Yesssss. And this is why I want to take a proper class on Roman history! (I am tempted to audit one next semester, but that would put me at two language classes plus two audited classes, and I suspect that's a bad balance.) Because all I have to go on is what my professors talked about in class, which was often interesting, but biased in its own way. Plus reading a bunch of translated Roman historians, because they're fun.
...actually, if you have any good books to recommend on Roman history--ones that do in-depth discussion of one smaller period or aspect would be more interesting than ones doing a lot of dry overview, so long as they're not too Pop Culture Luridness--I'd really appreciate that. I flail a bit when trying to grapple with the history section in the library, and I've given up on trying to find good written-for-the-casual-reader books on Roman history since that horrible incident with the Catullus biography.
It's sort of entertaining to me, in a sad way, that I've had someone reading my fiction discuss how my protagonists are clearly living in an Evil Empire. Because I basically took the Roman empire, filed some serial numbers off, and then went through a multi-century period of progress that made it a lot less oppressive than the actual Roman Republic. Which still gets held up as a shining example of Moral Virtue In Dark Times by some historians. (I mean, it clearly had a lot of benefits, but...nuance, people! Nuance and complexity and context!)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-11-09 04:46 pm (UTC)...actually, if you have any good books to recommend on Roman history--ones that do in-depth discussion of one smaller period or aspect would be more interesting than ones doing a lot of dry overview, so long as they're not too Pop Culture Luridness--I'd really appreciate that. I flail a bit when trying to grapple with the history section in the library, and I've given up on trying to find good written-for-the-casual-reader books on Roman history since that horrible incident with the Catullus biography.
It's sort of entertaining to me, in a sad way, that I've had someone reading my fiction discuss how my protagonists are clearly living in an Evil Empire. Because I basically took the Roman empire, filed some serial numbers off, and then went through a multi-century period of progress that made it a lot less oppressive than the actual Roman Republic. Which still gets held up as a shining example of Moral Virtue In Dark Times by some historians. (I mean, it clearly had a lot of benefits, but...nuance, people! Nuance and complexity and context!)