The Roman Way
by Edith Hamilton
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Description
"In this now-classic history of Roman civilization, Edith Hamilton vividly depicts Roman life and spirit as they are revealed by the greatest writers of the age. Among these literary guides are Cicero, who left an incomparable collection of letters; Catullus, who was the quintessential poet of love; Horace, who chronicled a cruel and materialistic Rome; and the Romantics: Virgil, Livy, and Seneca. Hamilton concludes her work by contrasting the high-mindedness of Stoicism with the collapse of show more values as witnessed by the historian Tacitus and the satirist Juvenal."--Back cover. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
In this book Hamilton discusses famous Roman authors, excluding Roman Stoics who Hamilton classifies as essentially Greek, and their cultural context. As ever, she paints with the broadest of strokes. She sets up an idea of opposites, the realism of the Greeks vs. the romanticism of the Romans, and claims, as in "The Echo of Greece", that our culture inherits much more from the Romans, and is, hence, rather romantically inclined, and consequently inclined to that corruption of romanticism, sentimentality. This may be essentially true, but, in the book "The Rise of Athens", there is quoted an ancient Spartan poet who seems to be romanticizing dying for ones country with just the verve that Roman poets seem to have brought to that show more practice. Maybe Hamilton, when she uses Greek, really means "Athenian and similar". show less
A good overview of Roman Culture. I did not think it was quite as astute as her Greek book.
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1932
- Important places
- Rome, Italy; Ancient Rome
- First words
- When the curtain rings up for the stupendous drama which we know as Ancient Rome, it is raised surprisingly on two comic writers.
- Quotations
- Our mechanical and industrial age is the only material achievement that can be compared with Rome's during the two thousand years in between. It is worth our while to perceive that the final reason for Rome's defeat was the f... (show all)ailure of mind and spirit to rise to a new and great opportunity, to meet the challenge of new and great events. Material development outstripped human development; the Dark Ages took possession of Europe, and classical antiquity ended.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Material development outstripped human development; the Dark Ages took possession of Europe, and classical antiquity ended.
Classifications
- Genres
- History, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 937 — History & geography History of ancient world (to ca. 499) Italian Peninsula to 476 and adjacent territories to 476
- LCC
- DG77 .H3 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania City History of Italy Ancient Italy. Rome to 476 Antiquities. Civilization. Culture. Ethnography
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 1,134
- Popularity
- 22,206
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.66)
- Languages
- Dutch, English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 14
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 31