama of the Roman world unfold and pick out the highlights. Plutarch was born under Nero. He flourished under Trajan and Hadrian at the very beginning of the second century. Roman history, though it was already long, was by no means over. His own age, a brilliant one, had seeds of weakness which were noted at the time but hardly estimated at their true historical value. It looked backward, idealizing the past. It made few prophecies about the future.
For all these reasons, Plutarch, entertaining though he quite frequently is, cannot provide us with sufficient knowledge of the Romans. His list of subjects is wrong. It includes too few of the people who concern us and far to many who do not greatly matter. His method, however, is a good one. The history of the Romans is to a large extent a history of the people. The heart of the Empire is Rome, a single city where every important person knows everyone else. It is also a city where character counts for much. Not all Roman character is good. Quite the contrary. Romans are infrequently shocking. Interest in character, however, is an enduring quality among them. It is not by accident that portraiture is their best form of sculpture.
This being the case, it seemed that Roman history might be presented as Plutarch did it, but with a different object. He spoke to his day, we to ours. What is vital to us may not be to him. We differ in knowledge, in critical habits, in style and organization. He need no fear the challenge. His reputation is assured in any case. His literary merits are considerable ones. No doubt Plutarch will always be enjoyed. Our mistake is to take him as our exclusive guide through Roman history.
Includes:
Cicero
Julius Caesar
Augustus
Vergil and Horace
Nero and Seneca
Trajan
Hadrian
Marcus Aurelius
Diocletian
Constantine
-love the story about Horace
-pg 100
-pg 93
“Although Plutarch has served long and well, there has been a need for a book in the light of the present-day knowledge. Olivia Coolidge has written such a book. Here she brings to life twelve famous Romans: emperors such as Trajan and Augustus, skilled politicians such as Seneca and Cicero, literary figures such as Horace and Virgil.
With her usual skill and artistry Mrs. Coolidge paints strong and vivid portraits and her subjects fairly breathe the air of the hurly-burly world of power and intrigue in which they lived. Here we see the wily Julius Caesar, who recognized that military strength alone would determine the future—his and Rome's—and who set about getting what he needed with remarkable energy and efficiency. In his successors we see dramatically what power can mean in the hands of men of different character and talent. The intelligent organization of Caesar Augustus contrasts with the disastrous results of Nero's viciousness. The conversion of one man to Christianity transforms the civilized world when the man is Constantine.
As Olivia Coolidge's readers well know, she is uniquely qualified to write of the ancient world. All her books have been widely acclaimed as brilliant fiction, and now she demonstrates that she handles biography with an equally sure hand.”
Introduction to the book (by Olivia Coolidge herself)
“The Lives of Plutarch, from which we generally gain our knowledge of the great Romans of history, are strictly limited by the age in which they are written and the purpose of the author. Writing for Romans, as Plutarch did, he was concerned with the traditions of the race as with its achievements. It was the opinion of the ancients that the purpose of studying history was moral. Lives of famous men were shining examples or alternatively awful warnings. Knowledge of the past, in fact, was good for character.
There is considerable truth in this view in the sense that a nation's traditions have a steadying influence on its citizens. From Plutarch's standpoint, he was right to lay emphasis on the legend of Romulus and Remus or the glorious victories of Scipio Africanus over Hannibal. These have less importance for us today because our interest has shifted. We have our own traditions, heroes, and legends.
It is true our civilization reaches back to the Roman world and that therefore it is wise to study it. To us, however, it is not the process of Roman history which is important, but the result. The rise of the Romans counts less today than their accomplishments. Romulus and Remus mean nothing personal to us, and Scipio Africanus himself is a foreign general. What we look back to are things like Roman roads, the Roman legal system, architecture, language, ethics, theology even, all the complexities of that Greco-Roman Mediterranean culture which flourished and faded under the Roman Empire.
For reasons of this kind, our point of view is not Plutarch's. We are in addition much better positioned than he to see the panorama of the Roman world unfold and pick out the highlights. Plutarch was born under Nero. He flourished under Trajan and Hadrian at the very beginning of the second century. Roman history, though it was already long, was by no means over. His own age, a brilliant one, had seeds of weakness which were noted at the time but hardly estimated at their true historical value. It looked backward, idealizing the past. It made few prophecies about the future.
For all these reasons, Plutarch, entertaining though he quite frequently is, cannot provide us with sufficient knowledge of the Romans. His list of subjects is wrong. It includes too few of the people who concern us and far to many who do not greatly matter. His method, however, is a good one. The history of the Romans is to a large extent a history of the people. The heart of the Empire is Rome, a single city where every important person knows everyone else. It is also a city where character counts for much. Not all Roman character is good. Quite the contrary. Romans are infrequently shocking. Interest in character, however, is an enduring quality among them. It is not by accident that portraiture is their best form of sculpture.
This being the case, it seemed that Roman history might be presented as Plutarch did it, but with a different object. He spoke to his day, we to ours. What is vital to us may not be to him. We differ in knowledge, in critical habits, in style and organization. He need no fear the challenge. His reputation is assured in any case. His literary merits are considerable ones. No doubt Plutarch will always be enjoyed. Our mistake is to take him as our exclusive guide through Roman history.
Includes:
Cicero
Julius Caesar
Augustus
Vergil and Horace
Nero and Seneca
Trajan
Hadrian
Marcus Aurelius
Diocletian
Constantine
-love the story about Horace
-pg 100
-pg 93
Displaying 1 of 1 review