The Romans had a lot more respect for the Greeks than they had for the Carthaginians. They had fought two long and bitter wars with Carthage and regarded them as enemies. There was no such animus in the Roman attitude toward the Greeks. The Greek language was prestigious and a Roman was not considered educated […]
Quora Question: Why Did The Romans Not Destroy Greece the Way Destroyed Carthage?
June 9, 2021 By 2 Comments
Quora Question: What Year Was the Rise of Rome?
December 15, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Rome didn’t rise in a day, nor in a year. The rise of Rome was a very long process. The Greek historian Polybius explored the rise of Rome in his Histories. In the preface he wrote: “For who is so indolent and so worthless as to not wish to know by what means and under […]
How Did the Romans Overtake the Greeks
October 22, 2019 By 1 Comment
A good book to read on this subject is Taken at the Flood by Robin Waterfield. At the end of the third century B.C. most of the Greek cities were under the rule of two successor kingdoms to Alexander the Great; the Macedonian Empire, and the Seleucid Empire. Macedonia, under king Philip V, had sided […]
Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Destroys Carthage.
September 29, 2019 By Leave a Comment
When the Roman Senate made the decision to destroy Carthage in 149 B.C. the elected Consuls were Lucius Marcius Censorius and Marcus Manilius. They brought an army of 80,000 Roman legionaries. They demanded that the Carthaginians abandon their city and move at least ten miles from the coast. The Carthaginians, who had previously given in […]
How Does the Political System in Ancient Rome Differ from That of Modern Day America
September 1, 2019 By Leave a Comment
How was Roman democracy different from American democracy? Robin Levin, The Roman Republic was not a democracy. It was a plutocratic oligarchy. And the U.S. Republic is also not a true democracy, it is also a plutocratic oligarchy. The Greek historian Polybius, lived in the second century B.C. and spent seventeen years as a hostage […]
The Last Carthaginian is Now Available on Amazon and Kindle
March 11, 2017 By Leave a Comment
I have just published the third in my series of historical novels about the Second and Third Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. The Death of Carthage told the story of the Second and Third Punic Wars from the point of view of the Romans. In the Wake of Hannibal told the story of the […]
Book Review: Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate Warfare, and the Rise of Rome by Arthur M. Eckstein
September 14, 2015 By Leave a Comment
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: Taken At the Flood; The Roman Conquest of Greece, by Robin Waterfield
May 25, 2015 By Leave a Comment
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 […]
Did the Carthaginians Actually Practice Child Sacrifice?
March 6, 2015 By 2 Comments
In my work in progress, The Death of Carthage, my protagonist, Gisco, is informed by Indibal, the priest of Tanit and Ba-al Hammon that he must surrender his five month old son, Hanno, to be sacrificed to the gods. Aghast, Gisco seeks to avoid the sacrifice by taking his wife and three children to Roman […]
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 […]
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