“Oh you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome. Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft have you climbed up to the walls and battlements, to towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, your infants in your arms, and there have sat the live-long day, with patient expectation, to see great Pompey pass the […]
New Review of The Death of Carthage by Marcus Metius, AKA Alex Johnston
July 18, 2014 By Leave a Comment
http://www.unrv.com/book-review/the-death-of-carthage.php The Death of Carthage by Robin E. Levin Book Review by MarcusMettius Good historical fiction is a two-fer. You can get the facts by reading Polybius and Livy. But you need a Robin Levin to introduce you to Marcus Nemo Nemonides (Marcus Nobody, son of Nobody) – I just love that name! Yep – […]
Book Review: Caesar’s Daughter-Julia’s song
June 9, 2014 By Leave a Comment
“It was a paranoid time in the City. Politicians were more concerned with denying glory to their rivals than with solving problems. Everybody was stabbing everybody in the back. There was no legitimate economy-it was characterized by exploitation and unsustainable debt. Discontent among the masses was rising-there were high levels of unemployment, and great resentment […]
How Did Slavery in the Amercan Antebellum South Compare to Slavery in the Ancient World?
May 22, 2014 By 1 Comment
In comparing the peculiar institution in the American Antebellum South with its ancestor in the ancient world, you find a few differences and many similarities. One of the most obvious differences is that to qualify as a slave in the Antebellum South, you had to have some Black African ancestry. You didn’t need much. By […]
Legionary: The Roman Soldier’s (Unofficial) Manual by Philip Matyszak
May 12, 2014 By Leave a Comment
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 […]
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 […]
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