Book Description
A gripping intellectual adventure story,
Sailing from Byzantium sweeps you from the deserts of Arabia to the dark forests of northern Russia, from the colorful towns of Renaissance Italy to the final moments of a millennial city under siege….
Byzantium: the successor of Greece and Rome, this magnificent empire bridged the ancient and modern worlds for more than a thousand years. Without Byzantium, the works of Homer and Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Aeschylus, would never have survived. Yet very few of us have any idea of the enormous debt we owe them.
The story of Byzantium is a real-life adventure of electrifying ideas, high drama, colorful characters, and inspiring feats of daring. In Sailing from Byzantium, Colin Wells tells of the missionaries, mystics, philosophers, and artists who against great odds and often at peril of their own lives spread Greek ideas to the Italians, the Arabs, and the Slavs.
Their heroic efforts inspired the Renaissance, the golden age of Islamic learning, and Russian Orthodox Christianity, which came complete with a new alphabet, architecture, and one of the world’s greatest artistic traditions.
The story’s central reference point is an arcane squabble called the Hesychast controversy that pitted humanist scholars led by the brilliant, acerbic intellectual Barlaam against the powerful monks of Mount Athos led by the stern Gregory Palamas, who denounced “pagan” rationalism in favor of Christian mysticism.
Within a few decades, the light of Byzantium would be extinguished forever by the invading Turks, but not before the humanists found a safe haven for Greek literature. The controversy of rationalism versus faith would continue to be argued by some of history’s greatest minds.
Fast-paced, compulsively readable, and filled with fascinating insights,
Sailing from Byzantium is one of the great historical dramas–the gripping story of how the flame of civilization was saved and passed on.
Customer Reviews:
Entertaining biographical sketches that shaped the world after 1453.......2007-08-28
This readable history of the historical waves emanating from Byzantine influences is an indispensable work. The style is partly biographical sketches and partly telling of a story making it easily accessible and useful to novice and professional historian alike. The biographical flavor provides the structure for history as events involving human beings with complex characters and mixed motivations acting on the society in their time. The story-telling aspect provides the glue that sweeps the characters and their influence through their geographical dispersions to reveal their influence in Russia, western Europe, and Islam.
An enjoyable read for any historian looking for hints of the Byzantine in the world today. Well done.
Tremendous work.......2007-08-14
This is a great work about an empire that was - and indeed still is - important in our world today. Back when I took a course in Classics in college, my professor lectured us on the importance of the Byzantine Empire, and yet, how few people understand it, and can convey the importance. The author, in my view, has done a truly tremendous job of condensing history down into a very readable, non-intimidating book, which conveys the entire history of Byzantium, from its founding in 500 A.D. to its end in 1493 A.D. The author commands an encyclopedic knowledge of the Classical world, as well as an ability to write. I can't say enough about this work of history. And anyone who might think this is ancient history and doesn't affect us: the history of the clash and cooperation between Islam and Christian civilizations continues to this day (of course). As the author mentions, if the walls of Constantinople had not been so well designed, the Muslims might well have put Europe in a pincer movement in 750 A.D. Instead of being stopped by Charles Martel at Poitiers in France, and turned back, the Muslims might have conquered all of Europe. We would be speaking Arabic now. Yes, it is relevant ! At the same time, the author shows attempts made inside the Arabic Muslim world (which stretched from Spain to Afghanistan) to integrate Greek rationalism and Greek knowledge. Averroes was a famous Arab philosopher who not only championed rationalism, but also kick-started the European Scholastic movement. Unfortunately, Averoes lost out in the Arab world, and the reaction to rationalism, in 850 A.D. began, and continues to this day as Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia. We feel the reverberations to this day...
A very valuable work, at once encyclopedic, and very accessible.
A Great History of a Lost Empire.......2007-06-18
I have always had a fasination with byzantium. This book as well as John Julius Norwich's series of books has helped to appreciate this lost empire more than ever. I especially liked the end of the book where it is just abruptly ended. In a way it made me cry a little to see what could have happened to the world if Byzantium had never have existed. I feel that more people should read this book and be aware of the several contribution that Byzantium has bestowed upon out modern world.
Forget Byzantium at Your Peril!.......2007-05-19
Ignorance of Byzantium (in two senses: lack of knowledge and lack of attention) has confounded Islamicists and Western European historians alike in the past 100 or so years. Colin Wells offers a concise and cogent description of the role Byzantium,including exiled or conquered Byzantines, played in the preservation and transmission of ancient Greek science and philosophy to the Muslim empires of the pre-Crusade "golden age" and directly to Western Europe chiefly by way of Italy. For nearly a thousand years, Byzantium WAS Rome, the hinge of civilization, linking rising and sinking cultures from the Visigoths of North Africa to the Vikings who called themselves Rus, from the humanists of Renaissance Florence to the Nestorian Christians of Syria, the primary translators of the Greek classics into Arabic.
Yet despite the significance of the material presented, it's a fun book, a quick read, written in a relaxed and simple style, accessible even to people who couldn't locate Byzantium on the map. (Hint: "Istanbul is Constantinople, now you can't go back to constantinople...")
Cultural and religious dispersal.......2007-04-20
This is not a "history" book in the exact sense of the term, if you think of "history" books as a linear progression of events. What this author has done is written a very valuable work detailing how the Byzantine Empire spread its culture and religion to its neighbors. The book is divided into three parts, each one showing the effect of Byzantium on 1: Western or "Latin" Christianity, 2: the states in the Balkan area, and 3: what eventually bcame Russia. It's a fascinating tale, extremely well told, and reveals to us that, even though 1453 saw the political end of the Empire, its influence in many different aspects spread and remain even today in many areas. These are subjects rarely, if ever, covered in this context, and should be required reading for anyone interested in obtaining a well-rounded knowledge of Byzantium.
Book Description
One of our most provocative military historians, Victor Davis Hanson has given us painstakingly researched and pathbreaking accounts of wars ranging from classical antiquity to the twenty-first century. Now he juxtaposes an ancient conflict with our most urgent modern concerns to create his most engrossing work to date, A War Like No Other.
Over the course of a generation, the Hellenic city-states of Athens and Sparta fought a bloody conflict that resulted in the collapse of Athens and the end of its golden age. Thucydides wrote the standard history of the Peloponnesian War, which has given readers throughout the ages a vivid and authoritative narrative. But Hanson offers readers something new: a complete chronological account that reflects the political background of the time, the strategic thinking of the combatants, the misery of battle in multifaceted theaters, and important insight into how these events echo in the present.
Hanson compellingly portrays the ways Athens and Sparta fought on land and sea, in city and countryside, and details their employment of the full scope of conventional and nonconventional tactics, from sieges to targeted assassinations, torture, and terrorism. He also assesses the crucial roles played by warriors such as Pericles and Lysander, artists, among them Aristophanes, and thinkers including Sophocles and Plato.
Hanson’s perceptive analysis of events and personalities raises many thought-provoking questions: Were Athens and Sparta like America and Russia, two superpowers battling to the death? Is the Peloponnesian War echoed in the endless, frustrating conflicts of Vietnam, Northern Ireland, and the current Middle East? Or was it more like America’s own Civil War, a brutal rift that rent the fabric of a glorious society, or even this century’s “red state—blue state” schism between liberals and conservatives, a cultural war that manifestly controls military policies? Hanson daringly brings the facts to life and unearths the often surprising ways in which the past informs the present.
Brilliantly researched, dynamically written, A War Like No Other is like no other history of this important war.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
A history teacher's review.......2007-10-06
"A War Like No Other" is classical historian Victor Davis Hanson's offering on the Peloponnesian War - the 27 year struggle between the Delian League (Athens and its allies) and the Peloponnesian League (Sparta and its allies) that ran on and off again from 431 to 404 B.C.
Hanson's book is perhaps also a "book like no other" if I may borrow a phrase. Despite the prominently placed quote for the New York Times on the front cover proclaiming that it is a contemporary retelling of the war, this is not a narrative history of the war. Rather, it does exactly what the subtitle promises - it tells the reader HOW the war was fought. It analyzes the techniques, the weapons, the strategies and the tactics but it is not a history per se. The book vaguely follows the course of the war, but often shifts backwards and forwards through the decades of the war and even before and after the war.
Giving this one a rating is tricky. It is well-researched and well-written. Hanson does a tremendous job of linking the events of the past with more current events, such as World War II, the Cold War and terrorism. In a way, you could say that the quote (and title of the book) from the ancient historian Thucydides was really not true, this war was not a war like no other, instead at least parts of it are like every war that followed since.
While well-written, I think that Hanson's decision to break the book up into thematic units ("Fire", "Disease", "Terror", "Armor", etc.) made the book less strong than if it had been told in more of a narrative manner. Hanson provided tons of endnotes to document his work which is a strength and indicative of the quality of work that Hanson creates, it was also quite annoying. Not the notes themselves, but the fact that they were endnotes with commentary requiring the reader to constantly flip back and forth to the end of the book and to keep two sets of bookmarks- one for the text and one for the endnotes. If a writer plans to write additional commentary in his or her notes common decency would suggest that footnotes are better for the reader. The continuity and flow of the main text is not broken by constant flipping to the back of the book. Shelby Foote did this to great effect in his gigantic 3 volume Civil War series. Tom Holland uses both in his book "Rubicon" - notes at the end, additional commentary at the bottom of the text.
As a history teacher, I found immediate uses for portions of the book in my classroom. I read to my class from Hanson's description of life on the Greek naval vessels and was able to use his information to give a brief description of the war and the experience of the soldier. I do recommend this book for serious world history teachers and any afficionados of classical ancient history.
Best book of its kind.......2007-09-20
I am a big fan of those authors like Jared Diamond who try to look at the big picture, but I also occasionally read more "conventional" history which focuses on events during a particular time and place. "A War Like No Other" is the best book of that kind I have ever read. It tries to understand the "why's" of the Peloponnesian War. Why was their a stalemate for so long; why was the effectiveness of Hoplites limited, and why didn't the Greek world realize this earlier; why was cavalry important and why wasn't more use made of it; why were the Greeks so poor at conducting sieges; what determined success at sea; why did Athen invade Syracuse, a fellow democracy, and one very distant; why was the war marked by a greater frequency of atrocities than the Greek world had previously experienced; what was the nature of democracy and oligarchy and what form did social tensions take; why were a few critical battles won or lost. The book also implicitly explains why any one with a classical background might be distrustful of democracy. Finally, students of modern history know the importance of economic might; Hanson, in answering some of his questions, shows the importance of economics in this ancient conflict.
I have a few minor complaints. The maps provided don't always show the places referred to: in fact, the reader would be advised to refer to the map on p.182 when reading the earlier chapters. It would have been helpful if the chapters on armor and cavalry had been earlier. Hanson is a like a home team announcer in sports, the home team being Athens, so that the failure to conquer democratic Syracuse, not just the loss of life (p.212), was a "tragedy". However one may dislike the Spartan state, it was Athens, not Sparta which was expansionist. For a celebration of the Spartan way of life, I would recommend Steven Pressfield's "Gates of Hell", which while a novel, focuses on the Spartan ethos.
Excellent.......2007-05-29
Hanson has crafted a history of the Peloponnesian War which breaks form the traditional, chronological storyline. Instead, Hanson has broken down the conflict into the types of warfare and the whole book is essentially detailing the evolution of Greek warfare into the tactical juggernauts of Thebes and later, Macedon. Basically, Hanson contends that the Peloponnesian War exerted such stress on the Greek city-states, over twenty-seven years, that the old politics of pitched hoplite battles and open sea engagements, a la the Persian Wars, were too ineffective and inefficient. Sparta's armies were preeminent on the field of battle and Athens' fleets ruled the seas without equal, until the final stages of the war. Because of their absolute dominance in their respective fields, the real fighting took place elsewhere: in nightfighting, sieges, the novel use of auxiliaries who attacked with ranged weapons (javelins, bows, slings), a newfound appreciation for the cavalry wing and the impact of the plague on Athens. Hanson's book falls short of the elusive 5-stars because his style sometimes dragged. However, this is a clear, concise, well-researched and well-written analysis of a war that changed everything in the eastern mediterranean, opening the power vacuum for Thebes and Macedon.
Hard to Follow.......2007-04-17
This book breaks the Peloponnesian War into its component parts and discusses how each influenced the strategy of the two sides. The author seems to presuppose a working knowledge of the conflict on the part of the reader. Because this was my first effort at educating myself about the war I found Hanson's explanations hard to follow. "A War Like no Other" is not for beginners. Prior to tackling this book I would suggest first reading Thucydides and some other more basic text about the complicated conflict between Athens and Sparta.
A Landmark History.......2007-02-04
I was encouraged to read Hanson's history, "A War Like No Other", because John Keegan heaped praise upon it in his "History of Warfare". As a devoted reader of Keegan's, I took his advice, picked up a copy, and was not disappointed. It is easy to think that Classics scholarship has little room for innovation, but Hanson manages to break new ground with a history that is also compelling and readable. Indeed, Hanson's work shares much in common with Keegan's seminal masterpiece, "The Face of Battle". Hanson's goal is to explore and, as accurately as possible, reconstruct the raw, local experience of the Peloponnesion War from the eyes of participants.
Hanson's chief innovation is a common-sense, experiential approach to the conflict which yields surprising results. Hanson asks the question, for example, "Was it really possible for the Spartans to ravage the countryside of Attica?" To answer this question, Hanson actually assembled primitive implements that the Spartans would have had, and attempted to "ravage" sections of his farm over a period of time. The conclusion is impressive: estimating generously, it would have been extraordinarily difficult for the Spartans to have inflicted meaningful damage to Athenian surroundings.
In a similar fashion, Hanson explores the physicality of phalanx combat, and shows its relatively modest significance in the war. One gets a sense of the carnage, the noise, terror and psychological intimidation that a Spartan hoplite unit could produce. Even more impressive is Hanson's narration of naval conflict -- specifically, the difficulties in maneuvering, the environment on-board, and the participants.
Hanson's experiential approach does not preclude analysis of the strategic considerations and cultural motivations behind decisions. His analysis of the Athenian assembly -- its demagoguery and passions, or the Spartan oligarchy -- constantly in fear of Helot revolt, is excellent.
Hanson not only covers phalanx and naval combat, but examines siege warfare, terror, strategy, disease, and the overall influence the conflict had on Greek civilization. Indeed, it is this last item that is the most depressing. If there is any difficulty in reading the history, it is the foreknowledge of the tragedy -- the reduction of Athens and other cities, the senseless, pyrrhic victories, the massacres, the waste. It is a tragedy worth witnessing however, for the lessons are meaningful and lasting. One sees the tyranny of the majority, the passions of the mob, and sees also the wisdom of the American Founding Fathers' crafting of an indirect democracy. One sees as well the influence of demagogues, men who felt little compunction ruining their society for personal gain -- demagogues who are still with us, unfortunately, even if the faces, names, times and places have changed.
Amazon.com
You need no previous experience reading hieroglyphs to benefit from this book. This is a hieroglyphs guide for the layperson, tourist, or museum enthusiast who'd like to have more of a clue when it comes to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs. Focusing on the funerary symbols one would be likely to see in Egypt or at a museum, and illustrated with hieroglyphs that are on display in the British Museum (drawn by Richard Parkinson, curator in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum), How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs makes possible a deeper appreciation not just of museum displays but of the Egyptian culture that used this writing system.
Both experts in Egyptology (Collier teaches Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and Manley teaches the subject at the University of Glasgow), they explain how most hieroglyphs are used to convey the sound of the ancient Egyptian language, then go on to teach, in easily digestible segments, the basic phonograms (sound-signs) used in inscriptions a traveler or museum-goer would be most likely to encounter. Each chapter teaches a new portion of hieroglyphic script and a new aspect of the Middle Egyptian grammar, with a section to practice the new reading skills and exercises to solidify the lessons taught. It provides a wonderful opportunity to sit at home and learn about the pharaonic administration, ancient Egyptian family life, and the Egyptian way of death, while building a firm understanding of the most common features of hieroglyphs. --Stephanie Gold
Book Description
Hieroglyphs are pictures used as signs in writing. When standing before an ancient tablet in a museum or visiting an Egyptian monument, we marvel at this unique writing and puzzle over its meaning. Now, with the help of Egyptologists Mark Collier and Bill Manley, museum-goers, tourists, and armchair travelers alike can gain a basic knowledge of the language and culture of ancient Egypt.
Collier and Manley's novel approach is informed by years of experience teaching Egyptian hieroglyphs to non-specialists. Using attractive drawings of actual inscriptions displayed in the British Museum, they concentrate on the kind of hieroglyphs readers might encounter in other collections, especially funerary writings and tomb scenes. Each chapter introduces a new aspect of hieroglyphic script or Middle Egyptian grammar and encourages acquisition of reading skills with practical exercises.
The texts offer insights into the daily experiences of their ancient authors and touch on topics ranging from pharaonic administration to family life to the Egyptian way of death. With this book as a guide, one can enjoy a whole new experience in understanding Egyptian art and artifacts around the world.
Customer Reviews:
Incredibly well thought out and put together.......2007-09-03
I love this book! It absolutely is for the "true beginner" and has plenty of exercises, well thought out chapters and a ton of information in the many appendixes (including a small dictionary, hieroglyphic sign lists and small descriptions). I'd recommend this book to ANYONE who is looking to improve on their Hieroglyphic knowledge or who would like to learn even a little bit about them!
Exactly what I wanted........2007-08-15
I do not know a lot about hieroglyphics beyond touring Egypt 3 times, which is why I purchased this book. But I can tell you that it is very detailed and easy to read. I'm very happy with this purchase.
Perfect Introduction for a Beginner Like Moi!.......2007-06-23
This book is more than I had expected. It holds an important place in my Reading Corner, and I have spent bits of time [almost] daily, working at my own pace... and find I am in complete understanding of the entire text... ready to move on to more advanced material.
That I have absorbed this material on my own, without an instructor, is -- to me! -- significant. I recommend this book to those who may be casually interested in learning to decipher Middle Egyptian funerary texts, which in retrospect appears to be a logical way to introduce the language.
== m htp ==
An Excellent Introductory book.......2007-03-09
A top line, well structured book that reads easily with clear explanations. Serious study, guided by this book will provide a good foundation for further study of this fascinating language.
Unclear.......2007-02-17
Though I found this book somewhat useful. I also found there to be many inaccurate translations. In ancient Egypt, they read from either left to right, top to bottom or bottom to top, however, never did they read from right to left. When I seek to add to my knowledge in any ancient language, I seek to learn it as they would have read it and in this book, it was confusing as the authors guide you through as if reading the english language.
I recommened E.A. Wallis Budge's Easy Lessons in Egyptian Hieroglyphics a much more accurate source as he breaks it down, and yet guides you easier and with less confusion in how the ancients would have read the script.
Book Description
A powerful tale of war, romance, and one of history's most desperate gambles
Julius Caesar was nothing if not bold. When, in the wake of his defeat of Pompey at Pharsalus his victorious legions refused to march another step under his command, he pursued his fleeing rival into Egypt with an impossibly small force of Gallic and German cavalry, raw Italian recruits, and nine hundred Spanish prisoners of war-tough veterans of Pompey's Sixth Legion.
Cleopatra's Kidnappers tells the epic saga of Caesar's adventures in Egypt through the eyes of these captured, but never defeated, legionaries. In this third volume in his definitive history of the Roman legions, Stephen Dando-Collins reveals how this tiny band of fierce warriors led Caesar's little army to great victories against impossible odds. Bristling with action and packed with insights and newly revealed facts, this eye-opening account introduces you to the extraordinary men who made possible Caesar's famous boast, "I came, I saw, I conquered."
Praise for Caesar's Legion
"A unique and splendidly researched story, following the trials and triumphs of Julius Caesar's Legio X. . . . More than a mere unit account, it incorporates the history of Rome and the Roman army at the height of their power and gory glory. Many military historians consider Caesar's legions the world's most efficient infantry before the arrival of gunpowder. This book shows why. Written in readable, popular style, Caesar's Legion is a must for military buffs and anyone interested in Roman history at a critical point in European civilization."
-T. R. Fehrenbach author of This Kind of War, Lone Star, and Comanches
Customer Reviews:
History major.......2007-03-28
I am currently finishing his last book, and find that all of his books have a very professional polish. They cover all the small details that enhance the reading and provide and in depth apprecitation of the subject with out being verbose or cumbersom. Read and enjoy thes books do not require a latin dictionary to get through the text.
Porcia swallows red hot coals... ouch!.......2007-02-21
The 6th legion, the FERRATA, was called the 'iron clad'. They fought for Pompey, were captured by Caesar and then turned into his weapon of mass destruction. The 6th were barracaded in Alexandria, fought on the edge of the Nile, fought in Spain, fought in Turkey and served 20 years in the Roman legions before ever laying eyes on the city of Rome. But what a homecoming! Three triumphs in a row. Unheard of, absolutely unheard of.
Stephan Dando-Collins is on a roll. This is the third book of his that I have read and it was the best one. As a non-historian, all I can do is buy and read books that explain more and more at my level. Dando-Collins does not write novels, but they aren'y exactly history books either. They are history told as a story. As the members of the VI Legion might see themselves, certainly. But also as sort of a newspaper account and chronology of an army unit that rises from the dead of 2000 years ago so we can know its' incredible story. And the story in the book is simply astounding. Dando-Collins sucks you into the world of ancient Rome in a chronology as might have been experienced by the very men who lived it. I admit to only having one college degree and a smattering of ancient history. But I am trying to teach myself this subject matter previously avoided because it might have been too dry. Was I ever wrong. Read RUBICON by Tom Holland, and then read this book. Together they will light your way into the Roman past.
Caesar for the regular guy.......2007-02-05
This book was my first foray into ancient history so I can't say whether or not all the info is fact as one reviewer seems to question but I recommend it for anyone just starting to learn about this period. It is a non-imposing 250 pages and comes with both an index explaining the ranks of Roman soldiers and their modern day equivalents as well as a very helpful glossary containing definitions to all the old terms that novices like myself don't know. I picked this up after watching the History Channel to learn the story behind the Caesar-Cleopatra-Marc Anthony intrigue and am happy I did so. If you're an academic this might not be for you. But if you're just getting your feet wet check it out it will help you decide if you really want to read more or are content watching the History Channel.
Caesar's Formidable VI Ironsides.......2006-10-04
With this third text about Roman legions, Dando-Collins (D-C) has again produced a very good military history. His "Cleopatra's Kidnappers" (2006) is a riveting rendering of the legio VI Ferrata.
D-C begins his story with the 48 BC Battle of Farsala (Greece) where an outnumber Caesar defeats Pompey in his bid to take over the Roman Empire. Cornering the tough Legio VI veterans, as Pompey's other legions retreat mostly into death, Caesar offers a deal to these fearless Spaniards. Half agree and half withdraw with the Pompeians. Caesar's VI becomes his best troops through campaigns in Egypt, Greece and Spain. By the end, the VI appropriately earned its immortal name "Ferrata" ("Ironsides") marching into victory, wealth, and glory!
This book is an interesting read for students of Roman military history. D-C refernces several credible ancient sources (Caesar, Appian, Plutarch, Tacitus, Suetonius, Polybus, Cassius Dio, Josephus, Cicero, Pliny the Younger, Seneca, Livy, and Arrian). When necessary he fills in history's gaps with well-reasoned guesses. It is unfortunate that D-C doesn't offer footnotes. A brief 8-page sources appendix is presented.
D-C's novelistic style made "Cleopatra's Kidnappers" a quick read. I read the 286 (hardback) pages leisurely in a few days. The author does his best work while describing battle (i.e. pages 140-44 for a spectacular portrayal of the Battle of the Nile, and pages 163-65 the exciting Battle of Zela). The book witnesses the mighty VI's power in warfare even at half its original size (Caesar never commanded more than 900 legionaires in the VI). The Ferrata was small but formidable.
Curiously, there are only three Mediterranean and city maps (D-C's first two legion books proffer pages and pages informative battle maps). Also, it would have been helpful to hear more of the VI's pre-Caesarian history(a deficiency that allows the book to earn only four stars).
This book is recommendable. It is hopeful that D-C will continue to march, for us, with Rome's legions.
Not historical, unless the 'Gladiator' film is historical........2006-05-28
All three of the "Legion Histories" by this author have left this reader severely disappointed, for lack of scholarship, lack of facts and pure ignoring anything that the author doesn't like, no matter how well it is proven epigraphically, archaeologically or by historians who were much closer to the time.
It is as if someone had a house plan, and the wood, bricks, nails, and a firm foundation, then they ripped up the foundation, build a castle on sand made from a few pretty bricks, and all the rest of the spaces filled with finely spun cotton candy, just because it looks pretty and would sell. Fine, but like a cotton candy house, the "history" of the Sixth Legion just won't hold water. It is historical fantasy, and unfortunately many uncritical or unknowing readers take these books for fact and start quoting them as they write their own novels or try to do serious research.
If you want scholarship, try a scholarly work! These sad attempts don't have footnotes or endnotes, and well they shouldn't, since they would not stand up to checking the sources!
If you want to know more about Roman military history, leave these books on the shelf and pick up a book by a scholar, such as Adrian Goldsworthy, Lawrence Keppie, Graham Webster, Yann le Bohec, Pat Southern, Peter Connolly, or even Osprey books by Michael Simkins, or Nick Secunda.
For better military fiction, find books by Simon Scarrow, or even the older classics by Damion Hunter.
This book makes a great gift for someone who loves "Gladiator" and "HBO's Rome", and believes that they are serious historical references. Otherwise, if you are doing serious research, look elsewhere.
Book Description
This fourth book in Dando-Collins’s definitive history of Rome’s legions tells the story of Rome’s 3rd Gallica Legion, which put Vespasian on the throne and saved the life of the Christian apostle Paul. Named for their leader, Mark Antony, these common Roman soldiers, through their gallantry on the battlefield, reshaped the Roman Empire and aided the spread of Christianity throughout Europe.
Customer Reviews:
Living History.......2007-03-16
Stephen Dando-Collins writes very well, you get the history, facts I hadn't read before and real research without a million footnotes to distract from the tale. I have read his whole series on the legions. Excellent
Good, but Dando-Collins has written better.......2007-01-31
I realize that Dando-Collins is writing his series for the non-specialist, but his use of modern place names and modern equivalencies for Roman army terms is condescending and off-putting. If a non-specialist cares enough to read the work, he won't be stymied by Roman terms and specialists, though I speak only for myself, find the equivalencies annoying at best and misleading at worst. Tribune, legate, cohort, vexillation, et al. are tems that can certainly be learned by anyone, especially if a glossary is provided. Otherwise, Dando-Collins is a good storyteller and I thoroughly enjoy his chronological histories of the legions, told one legion at a time.
Customer Reviews:
Planning a medieval Party?.......2002-12-27
If you are planning a Medieval Celebration of any kind this is a great book to buy. My Fiancee and I have been looking for medieval books to plan our wedding by and I stumbled across this one its been very helpful and I'm sure it will get alot of use. It has many tradations recipes and lots of fun games a must have.
So-So Information for Event Planning.......2001-08-24
My fiance and I purchased this book as we are planning a medieval wedding. The title and description of this book implied that we would find lots of valuable information on that topic. Well, we found lots of valuable information for feast planning, or putting on a re-enactment (a la Society for Creative Anachronism), and very little concerning period wedding traditions. The most interesting parts were the recipes/redactions and the instructions for medieval dance steps. There are also several pages that contain sheet music for period songs. If you are looking to put on a reenactment or feast, this is the book for you. If you are looking for anything else, I suggest you look elsewhere.
Product Description
"The Thousand Year War in the Mideast" explains how events on the other side of the world a thousand years ago can affect us more than events in our own hometowns today. The events of the Thousand Year War have been the cause of great shocks to our economy and investment markets, including: the oil embargoes, the Iranian hostage crisis, the Iraq-Kuwait war, and the Caucasus Wars over the Caspian Sea oil basin. These shocks are likely to remain so for decades to come. Learn about the Russians, Serbs, Croats, the Balkans, Kosovo, the Ottoman and Mongol empires, Turkey, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Russia, Oman, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Kurdistan, and more. Forewarned is forearmed. You must understand where this war is leading to manage your career, business and investments, as well as to reach an informed opinion regarding U.S. involvement in Mideast affairs.
Can be used for courses in world history, European/Mideast history, international affairs, government, economics, business, finance, and current events. It explains how past events affect current events.
Chapters
1. Terrorism or Retaliation
2. Three Root Causes
3. Muddying the Waters
4. How Many?
5. How Would You React?
6. Three Religions
7. They Think Differently
8. The Lost Civilization
9. The European Attack
10. The Barbary Wars
11. The Ruling Gangs
12. Rich vs. Poor
13. Carving the World
14. U.S. Aid to Soviets
15. The Invicible Secret Weapon
16. Amazing Mystery
17. The Israeli Tragedy
18. Playing One Against the Other
19. The Coming Messiahs
20. The Ultimate Weapon
21. Kill One, Create Ten More
22. High Tech and CBN
23. Loyalty of Russian Troops
24. Loyalty of American Troops
25. Why Die for an Interest?
26. Some Economics of the Thousand Year War
27. Go to High Risk Areas
28. A Small But Revealing Research Project
29. Liberty Not Democracy
30. Summary
31. The Murderous Cycle
32. The New Wars in Chaostan
Appendix
A Brief History of the Iraq-Kuwait War
Chaostan
Loose Cannons
Bibliography and Suggested Readings
Customer Reviews:
The past is not forgotten, it is not even past.......2007-04-19
Best historical perspective on the insider/outsider and local/foreign tensions in the Middle East. The approach given by Maybury will clear up questions you may have about imperialism and political domination as they are attributed to western powers--there have been massacres and despots and wicked abuses of power in the Middle East since the beginning of time. There are no simple resolutions to the conflicts of today, so at least attempt to understand why and how the conflicts continue to simmer until they occasionally break out in open war. Please read it! For reviews of similar books, see also the resource pages at civilsociety at seedwiki. Thanks, Richard, for this great book. Write more!
An unusual interpretation of events in the Middle East.......2006-09-15
This book is not the best way to learn about the history of the Middle East. Not if one wishes to learn in detail of what has happened and when. However, if one wanted to learn the why of these events, this book is invaluable. It provides a simple clear cut reason for a conflict that has been going on for more than a millenium and to which, even today, no end seems in sight.
Continuing in his favourite style of writing letters to his nephew, Chris, Richard Maybury applies the operation of his two basic laws on events that have shaped, and are still shaping the history of Europe over the last thousand years.
The two basic laws read as follows: 1) Do all you have agreed to do: 2) Do not encroach on another's property. Evidently, they are based on the equality of all human beings and oppose the use of force to wrest anything from anyone. As history is replete with power play, especially where emperors, kings and eventually governments are concerned, it is not difficult to see how the wanton abuse of these two laws, backfire on those authorities and organizations who do not adhere to them. In this book, Maybury begins by analyzing the Crusades, (Christian aggressors to the Holy Land, which was not their own and which they wanted to take by force), goes on to examining the authority of the Church, and finally ends up with a bird's eye view of European politics that led to World War I. Application of his logic on these diverse, seemingly unrelated events, makes their outcome almost self evident. Richard Maybury also speculates on the connection between the thousand year old animosity between the Western World (symbolized by America) and the Islamic World (represented by the Arab countries), leading onto the terrorist attack on Sept.11, 2001 (this is added later as the book was originally written in 1999). He shows clearly the role of the Allies (mainly Great Britain and France) as the aggressor in the conflict and how this role has been taken over in later years by the United States of America, a country which was created in order to preserve this very freedom. And especially, how the role of 'global policeman' adopted by America is accepted by the Rest of the World and officially justified in the name of ' protecting American interests'.
Each one of Richard Maybury's books is a fast read and this one is no exception. Maybury's strength lies in his crystal clear clear logic, and his total fearlesness in confronting contentious, emotional issues. Highly reccommended if only to stretch your minds to see a greater picture than the one given out by the authorities-that-be.
Very insightful but a bit short sighted.......2004-04-02
I thought this book is a very useful read and does much to inform about the historical roots to the mess that is currently the Middle East. There are ancient hostilities and tensions that are beyond the understanding of many of the policy makers that determine the direction that nations take in the Middle East.
Maybury does an excellent job explaining 'why they hate us so' which was a seemingly unanswered question in the days after 911.
However, I felt that Maybury did great disservice to his readers by not explaining that the crusades were in response to hundreds of years of Muslim advance, often brutal and murderous in nature. All the countries we now know as Muslim countries were once considered Christian. Istanbul was once Constantinople, the seat of the Holy Roman Empire. Maybury paints the Muslims as innocent victims without presenting the more honest view that the Muslim religion was birthed in hostile, war like advance. Muhammed essentially conquered Mecca and Medina to make them Muslim; they did not convert voluntarily.
This oversight was quite disturbing because it is the oversight that one hears from the Muslim extremists. They often refer to the crusades without any reference to their own heritage of bloodshed.
While I tend to agree with his assertions about the role the USA should play in the Middle East, I feel that Maybury lacks a thorough knowledge of the religious ideology that drives the Muslim extremists who are seeking to become the norm.
Interesting, thought provoking and filled with gile.......2003-06-17
With the reading of this last book in Mr. Mayburys original nine book series The Thousand Year War in the Mideast," I have finished them all. I enjoyed them all even though the Clipper Ship was not as good as the rest. Too many funnel stories.
Yes, I have already ordered the WWI and WWII books for my further enjoyment.
I find Richard Maybury a remarkably intellectual thinker and presenter of his view of history, politics, law, various economics factors, and of course many other issues. There is however a great deal of nothing more than his personal opinion on certain issues.
Enjoy them, yes without a doubt? Did I learn from them, I believe that I leaned a great deal? Do I accept every idea or assertion that he makes, no of course not?
He may be brilliant in his presentation, form and style but to accept his assertions as gospel, because I like those qualities, would be foolish indeed. I find some of what he attempts to sell as absolute fact and the other side as he calls it, quite thought provoking; but some of it I find completely unsubstantiated by other works on the same subjects.
In his attempt to get his nephew to see the other side...he quite often seems to blindly and incorrectly "take" the other position as if it were the only possible way of looking at the issue, which is completely inappropriate and often untrue.
For instance, as a former Marine who took great pride in singing from the halls of Montezuma...to the shores of Tripoli and learning the history behind it, I take great exception to his implication that America was nothing more than a complete lackey to the English and the Europeans.
One page 205 he tells us that This will be the first case of the U.S. fighting the Europeans wars for them. I find that an odd lack of research when in the college edition of The National Experience A History of the United States by Blum, McFeeley, Morgan and Schlesinger, Jeffersons determination to stay out of entangling alliances and wars was not undone, by his mere desire or naiveté to be the puppets of the Europeans or the lackeys of some other power; but because he - actually found paying tribute - for immunity from attack to be too costly and humiliating to America. In short it was intolerable to him as President of this nation to grovel to another nation.
This could just as easily be looked upon as a positive step to inventing the concept of international waters and the idea of free trade agreements! In any case, it resulted in an 1805 peace with the Pasha stopping his tributes and later the end of all tributes in that area in 1816, according to their account.
So I believe that Mr. Maybury, although learned and scholarly, has failed to consider all sides of the issue, the times these events were conducted in, and the necessary mentality of those dealing with the world and an emerging new nation and world player. If we would have done nothing, tribute paying would have continued, does he believe that would be a good thing? Encouraging such high seas confrontations?
Could he be implying that we just do as liberals seem to want us to do with incidents of killing, by simply ignoring attacks on our property and the loss of life and write them off? Hey, whats a few dead Americans here or there if we can secure favor with an enemy and understand him or her right? I am glad most of our presidents do not have that mentality, although the last one did, which was a real shame.
In addition as an emerging nation could Mr. Maybury really and truly believe that we should have been isolationist for the last 250 years? Democrats say yes out of one side of their mouths while saying no to any Republican who professes the same concept. It is a good word when they use it but a curse word when someone else does.
If we had been, then we would have gone the way of the Incas, Aztecs, American Indians and the French and just about every other defeated nation or people on earth. Non-involvement except for trade would be a great plan, in a world that never entered into the technological age, or that did not enter into the flying machine age or the age of rocket boosters, or the submarine age or the aircraft carrier age or the nuclear, biological and chemical age.
But that is not the world we live in. If we were still getting around with wooden ships, and balloons and horses and such, it would be fine to espouse those philosophies, but thank God we were flexible and fluid enough to adapt, adjust and become a world power broker and player in those days, and overcome the enemies who would by now be teaching our children how to speak their language by force.
I believe Mr. Mayburys opinion go astray when they do not consider the real world and how it has holistically evolved. Sometimes even bad decisions were for the best of reasons when viewed from the long view. Sure we have made mistakes in the past, but he cannot assure anyone that not making those decisions would have produced any safer a world then we have right now. And the Middle East would be a hot spot with or without our minor involvement. By his own admission it was so long before the USA came onto the scene.
Unless of course he is trying to tell us a world owned, operated and ruled by a completely Islamic regime or tyrants like the Stalins, Husseins, Khomeinis, Arrafats and Hitlers and such would be better for us. If we were the wimps he suggests we should have been in world affairs back then, then that is exactly what the status quo would be today. No it is a good book, but the final solution to history as he sees it is an incorrect one, I think.
1000 Words
An analysis of the current war by one who predicted it.......2002-12-27
Richard Maybury is a very rare bird. He can take a complex subject, such as why the US government is engaged in a war with radical Islam, and explain its root causes in simple, truthful terms. He is a tough, hardheaded, fearless thinker who is unafraid to go past the facile explanations of the mainstream press and seek out the deeper causes of socio-political phenomena. Maybury relies on science, reason, and a penetrating study of history for his explanations. He is also an ex-military man with an astonishing grasp of military history and the current level of effectiveness of US armed forces
For instance, his analysis begins in the 8th century with the founding of Islam. He explains why the devastation visited upon the Islamic world by the European Crusades and the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan in the 11th-13th centuries still exert a powerful influence on the peoples of the MidEast.
He also clearly identifies the theoretical basis of his reasoning, i.e., Austrian (free market) economics and the natural or "scientific" jurisprudence that underlies the evolutionary development of Common Law, the basis of American freedom. I was stunned by his ability to extract from his studies the two basic laws (stated in short, simple sentences) upon which every successful civilization is and has been based. He explains in another book how America's success derives from the founders' understanding of these two laws. He writes that he has never found anyone who disagrees with the rightness of these two laws...although the current American political state massively violates both every day. In the context of this book, he shows how the US government's intervention in Middle Eastern affairs tramples on the two laws that, ironically, have always been the source of American freedom and prosperity.
I have read most of the deeper academic works of the Austrian school and am well-read on American/European history. I have also applied myself assiduously to understand the current conflict and its probable outcome. However, until I read Maybury's clear, concise book, I honestly did not understand what was going on. Maybury has given me the tools I was seeking to grasp the nature of the current conflict. For instance, he not only predicted that something like 9/11/2001 would happen years before it did, but also why it was bound to happen. He also predicts that unless the US gov't withdraws from the MidEast and apologizes for over 50 years of murderous meddling in the afffairs of the Islamic world, we will face far worse consequences. Maybury is also honest about the limitations of his ability to predict. He lays out the principles upon which he bases his projections in straightforward terms so you can judge his conclusions for yourself.
Maybury uses simple examples to explain why he thinks the way he does. Eg, he asks how we would feel if the Iranian navy were permanently deployed in Chesapeake Bay. He further states obvious truths that the mainstream somehow overlooks, such as, that the US military is over there in their homeland killing people right & left and has been doing so for 50 years; their military is not over here on our (US) homeland. He points out, without justifying them, that two decades of Muslim attacks on Americans have been in response to prior American attacks on Muslims that have killed thousands of innocent islamic men, women & children.
Maybury does not take sides (the thinks both sides are wrong) but does show how the American government (not the American people) has instigated the current version of the "1,000 Year War" through its continuous interference in the Middle East or as he calls it "Chaostan." Finally, he explains why the US gov't cannot possibly cure the ills of tyranny, poverty & constant violence that plague that part of the world. US meddling will only make things worse at great cost to both sides.
I feel so strongly about the rightness of Maybury's analysis in this book that I urgently recommend it to any and all free thinking people the world over, but particularly my fellow Americans. We are truly on the brink of potentially catastrophic events and Maybury is the one thinker I have come across who shows a realistic pathway out of the war and chaos to come.
Book Description
A fascinating look at Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Vesuvius eruption in comparison with other historically significant volcanic eruptions, including the World Trade Center disaster.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which obliterated the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, was a disaster that resounds to this day. Now palaeontologist Charles Pellegrino presents a wealth of new knowledge about the doomed towns – and brings to vivid life the people, their last moments, and the aftermath.
The lessons learned from modern scrutiny of that ancient eruption produce disturbing echoes in the present. Dr Pellegrino, who worked at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, shares his unique knowledge of the strange physics of volcanic 'downblast' and 'collapse column', drawing a direct link from past to present, and providing readers with a poignant glimpse into the last moments of the 'American Vesuvius'.
Customer Reviews:
An engrossing look at Vesuvius (79 AD) ... and 9-11 (2001).......2007-08-18
[Review of Hardcover edition]
This is a tremendously interesting and engrossing book, on many different levels. "GoV", contrary to what the title might lead one to suspect, is NOT just a book about Mt. Vesuvius - it's a tour de force exploration of the effect of volcanic forces on people, on civilizations, on religion(s), on species and evolution in general, on the landscape, and even on the very formation of life itself ... and the author draws upon a wide array of scientific disciplines in order to tell the tale effectively.
In similar fashion to Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe", the book opens with a bang ... or more specifically, with the origins of the universe, the formation of heavier elements in the hearts of stars, the evolution of solid matter (planets, asteroids and dark matter), the formation of volcanoes on those planets, and the role that volcanic forces play in the formation of life. From there, the author gives the reader an introductory taste of some of the possible connective threads between volcanic calamities of recent millennia, their appearances in (and possible influence on) religious accounts & beliefs, and how the tripartite aspects of creation, destruction, and preservation directly mimic the aspects of certain deities recurring throughout human history in various different religions ... a theme touched on indirectly by Fritjof Capra's Hindu-slanted poetic paradigm for viewing physical reality "The Tao of Physics".
From there, the authors pauses (in Chapter 3, "The Time Gate") to neatly tie together a broad range of different fields of human study into a single and innovatively coherent view of time. In it, the author telescopes backwards, in accelerating fashion, as he zooms further and further outwards - from recent history, through archeology (deep history), past paleontology (biological history), past geology (planetary history), and onward into astrophysics (stellar history) ... with major volcanic events as the connective thread every step of the way. A larger and more robust treatment of this material is also covered in a stand-alone novel entitled "Time Gate".
Next, the author reels the reader's time focus back in closer to home again, and delves into the heart of the book, and the author's chief love: archeology. In this case, the primary focus are the twin cities destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD: Pompeii and Herculaneum. The author treats us to a veritable smorgasbord of some of the written accounts dating near, relating to, or directly affected by the eruption:
* Historical accounts (ex: the Plinys, Democritus, Josephus, Spartacus the Gladiator, etc),
* Biblical references (ex: the Council of Nicea that originally collated, edited and winnowed down the scattered accounts of the time into "The Bible" as we know it today),
* Legal records (ex: the legal case of the ex-slave Justa who was suing to retain her freedom at the time of the eruption) recovered from the carbonized remains of a large cache of library scrolls.
Reading those accounts drives home in dramatic fashion the terrible and lasting impact Vesuvius had on both the personal lives of the people nearby, on the surrounding nations and empires, and on the bible itself ... effects that are being felt even today, in ways that we're only just now beginning to understand.
From classic archeology, the author then re-focuses closer still into the subtle nuances and intimate details offered by forensic science, and the oh-so-human stories that the latter is allowing to emerge from the archeological strata. The bones can literally speak to us now ... telling us their exact age & gender, their most likely profession and social status, their dietary habits, wounds and diseases they suffered from, and so much more ... details that truly reinforce that archeology is not just about biology or dead civilizations - it's also about individuals.
It was shortly after the author finished writing the draft of this book that history and fate played a cruel joke ... on September 11th, 2001, hijackers crashed two passenger jets into the Word Trade Center in New York City. The buildings subsequently imploded and down blasted into the Manhattan Bedrock, and massive debris clouds radiated throughout southern Manhattan, burying, damaging and destroying much in it's path. The resemblance to Pompeii and Herculaneum was uncanny ... and that brings us to Chapter 10, the final chapter of GoV, in which several archeologists (including the author) converge on NYC to study the still-fresh archeological record.
Central to Chapter 10 is the story of NYFD Ladder 4 that emerged from the archeological evidence, and subsequent attempts (by certain unscrupulous people) to censor/delay/suppress the publication of this very book for daring to tell the truth ... a truth that exposed an earlier journalistic claim (of looting) as a slanderous hoax. For the details on that matter, I refer interested readers to the author's official discussion forum, which contains a thread on that subject, with additional information by the author.
To conclude, GOV is a must-read for anyone who's interested in the sciences in general, in history (both real and biblical), and in the ongoing efforts by determined researchers to carry forward the bright torch of knowledge & truth across the dark wastelands of time, superstition, ignorance ... and sometimes across the barbed wire boundaries of 'accepted theory', through toxic pools of opportunistic lies, and through suffocating clouds of censorship.
To quote Dr. Pellegrino: "History [and Truth] will eventually have it's way ... it always does."
I enjoyed it immensely, and I was engrossed throughout, from cover to cover.
I'd also like to compliment the author for his steadfast commitment to "Keep faith with the dead", regardless of the risk to his career as a published author. I've seen some of the consequences of that decision, first hand.
Self-important Jumble.......2007-05-08
Charles Pellegrino's stream-of-consciousness ramblings about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the collapse of the Twin Towers offer excellent descriptions of just how such catastrophes play out, but little else of interest. Reading the book is an exercise in frustration; just when the author throws out juicy tidbits regarding Pompeii or Herculaneum, he veers off into discussions of conditions on Earth in 1,000,000 B.C. or Gnostic philosophy. Pellegrino clearly possesses an active, imaginative mind but, just as clearly, has difficulty focusing it on something as mundane as maintaining focus. In this manner he reminds one of Tim Robbins' baseball pitcher Nuke LaLoush in "Field of Dreams," who possessed a phenonomenal fastball but was just as apt to hit the team mascot as the strike zone. In "Ghosts of Vesuvius," Pellegrino throws a few strikes. Unfortunately, these are overshadowed by his spectacular wild pitches. Mascots, and readers, beware.
Going To and Fro In The Earth, and Up and Down.......2007-04-12
Ghosts of Vesuvius
by Charles Pellegrino.
Harper. 496 pages.
I picked up this book after listening to the author on a talk radio show. He impressed me, holding forth on the universe in a distinct Long Island accent, so I thought why not? What I got was an incredibly ambitious work that takes the reader back, literally, to the non-time before the universe was born, then barrels forward faster than the speed of light to the non-time post-omega of the universe, and then drops the reader on the edge of the pit left behind after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center after lengthy disquisitions on Pompeii, Herculaneum--the incredible forces unleashed there--and how they were repeated at various intervals of volcanism through the eons. Not content with this, Pellegrino dove-tails these dynamics with the collapse of the Twin Towers and shows how various fire fighters and rescue workers met or survived their fates through the phenomenon of "shock cocoons"--the uncanny interventions that appear in the midst of disasters and which allowed paper documents to survive the searing heat in Herculaneum as well as one fire-fighter to glide on his back for hundreds of feet through the closest equivalent to hell on earth this side of the atomic bomb. A less capacious mind would be content to call it quits after these feats of mental gymnastics, but Pellegrino plows on, Diderot-fashion, to consider, simultaneously, rustcicles, the sinking of the Titanic, the Book of Thomas, Josephus and the early Christian church, the Stoics, the history of Rome, Roman technology and hundreds of other subjects. This man Pellegrino, if he ran a pizza parlor, would most probably offer the Pellegrino Special, which would be the very embodiment of abundanza!--all conceivable toppings, plus a sprinkling of star dust--and all for a reasonable $15.95, U.S.D.! (And, by the way, it appears that the folks of Herculaneum and Pompeii actually had a pizza-like dish, as well as their own hamburgers, hotdogs and a great-tasting fish topping--facts I learned from the author in question.) In addition Pellegrino succeeds in putting a human face on these tragedies--both natural and man-made. We are taken through the last nano-seconds of the life of a beautiful Asian-European slave girl of 14--16 years of age, who was lying on her side with her mistress' baby in her arms trying to comfort it when the searing gasses from Vesuvius caused her brains to boil and explode. We stand on the deck of the Titanic watching an officer with a pistol in his hand holding off the surging crowds of desperate passengers as women and children find seats on the final life boats, the freezing water lapping around their ankles. We are taken into the private hell of a man buried with his dog under tons of volcanic dust, who managed to live for weeks after Pompeii's extinction, yet still died far from the picks and shovels of potential rescuers.
With any such massive undertaking there will be of course some problems. Even War and Peace has arid passages that one would like to tear out and feed to the swine--especially when Tolstoy the philosopher begins to lecture us about history. With the Ghosts of Vesuvius the problems involve structure and editing. Towards the end of the book Pellegrino seems to be writing under the old rule of so many cents a page. We've seen the results in Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi when what begins as an excellent book is buried, in part two, under so much filler. I believe that the author simply had a space requirement that was assigned to him by his agent and by hook or crook, he managed to fill it. In addition, Mr. Pellegrino sometimes needs a fact-checker. However, having said these things, I recommend both the author and his book. Obviously the man is brilliant in the best possible sense of the word, and the book is the near-barbaric yawp of an American original.
Judith Petres Balogh.......2007-03-01
I embraced this book. It is informative, sensitive and superbly written. The paralell Mr. Pellegrino draws between the tragedies of Vesuvius and the Towers in unique, and there is so much information contained on the pages, that at times I had to slow down my reading, in order to fully absorb all the details. I read this book while in Europe, in a Hungarian translation, and it lost nothing through this process; the language is still powerful, even as translated into a language that is not related to any other modern language. As soon as I returned to the USA, I bought his other books.
Rambling........2006-10-30
If this book had a coherent topic I might have enjoyed it. It doesn't. It is supposedly about the explosion of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the social and cultural disruptions that followed. For reasons that are quite obscure the author rambles on for the first 127 pages about the origins of the universe, the origins of life, evolution, the appearance of the Big Dipper, panspermia, and more or less everything in between. Why? Who knows? Not me, and I read the book. He then prattles on about the slave revolt of Spartacus, which is at best tangentially relevant - but I guess he has a sense of humor, this chapter is called "Then listen, Josephus, for I digress"- never a truer word. The sections on Vesuvius are gripping and follow a coherent narrative line, until Pellegrino wanders off into yet another massive digression in a disjointed discussion of Gnosticism in the early church. I think the point was that the apocalyptic vision of early Christianity owed its origins to the calamitous explosion of Vesuvius, which is ingenious but he doesn't get even close to proving it, if only because nowhere are his arguments stated, it is all implication, imprecation and hand waving. We are then hurled through time to the sinking of the Titanic, an event that has nothing to do with Vesuvius, the Roman Empire, or volcanoes. The single point of comparison is the loss of life, and nothing in the Titanic chapters serves this book in any way whatsoever; pointless verbiage. Pellegrino then sets off on a gratuitous discussion of the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. The only link to Vesuvius that Pellegrino could muster was the shared physics of the collapse column in both a volcanic cloud and a falling building. I'd call that a stretch. Perhaps a more valid comparison would have been to talk to survivors of the atom bombs in Japan. Surprisingly, given that the book is about a volcanic explosion, there is no discussion of volcanic events in recent times- Krakatoa, Mount St. Helens, Etna. It is not even clear from the book that Vesuvius is still active, or that the Bay of Naples has been devastated by earthquakes in living memory. This is just lazy. There are errors of fact; a message in a bottle thrown into the Atlantic seems to have washed up in Surrey, England, which is not a small feat since Surrey is a landlocked county with not an inch of shoreline (perhaps it floated up the river Thames?). Pellegrino appears to place the fall of Constantinople to around 535, which is nonsense. This is in the middle of the reign of Justinian I (527-565), who expanded the Byzantine Empire to include all the Mediterranean including Southern Spain, and who between 532 and 537 oversaw the building of the Sancta Sophia- one of the greatest churches ever constructed. These are hardly the signs of a dieing civilization. With inevitable ups and downs Constantinople remained the centre of a major Christian civilization until it fell to the Turks in 1453, whereupon it became the centre of a major Muslim civilization. Finally, the style is clumsy with the same phrase frequently repeated in the same sentence, as in, (just one example of many) "her first officer had (in a manner of speaking) given me a promise to keep and pointed me (in a manner of speaking) toward..." It could have been a good book, it isn't.
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- The DEFINITIVE guide to Herodotus
|
A Commentary on Herodotus: With Introduction and Appendices Volume I (Books I-IV) (Commentary on Herodotus, Bks. 1-4)
W. W. How , and
J. Wells
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Historiae, Volume I: Books I-IV (Oxford Classical Texts)
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The History
ASIN: 0198143842 |
Book Description
Ancient critics called Herodotus `the father of history'. He was in fact the first to research and verify the events of the past (historie) and then to relate their consequences to the present. His Histories focus on the struggle between Persia and Greece from the time of Croesus to that of Xerxes, though frequent digressions provide a wealth of information on customs and cultures of peoples foreign to the Greeks. This new paperback edition of How and Wells's standard commentary (in print continuously since 1912) deals with the first four books (out of nine), covering Persia from Croesus to Cyrus, up to Darius' expedition against the Scythians and Libyans. In addition to the detailed commentary, aimed primarily at students, it includes short introductory summaries of certain sections of text, a full introduction describing Herodotus' life and composition of the Histories, and fifteen appendices dealing with problems concerning the text and content of these four books.
Customer Reviews:
The DEFINITIVE guide to Herodotus.......2001-03-26
This supplement to Herodotus is the most comprehensive work on Herodotus' History. By commenting on the text, archaeology, geography, and virtually every aspect relating to Herodotus, one may become familiar with the first history of the classical era. I strongly reccomend the two volumes for anyone who has read Herodotus before, as he/she will gain a deeper study of the work.
Amazon.com
In a time of social upheaval resulting from rapacious Roman taxation, Jesus's message to resist through communal cooperation was welcome to rural Galilean Jews who were expecting a return to their covenant with God. When Paul extended this message to similarly dispossessed urban Gentiles, the stage was set for a Jesus movement that would take hold in the empire and transform the world. Richard A. Horsley and Neil Asher Silberman put recent archaeological and textual research to good use in an original but reasonable interpretation of Jesus and Paul as religious and social reformers. The result is a picture of Christianity that makes sense Biblically as well as historically.
Book Description
Set against the backdrop of Roman imperial history, The Message and the Kingdom demonstrates how the quest for the kingdom of God by Jesus, Paul, and the earliest churches should be understood as both a spiritual journey and a political response to the "mindless acts of violence, inequality, and injustice that characterized the kings of men." Horsley and Silberman reveal how the message of Jesus and Paul was profoundly shaped by the history of their time as well as the social conditions of the congregations to whom they preached.
Customer Reviews:
Distinguishing the forest from the trees...........2007-07-23
Horsley's book here reads more like a narrative social history. There aren't footnotes and citations, no minutia to contend with, which for an academic guy, is pretty good.
The thing that I liked most about the book was that he pointed out what are apparent tensions within the text of the New Testament -- not in a bitter way like some liberal scholars (cough, cough, "Bart Ehrman," cough, cough) who lost their faith and are now angry that they feel duped -- but in a way that was tactful and thoughtful.
Was Paul, the hero and main interpreter of Jesus of Nazareth (by the inclusion of so much of his writing into the New Testament, including that which probably isn't his but a disciple of his) really rejected by the Jerusalem community? It kind of sounds that way in Horsley's story. If Galatians (which is considered authentically Paul)is written in 48/9 C.E. and Paul's mission to the Gentiles hasn't really been clarified to the Jerusalem council, then some of Paul's letters in Corinthians and the subsequent attack on "Judaizers" makes sense. The Jerusalem community wasn't buying what Paul was selling -- pagans may become God-fearers (sons of Noah abiding by Noachide laws see Acts 15) but if they want in they should go all the way and convert. They are welcome to sojourn, but that doesn't make the gentiles converts. Paul disputes this -- Torah observance isn't necessary. James says he's wrong. Israel is defined by its relationship to Torah that was given by God -- and affirmed by Jesus. Paul's basis for his gospel? Personal revelation. That is where it gets sketchy.
Overall a good read and thought provoking. I'd recommend it, though it probably isn't for some younger undergrads.
Finally!.......2002-07-17
Professor Horsley has repeatedly offered us books impeccably researched and annotated in great detail. Yet despite the promise of those works, Horsley has too often hidden his gifts behind an impenetrable wall of technicalities and minutia. In his attempts to demonstrate his intelligence, Horsley has sometimes made his writing obtuse and inaccessible to the average reader.
This, however, is not one of his failures. Here Horsley finally gets it right. Here Horsley fulfills the promise of his other works.
Examining the politics, sociology, psychology and religion of the renewal movements founded by John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and Paul of Tarsus, Horsley and Silberman weave an exhilarating narrative that exposes the historical roots of Christianity. Thoroughly comprehendible by the lay reader, without sacrificing scholarship, this book demonstrates that the authors can strike an appropriate balance between academia and popular reading.
Social Reform.......2000-02-19
Harsley and Silberman provide a social and economic setting of the time of Jesus and Paul (10 BCE - 70 CE) and the "Jesus Movement". Without addressing the religious truth of Christianity, they describe its social context and the impact it had on Palestine and the eastern Mediterranean.
The authors draw on recent archaeological finds to present a picture of life during this time. Along with the Bible and writings of Josephus, they use non-canonical early Christian writings, and Roman documents and inscriptions.
Bibliographical Notes in addition to the Bibliography make it easy to refer to more original sources in topics of interest.
The book is somehat hard to read, visually. This edition uses a very light serif font, and the paragraphs are rather long. Some familiarity with Biblical accounts of Jesus and Paul would be helpful for the reader.
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