Ancient Rome in Fifty Monuments

by Paul Roberts

A sweeping new history of the city of Rome, told through its emperors and the monuments they built to leave their mark on one of the great capitals of the classical world. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but over several centuries and under many different emperors. This story of continual creation and renewal lies at the heart of Ancient Rome in Fifty Monuments . Rome’s history has been explored by countless classicists, historians, poets, and authors, but rarely has its history been recounted through the building programs of its emperors, which transformed a small village in Italy into the apogee of empire. Paul Roberts takes the reader on a historical tour of ancient Rome, from the luxurious bathhouses of Caracalla and Diocletian, the rowdy Circus Maximus, and the Colosseum to monuments such as the Column of Trajan that celebrated Rome’s imperial project. Roberts expertly weaves together the latest archaeological research with social and cultural history, vividly evoking the story of a city always in some way rising, falling, and being rebuilt. He tells this story emperor by emperor, seeking out the personalities behind the great building projects and the very human motivations that gave rise to their construction―and destruction. When and why were they built? What did they add to the lives of the people who used them? What impact did they have on the shape of the city? Often the importance of a monument lies not intrinsically in the structure itself, but instead in the political, social, or cultural developments at its foundations. Through these monuments and the emperors who built them, Rome’s mythical and real past are intertwined, reflecting the empire’s triumphant yet often turbulent history. 150 color illustrations

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Architecture, Archaeology, Ancient History

256 pages, Hardcover

Published May 21, 2024

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Linniegayl · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title says, the book focuses on "Fifty Monuments" of ancient Rome. The book is organized chronologically. It's not a book that simply lists the "top 50 monuments," but focuses on the development of monuments during different periods (including under different emperors).

I've seen some describe this as a "coffee table" book, and it comes close, as it often seems the pictures and drawings take up more space than the actual text. The pictures are gorgeous, don't get me wrong. We get photos of the current remains of a monument, depictions of the monument in art of different periods, such as the Renaissance, and we often get recreations of what the monument must have looked like when built. I guess I would have liked more text, and less repetition of text in the main part of the book with the text next to the figures and images.

The text seems written for a general audience. There are just a few highlights of the period (or Emperor), and then the main focus is on the monuments. We also learn a lot of what happened to the monuments over the ages (fires, looting, turned into churches, etc.).

This would probably be a wonderful book if you're planning a trip to Rome in the near future, and want something that gives you a bit more background than do most travel guides of the major monuments.

[Corel Van Den Brink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geweldig boek om mee door Rome te wandelen. De informatie is accuraat en boeiend geschreven. Vooral de illustraties en reconstructies erbij zijn zeer de moeite waard.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine book of 50 monuments of Ancient Rome. Peter Connolly’s The Ancient City is far superior in providing a fuller explanation and more advanced illustrations of Roman (and Greek) monuments, but this book by Paul Roberts includes a good number that Connolly does not, like Cestius’s pyramid, the temple of Hercules, and others, and it does a better job of locating the monuments in their historical context as well as the history of their future use, reuse, or destruction.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful coffee table book about Rome. The pictures and historical descriptions are great. Learned so much. Only downside was how repetitive the main text and text under the pictures was.

[Iris Xu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an informative and pleasant read! It's interesting to think that so many architectures still stood for hundreds or even thousands of years after Ancient Rome was (slowly) gone, yet transformed for other purposes or reused as quarries or burned for lime. The value/function of these buildings was lost to later people, and they would be okay with seeing them only as objects to be reused or demolished. I think this book also teaches me not to look at the buildings as stand-alone projects but to imagine their relations/locations with their surroundings and fellow buildings during their time.