Anyone writing historical fiction or non-fiction about ancient Rome would do well to read Legionary, the Roman Soldier’s (Unofficial) Manual. This book tells all of the ins and outs of the Roman army-recruitment, training, gear, working conditions, benefits and drawbacks, possible assignments and promotion opportunities, various places you may be sent to, characteristics of possible […]
Legionary: The Roman Soldier’s (Unofficial) Manual by Philip Matyszak
May 12, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Excerpt #4 From my Work in Progress, In the Wake of Hannibal
May 9, 2014 By Leave a Comment
In order to save his infant son from being sacrificed as a burn offering, Gisco has fled to the Romans and has offered his services as a traitor: After a few weeks I was summoned to the tablinum of the owner of the domus. Lucius was there and alongside him sat two stern-looking middle-aged men […]
Another Excerpt from My Work In Progress The Last Carthaginian. Part 1, In the Wake of Hannibal
April 18, 2014 By 2 Comments
To avoid having his infant son sacrificed as a burnt offering to the Goddess Tanit and the God Ba-al Hammon, Gisco has fled New Carthage with his wife, three small children and two freed slaves. He faces down a delegation from New Carthage intending to persuade him to return, and travels safely to Roman territory. […]
Book Review: Warhorn by J. Glenn Bauer
March 12, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Warhorn, as the name suggests, is a war story. The novel is past paced, exciting and graphic, with great amounts of blood and gore and intricate battle details. The novel takes place around the year 219 B.C. in Carthaginian-ruled Spain, just before the start of the Second Punic War between Carthage and Rome. Carthage has […]
What Was the Attitude of the Ancients Toward War?
March 5, 2014 By 3 Comments
How did the peoples of the ancient world regard war? Did they glory in it, or did they consider it a necessary evil. Did everyone in those days agree that “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori?” A bit of research would indicate that the attitude, at least of the educated ancients, was ambivalent to […]
Book Review: Eve of Ides by David Blixt
February 25, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Eve of Ides is a two-act play in which the author, David Blixt marries William Shakespeare and Colleen Mc Cullough. William Shakespeare, of course, wrote the play Julius Caesar, which, as Blixt points out, was more about Marcus Junius Brutus than it was about Caesar. In his playwright’s notes, Blixt states: “It is hard to […]
Book Review: Total War. Destroy Carthage by David Gibbons
October 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I knew I was in trouble when I read the dramatis personae of this book and found that Scipio Aemilianus was married to a fictional person named Claudia Pulchra (or Pulchradina, as the author puts it.) It is well known that Scipio Aemilianus was married to Sempronia Graccha, the daughter of Cornelia the Mother of […]
Whatever Happened to Hannibal’s Elephants?
October 2, 2013 By 5 Comments
In ancient times there was widespread use of elephants in warfare. The first use of elephants in military campaigns probably occurred in India sometime during the first millennium B.C. The practice eventually spread eastward to Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, and westward to Greece and North Africa. In 326 B.C. Alexander the Great invaded India, […]
Book Review: Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
July 23, 2013 By 1 Comment
Reza Aslan is from a moderate Islamic family who fled Iran after the overthrow of the Shaw. He converted to Christianity at the age of fifteen. Is he still a Christian? He says “The bedrock of evangelical Christianity, at least as it was taught to me, is the unconditional belief that every word of the […]
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