Archives for August 2012

Book Review: The Party is Over by Mike Lofgren

August 30, 2012 By Robin Levin Leave a Comment

For who is so worthless or indolent as not to wish to know by what means and under what system of polity the Romans in less than fifty-three years have succeeded in subjecting nearly the whole inhabited world to their sole government, a thing unique in history? Or who again is there so passionately devoted […]

Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: budget deficit, Democrats, dystopia, gridlock, Mike Lofgren, politics, Polybius, Republicans, U.S. Government

Book Review: The Fall of Carthage by Adrian Goldsworthy

August 26, 2012 By Robin Levin Leave a Comment

Reading ancient Historians like Livy and Polybius is enlightening and fascinating for anyone who wants to get an understanding of how people saw the world in ancient times, but it can be slow going. Livy frequently goes into long discourses about prodigies that were seen at critical times and the religious rites that were undertaken […]

Filed Under: Ancient Rome, Book Review, Carthage Tagged With: Carthage, Hamilcar Barca, military, Numidians, paullus, Punic, Regulus, rome, scipio

The Moral Decline of Ancient Rome

August 24, 2012 By Robin Levin Leave a Comment

The period of the Punic Wars was a critical time in the history of Western civilizaition. They saw the rise of Rome as the dominant power in the civilized world and, no less important, its concomitant moral decline. From its beginnings under its founder Romulus, Rome had always been a warlike society and its history […]

Filed Under: Ancient Rome, Carthage Tagged With: Carthage, Corinth, Hamilcar Barca, Hannibal, Janus, Mammon, Mars, Numantia, rome, scipio

Notable Woman of the Roman Republic: Livia, the Wife of Caesar Augustus

August 18, 2012 By Robin Levin 1 Comment

Caesar Augustus’ wife Livia Drusilla was born in 58 BC during the closing years of the Roman Republic. Her father was Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus, who was born Appius Claudius Pulcher but was adopted as an infant by Marcus Livius Drusus. Rome, during Livia’s early years was marked by constant tumult and civil war. […]

Filed Under: Ancient Rome, Women of the Roman republic Tagged With: Caesar Augustus, Drusus, I Claudius, Julius Caesar, Livia, Marc Antony, Robert Graves, rome, Tiberius

Notable Women of the Roman Republic: Hortensia

August 7, 2012 By Robin Levin 6 Comments

Hortensia was the daughter of Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, 114 BC to 56 BC. Hortensius was regarded by many as the best legal advocate and orator of his day, rivaled only by the great Marcus Tullius Cicero. Hortensia, growing up in her father’s household was well educated and had studied Greek and Roman history, philosophy and […]