Augustus and the Creation of the Roman Empire: A Brief History with Documents

by Ronald Mellor

During his long reign of near-absolute power, Caesar Augustus established the Pax Romana, which gave Rome two hundred years of peace and social stability, and established an empire that would endure for five centuries and transform the history of Europe and the Mediterranean. Ronald Mellor offers a collection of primary sources featuring multiple viewpoints of the rise, achievements, and legacy of Augustus and his empire. His cogent introduction to the history of the Age of Augustus encourages students to examine such subjects as the military in war and peacetime, the social and cultural context of political change, the reform of administration, and the personality of the emperor himself. Document headnotes, a list of contemporary literary sources, a glossary of Greek and Latin terms, a chronology, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography offer additional pedagogical support.

Genres: History, Roman History

334 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 21, 2005

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mellor's introduction/brief history was overly-fawning and seemed to make the common mistake of liberally heaping praise on historical figures in proportion to the length of time that has passed since they lived and the scarcity of reliable sources on them. The other half of the book, however, is a very well-organized collection of primary sources which has a prologue summarizing each author's historical/social context and similar, smaller prefaces for each article. This work does a good job of giving a context for primary sources.

[Jonathan]

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