A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War
by Gary Forsythe
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Description
During the period from Rome's Stone Age beginnings on the Tiber River to its conquest of the Italian peninsula in 264 B.C., the Romans in large measure developed the social, political, and military structure that would be the foundation of their spectacular imperial success. In this comprehensive and clearly written account, Gary Forsythe draws extensively from historical, archaeological, linguistic, epigraphic, religious, and legal evidence as he traces Rome's early development within a show more multicultural environment of Latins, Sabines, Etruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians. His study charts the development of the classical republican institutions that would eventually enable Rome to create its vast empire, and provides fascinating discussions of topics including Roman prehistory, religion, and language. In addition to its value as an authoritative synthesis of current research, A Critical History of Early Rome offers a revisionist interpretation of Rome's early history through its innovative use of ancient sources. The history of this period is notoriously difficult to uncover because there are no extant written records, and because the later historiography that affords the only narrative accounts of Rome's early days is shaped by the issues, conflicts, and ways of thinking of its own time. This book provides a groundbreaking examination of those surviving ancient sources in light of their underlying biases, thereby reconstructing early Roman history upon a more solid evidentiary foundation. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars c.1000-264 BC by T. J. Cornell
dandiffendale Forsythe and Cornell are liable to go to extremes in opposite directions. Forsythe doubts almost everything, while Cornell is too trusting of the texts, and too dismissive of archaeology.
Member Reviews
This is an extraordinarily interesting book, in which the author takes - as the title implies - a critical look at the early history of rome. Using empirical and analytical methods, archaeological data and comparison between ancient Roman with Greek and other historical texts, Forsythe takes the reader from Italian prehistory, through the roman archaic and regal periods right down to the end of the Pyrrhic war. Definitely worth 5 stars!
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Ancient/Classical World
34 works; 1 member
Author Information
10+ Works 150 Members
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War
- Original publication date
- 2005
- Important places
- Rome, Roman Empire
- Dedication
- Dedicated to Dorothy Alice Forsythe on July 29, 2003, my darling's seventy-fifth birthday.
- Blurbers
- Raaflaub, Kurt ; Mitchell, Richard E.
Classifications
- Genres
- History, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 937 — History & geography History of ancient world (to ca. 499) Italian Peninsula to 476 and adjacent territories to 476
- LCC
- DG209 .F735 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania City History of Italy Ancient Italy. Rome to 476 History General
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 125
- Popularity
- 259,779
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.14)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 1
