The Story of the Romans

by Hélène A. Guerber

Elementary history of Rome, presenting short stories of the great heroes, mythical and historical, from Aeneas and the founding of Rome to the fall of the western empire. Around the famous characters of Rome are graphically grouped the great events with which their names will forever stand connected. Vivid descriptions bring to life the events narrated, making history attractive to the young, and awakening their enthusiasm for further reading and study.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, School, Childrens, Ancient, Classics

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

Hélène Adeline Guerber (1859 – 1929), better known as H.A. Guerber, was a British historian most well known for her written histories of Germanic mythology.

Her most well known work is Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas - George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1908 in London.

Other histories by Guerber include Legends of the Rhine (A.S. Barnes & Co., New York, 1895; new edition 1905), Stories of the Wagner Opera, The Book of the Epic, The Story of the Ancient World, The Story of the Greeks, The Story of the Romans, Legends of the Middle Ages, The Story of the Renaissance and Reformation, The Story of the Thirteen Colonies, and The Story of the Great Republic.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good history book. Can’t wait to read it again, honestly.

[Watermarked Pages · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about this one. I read it aloud for fourth grade history as part of Simply Charlotte Masons “Matthew-Acts and Ancient Rome” curriculum.

It is essentially one long chronicle of treachery. My kids started groaning and protesting every time a new someone betrayed someone else for power. I was surprised how well they handled some of the difficult stories. We did have great conversations about how evil humans can be, and how much we need Jesus.

What I thought was inappropriate for a grade school curriculum was how many details the book gives about the gruesome historical violence. For this age, it would have been enough to say people were killed—9 year olds don’t need explicit details. I ended up editing a lot on the fly and skipping a few chapters altogether.

I learned a lot, though it covers such a huge time period that things definitely blurred together.

I did really appreciate this edition edited by Nothing New Press, which adds some explanations from a Christian worldview. Definitely recommend that over the original edition.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written for children, but for this grownup, it tied all the snippets I ever remember about Rome together and gave continuity and clarity to the whole story. I recommend this book for children and for adults… so engaging and interesting.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jacob read for AO Y6. 4 stars. made lots of connections.. Different view points from Augustus Ceasar book...krb 5/31/19

[Alicia Perrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read over the course of 12 weeks for AO year 6. It covers an incredible amount of time (over 1200 years) and so it is broad and simplified and at times the writing style bothered me. However, it gave us all a wonderful understanding of the sweep of Roman history. Keeping a timeline and Book of Centuries was very helpful. For my kid’s readings (one 7th grader, one 5th grader), I assigned 3 chapters 3x/week.

[Maggie Allyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hard history, but so well told. Read with my 12yo son for history, it pairs well with Guerber's Story of the Greeks.

[Carol Bakker · Rating 3 out of 5]

An 1896 children's history of Rome in 102 short chapters. Guerber focuses on shifts of power, which tends to blend into a murky soup of his son killed him, then the general killed this one, and later that emperor's wife poisoned him.

Any sexual or moral misdeed—excepting murder and torture, don't you know—is mentioned obliquely. The Rape of Lucretia (the word rape is never used) is explained that Sextus visited her and insulted her. And all references to suicide are followed by an explanatory sentence reminding readers that self-murder isn't right.

My sense is that the scope of this book is too wide for young students. The narrative can't carry such a heavy load. Better, perhaps, to give them stories of fewer leaders and add more details of daily life.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to the beginnings of the Roman Empire, originally published in 1896. Appropriate for about 3rd-6th grade children. One irritating feature is the author's insistence that most people of that time were "ignorant and superstitious," and his somewhat arrogant tone regarding how much better educated people were in his time (1896).

[Becky Pliego · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read aloud. We enjoyed it very much.

[Alli · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids (11 & 13) loved this book of well told short stories about the early Romans. It is an excellent addition to our literature based study on the Roman Empire.

[Bradley Noell · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Story of the Romans is a brief history of the roman empire told in a dry no-nonsense style. It’s interesting and fun if you’re a history nerd and it even covers the history and the founding myths of the romans up until the splitting and eventual fall of the empire. It serves as a good connector, something that moves quickly enough that someone like me actually makes all of the connections and understands how it all flows together. This is at the cost of any depth of course but that’s why I say it serves as a kind of entry level version of roman history.

Now for the embarrassing part. I did not realize this was a children's history (this isn't as ridiculous as it sounds given the descriptions of violence in this book) until I had read to the point where they started to bring up God and how ‘of course now we know that violence against the self is a great sin . . .” and then I started wondering. It’s the biggest flaw within the work and though I understand what they were going for (thinking this was intended for children and that some of this material was a little much for them and wanting to bring it down a little) but I can’t help but think there were better ways to do this.

[Doug Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging for young listeners

Whereas my 7 and 9 year old boys are active and whereas their first inclination is toward games and hands on activities, I hesitated to begin such a long history book. However, they were drawn in from the start and we have now completed 30% of the book with 45 minute sessions each day for a week. They remember the stories, and I am fascinated by the modern day references to early Roman culture that I had never realized, which are brought out in Guerber's stories of ancient Rome.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

While more than a century out of date and strongly biased in ways less acceptable today, I decided to read this book to my kids every day over the early summer (we read it all the way across the country on our move from AZ to RI). It presents much of the most basic information one ought to know (or to which one at least ought to be exposed) regarding Roman antiquity (ending with the Western Empire, and not really following the Byzantine Empire to its fall a almost a thousand years later).

[Alan Masson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good,simple and easy to read.

Although written for children, although I am 80, and have never studied Roman history it made a very good entry for me. I enjoyed it, and learned a lot.

[Michelle Fournier · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much fascinating history In this book of Very short readable chapters. The short chapters and large print help make it very easy to manage for children reading on their own. My 5th/6th graders really enjoyed both this and Story of the Greeks in our homeschool this year.

[Eliza Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished pre-reading this for my daughter's next school year. I was pleased. It is an easy read and really helps to pull together all the disparate stories of Rome that we've heard into a timeline that makes sense.

[Juan Arias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ya sé que es un libro escrito para niños, pero se centra demasiado en la monarquía, la república y los primeros emperadores y deja el Bajo Imperio y la división entre emperadores y césares un poco coja. Está bien. Pero si quieres saber sobre historia de Roma, lee otra cosa.

[Amy Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son and I read this for AO Year 6. Many of the stories were a repeat from books we had already read that were written in more detail, with more beautiful language. A good, basic overview of the history of Rome.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting overview of this time period with the mythological and recorded stories blended. An easy way to ease into reading the works of the time if you know little of the history.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good book overall for working through Roman history.

[Russell G Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ancient Rome resurrected in this present day, thousands of

Years later. Where we find that the evils of power exist much as they did in that era long ago, without the bloodshed.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic resource for teaching Ancient Roman history!

[Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok

[Lisa Rosenow · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy but good read. a quick overview of the roman history

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like Story of the Greeks, these are readable retellings in manageable chunks. . . . It reminded me of 2 Kings: he was a bad king, and then x ruled, and he was a bad king . . .

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent coverage of the history. I found it well written, and the short chapters made it easy to take it in bite-sized pieces. It went over my kiddos heads mostly, but it was great for me!

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of Roman history for middle school

[Brit Chhangur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pre-read for AO year 6. Loved it, even though I got a bit lost in the details. Overall a very good history of the Roman empire!

[Staci · Rating 3 out of 5]

My oldest (12) read this aloud to me for school. While it was well written, it was neither of our favorites.

[Andrew Hoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written survey of Roman history for upper elementary age students. The chapters would work well for writing projects if you use IEW for your writing curriculum.