Romalıların Kısa Tarihi, dünyanın en önde gelen üniversitelerinde Roma tarihi ve kültürüne dair derslerde kullanılan bir rehberdir. M.T. Boatwright, D.J. Gargola, R.J.A. Talbert ve 2014 yılında kitabın genişletilmiş edisyonuyla birlikte bu isimlerin arasına dahil olan N. Lenski, bizlere Akdeniz dünyasının gelmiş geçmiş en büyük, en uzun ömürlü devletinin serüvenini adeta bir çırpıda anlatır. Bu dört usta isim sonuçta ortaya hem kullanışlı, okunması kolay ve bilgi dolu bir ders kitabı çıkarmış, hem de Roma tarihi ve medeniyetine dair temel bilgi edinmek isteyen herkesin rahatlıkla yararlanabileceği bir elkitabı hazırlamayı başarmışlardır. Kitapta dönemin ana kaynaklarından geniş alıntılar ile çok sayıda resim, harita ve bir de sözlükçe bulmak mümkündür. Bölüm sonlarındaki kitap önerileri de eserde anlatılan konulara dair bilgilerini derinleştirmek isteyenler için biçilmiş kaftandır.
Overall a pretty good breakdown on Roman Civ from start to finish. Learned that Caligula was nicknamed thus because of the little boots he wore as a toddler. IMO the most important fact in the book.
Prescribed text for University of Tasmania's Introductory Unit in Ancient Civilizations - "HTC104 Ancient Civilisations 1B: Introduction To Ancient Rome".
Brief, concise, compressed, a good jumping off point for further research and study and as an and aid for use with translated ancient and sacred texts, and especially as a reference book use in weekly seminars with the incredibly enthusiastic (for a pleasant change!) teaching staff in the unit.
Honestly can't recall when I read this, had it at Ignatius in a Roman History class but I don't think I read the whole thing & I would have reread the full thing in college. This book was an incredible eye-opening intro for me, particularly into the fall of the Republic from the Gracchi deaths to Augustus, this point for point mapped out everything for me & was for a long time my candidate for most epic century of all time.
My fault! There is no reason for someone who has been to Italy several times and understands its history from a meaningful perspective to read a book written by an American. Americans not only can't understand European history logically, but they filter it through their own perspective, as if they were writing their own history. American arrogance is simply incompatible with a multifaceted view of history, and that's why their PhDs are not worth the price of toilet paper. This book is incredibly boring and doesn't even grasp the many influences that made the Romans who they really were.
This is one of the books I picked up at my local Borders during their "Going out of Business" sale. Although I did study Latin, I did not read much ancient history. Since Donna Leon's fictional detective is always reading the classics for relaxation, Cicero, Tacitus, Vergil, etc., I thought I could benefit from a little background reading. This is a great change of pace, and quite enlightening.