Ancient Rome: Social and Historical Documents from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus (Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World)

Description

Ancient Rome: Social and Historical Documents from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus (Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World) - Kindle edition by Dillon, Matthew, Garland, Lynda. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Ancient Rome: Social and Historical Documents from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus (Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World). Review: A decent sourcebook; but dangerous without context - Target Audience - intermediary; targeted to students of Roman history requiring source documents Prerequisites - either an understanding of the importance and context of presented materials; or guidance on which to reference by someone educated in the understanding of importance and context. Clarity of writing - murky; the source quotes often feature paragraphs of exposition to help guide understanding. However, said writing is in similar print to the quote and confusion on which is presented is common. Difficulty of writing - college student; while articles are translated from Greek they often lack the situational nuance. Source text includes several prominent authors and government documents from the relevant time periods. --- Summary: Ancient Rome: Social and Historical Documents is a fantastic collection of various writings on several topics and periods throughout the Roman Republic. Several snippets are not commonly found in online repositories or may be difficult to source. Weaknesses: The selections often lead to questions on why they were chosen, such as when two paragraphs of exposition accompany a single sentence from a document that fails to convey the exposition. Additionally, references in documents may lead to confusion of intent, such as when the official ruling prohibits carts before a certain time is measured differently than how time is currently measured (what time of day is the 10th hour?). Such material is meant to serve as a repository for teachers to select and guide students in their study of Roman history; not for the general public to gain an understanding of Roman History through the reading of various articles. Finally, the similarity in font between the exposition and the quote create confusion on whether one is reading one or the other. Recommendation: If you are a teacher looking for sources, or a historian with a thorough understanding of the Roman Republic and are looking for sources that you can appropriately understand, then this book may be for you. Or, you may want to stick to online collections of "Parallel Lives" and other similar works.