Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray is an intriguing look at one of history’s most enigmatic characters, Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Cleopatra VII Philopator of Egypt and Marc Anthony. Cleopatra Selene may have been the only one of Cleopatra’s four children to survive into adulthood. Born along with a twin brother, Alexander Helios […]
Book Review: Hannibal: A History of the Art of War by Theodore Ayrault Dodge
July 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Theodore Ayrault Dodge was a military historian who was born in 1842 and died in 1909. He fought as a Union officer in the American Civil War and wrote a number of biographies of history’s most famous generals, including Alexander the Great, Hannibal Barca, Julius Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. In […]
What Shakespeare Owes to Plautus
June 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Last Friday I was walking through New York’s Central Park on my way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I passed the Delacorte Theater. There was a long line of people there and I inquired as to why they were standing there. They told me that the theater was giving out free tickets to […]
Quotes of the day: On War.
May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment
“In nothing less than war do events correspond to men’s calculation. Everything is at your disposal when adjusting a peace, but in battle you must be content with the fortune the gods shall impose upon you.”-Livy, attributed to Hannibal “An unjust peace is better than a just war.”-Cicero “In peace sons bury their fathers. In […]
Quotes of the Day
May 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment
“Others may fashion more smoothly images of bronze (I for one believe it), evoke living faces from marble, plead causes better, trace with a wand the wanderings of the heavens and foretell the rising of stars. But you, Roman, remember to rule the peoples with power (these will be your arts); impose the habit of […]
Book Review: The Arms of Quirinus
April 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The Romans left behind written records of their affairs beginning with the founding of the Roman Republic in 509 B.C., but the era of kings is shrouded in myth. In her historical novel, The Arms of Quirinus, Sherrie Siebert Goff has taken these myths and woven an intriguing tale of the founding of Rome. Even […]
In The Wake of Hannibal
March 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I have finished my first draft of my new work in progress In the Wake of Hannibal. Gisco was a real person. He traveled with Hannibal on his epic journey across the Pyrenees, through ancient Gaul, over the Alps and into Italy. He was in Hannibal’s inner circle and was with him at the battles […]
Book Review: Colossus Stone and Steel. The Four Emperors by David Blixt
March 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
From A.D. 54 to A.D. 68, Rome was ruled by a madman. His name was Lucius Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, commonly known as Nero. Rome at this time ruled the civilized world from Syria to Brittania. Nero killed his mother and two of his wives, Octavia and Poppaea. (Although Poppaea’s death was probably unintentional) […]
Book Review: Africanus: El Hijo Del Consul
January 28, 2013 By 5 Comments
Africanus: Hijo del Consul (Africanus: Son of the Consul) is the first book of a trilogy by Santiago Posteguillo which may well be the most comprehensive account of the Second Punic War and it’s aftermath written in modern times. There is only one slight problema-the book is in Spanish and there is no English translation […]
Book Review: Caesar’s Ambassador by Alex Johnston
I loved this book. Historical fiction as comedy. A belly laugh on every page. Caesar’s Ambassador is narrated by Marcus Mettius, who serves as ambassador along with Gaius Valerius Troucillus to the German chieftain Ariovistus. “I don’t know why you’re so worried, Marcus. Everybody knows that harassing ambassadors is against the rules. Anyway we treated […]