Lucrezia Borgia was the daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, also known as Pope Alexander VI, and his mistress Vannozza dei Cattenei. She had three brothers, Cesare, Juan, and Gioffre. The elder two, Cesare and Juan were depraved monsters by any standard. Rodrigo probably should have hesitated before naming his daughter after a legendary Roman woman who […]
Introduction to The Last Carthaginian
I am putting the finishing touches on my new Novel the Last Carthaginian and intend to publish it next month. The Death of Carthage, my first book in this series, told the story of the Second and third Punic wars through the eyes of three fictional Romans who lived through them. My second book, […]
Book Review: Chronicle of the Roman Republic-The rulers of Ancient Rome from Romulus to Augustus
Chronicle of the Roman Republic is a beautiful book, replete with striking illustrations. Despite some defects, I think it’s a must read for anyone who wants an overview of Roman history from the city’s founding until the end of the Republic. The text is largely a Who’s Who of notable Romans, starting with Romulus and […]
Book Review: Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate Warfare, and the Rise of Rome by Arthur M. Eckstein
This book is for serious students of ancient Rome and its place in antiquity, for those who desire a deeper understanding of the cultural, social, economic and political dynamics of the ancient Mediterranean world that Rome came to dominate, and an insight into how and why Rome came to rule over this entire region. The […]
Book Review: Devotio, The House of Mus, by William Kelso
There are few historical fiction works that deal with the Roman Early Middle Republic before the Punic wars. Yet this period of Rome’s history is intriguing, as the author of this work put it “The early and mid-Roman Republic has always fascinated me for it was a time when Rome could very well have been […]
Book Review: Bandits of Rome by Alex Gough
Bandits of Rome is a sequel to Alex Gough’s novel Watchmen of Rome. Both novels deal with the seamy side of Rome during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius. Gough’s flawed hero is a man named Carbo, a veteran of twenty years in the legions and one of the few survivors of the devastating battle […]
The Battle of Trasimene: Excerpt from WIP In the Wake of Hannibal
Today, June 21st, is the anniversary of the Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217 B.C. in which Carthaginian forces under Hannibal trapped a Roman Army under the command of Gaius Flaminius in a defile and slaughtered some 15,000 Romans. It was to be the third of four set-piece victories for Hannibal as he moved down […]
Book Review: Taken At the Flood; The Roman Conquest of Greece, by Robin Waterfield
Ph In my research about the third Punic war, the one in which Rome destroyed Carthage, I ran across an intriguing quote by the Greek historian Polybius. “The ruin of Carthage is indeed considered to have been the greatest of calamities, but when we come to think of it the fate of Greece was no […]
“Don’t Know Much About History”-Art Garfunkle
This was a line in a popular song in the late 1960s. Art Garfunkle was not alone. The fact is, huge numbers of Americans really don’t know much about history. When I was writing The Death of Carthage, people would ask me what the book was about and I would say “The Second and Third […]
Book Review: Darkness Over Cannae by Jenny N. Dolfen
Darkness Over Cannae is a work of art, in both the literary and the pictorial senses. It is lush with strikingly rendered illustrations, created by the author herself, which bring to life the sights one might have witnessed before, during, and after the battle. In Darkness over Cannae, Jenny Dolfen tells the story of the […]
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