If you are trying to
find a book that will grab the imagination of your 8, 9, 10 or 11 year
old, then the Roman Mystery Series is your answer.
The Thieves of Ostia,
by Caroline Lawrence, is the first book her still-growing series, Roman
Mysteries. The story takes place in Ostia, ancient Rome’s port
(and a place you can still visit today), where Flavia Gemina, daughter
of a sea captain; her neighbor, Jonathan; Lupus, a young beggar; and
Nubia, an African slave solve the mystery of a slain dog.
The book is fast-paced
with lots of action and adventure: Flavia and her companions are
chased by a pack of wild dogs, they narrowly escape malicious slave
traders, and they discover that their chief suspect has committed
suicide by jumping from a lighthouse. It’s enough to keep any
young reader turning the pages.
But the book also gives
a great overview of daily life in an ancient Roman city with its
descriptions of architecture, politics, religion, slave trading, and
economics. And, it’s the perfect book to give a young traveler
headed to Rome or one who’s already been to the Eterna.
Even better, if you’re travelling to Rome with grade-school age
children in tow, read them the book and then plan a trip to Ostia
Antica - it’s easy to get to by public transportation - so they can see
just where Flavia Gemina and her friends lived.
Order The Thieves of Ostia from Powell’s
Though at
first glance this book seems as if it would provide history and
analysis of Rome’s great emperor, Hadrian, that’s not the case at
all. Rather, Danny Danzinger and Nicholas Purcell have teamed up
to produce a book that provides a broad overview of the Roman Empire in
the second century AD, under the rule of Hadrian.
Though Hadrian himself does receive a significant amount of attention in the book, the authors of Hadrian’s Empire
most often use aspects of Hadrian’s life as stepping-off points for the
exploration of broader themes. Thus, there are chapters that
cover topics such as the workings of the Roman city, the administration
of the Roman Empire, the military, politics, religion, social life,
attitudes towards sex, people’s lodgings, food, clothing, class
differences, women’s roles in society.
If you’re
the kind of person who spends your time in the Roman Forum wishing you
knew more about how Romans lived, worked, and played, then this
book will satisfy some of your longings for it will leave you
with a much-expanded idea of what life was like in the ancient
Roman world.
Order Hadrian’s Empire from Powell’s
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd , 2005. ISBN 0340833602
In the year 1999, the movie Gladiator
reminded millions of people just how spectacular a place Rome’s
Colosseum is. It had been decades since the last swords and
sandals flick, but Russell Crowe, in the role of a fictional
gladiator, Maximus, dramatically won our hearts.
Yet, one
wonders. Did it really happen that way? Did the movie
provide an accurate portrayal of the gladiatorial games? And was
its computer-generated rendition of the Colosseum worth the time (and
money) it took to produce it? Now you can judge for
yourself.
Classical
scholars Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard have just published a
pocket-sized history of the Colosseum and the spectacles it
hosted. This is a book that shouldn’t be missed by anyone who has
found themselves standing in the Colosseum and trying to imagine what
it was like to attend the gladiatorial games. Nor should the
book be overlooked by those who have shivered with horror when thinking
of the carnage and violence that took place in the largest amphitheater
in the Roman world.
Beard and
Hopkins write for a general audience and their book addresses many
aspects of the gladiatorial games and the Colosseum itself. They
have chapters that examine the staging of the games, the building of
the Colosseum, the careers of gladiators, the social rituals of which
the gladiatorial games were a part, and the uncanny attraction that
generations of travelers have had to this monument.
Far from
dry, this book is an enjoyable and quick read - the perfect length for
the plane ride to Rome. “We who are about to die, salute this
lovely little book!”
Order The Colosseum from Powell’s
Harvard University Press, 2005. ISBN 0674018958
Enjoying HBO’s new Rome series? Then you’ll want to read Steven Saylor’s books too.
Many of
us find it easier to get a handle on complex historical eras by
approaching them first through fiction and later tackling the labyrinth
of historical facts. If that’s your preferred approach, then
Steven Saylor’s Rome Sub Rosa series is made to order.
Saylor’s
mystery novels are set in the 1C BC and they star Gordianus the Finder
as a Roman “detective” with a nose for truth and an uncanny ability to
find himself in unusual predicaments. Roman Blood, the
first of the ten books in the series, throws Gordianus into cahoots
with the young Cicero and takes the reader deep into the political,
legal and family arenas of ancient Rome. Rome’s hottest new
lawyer, Cicero, is faced with defending a wealthy farmer accused of
killing his father. Cicero hires Gordianus to discover what
really happened and Saylor gives a lively rendition of Sextus’s trial
including Cicero’s defense speech.
Gordianus’s
work on the case will win him acclaim and through the course of
Saylor’s next nine books, his status in life will rise as he moves from
a middle class house on the Esquiline Hill to a noble abode on the
Palatine. His adventures will become ever-more exciting too - in
subsequent books Gordianus interacts with Rome’s major movers and
shakers, including Pompey the Great and Caesar.
Order Roman Blood from Powell’s
St Martin’s Press, 2000. ISBN 0312972962