Tag / Rome

by amandastiver

Walking Hadrian’s Wall at Home – Why?

As the winter months in South Dakota drew near (and they are long), I realized that I needed an exercise plan. I’m an historian by education and inclination, so what better way to keep up with a fitness routine than by setting a suitable historic goal? A vicarious hike along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England perfectly fitted the bill.

Starting with a few YouTube videos produced by those who have actually walked the wall in real life, I acquired a pedometer and set a goal to cover the same mile length as the Wall, but on my treadmill over the course of the winter months. (As an update, I’m about halfway through.)

I quickly realized that to really get a kick out of the project, I would need a basic knowledge of Hadrian’s Wall and its role in Roman Britain. And for that I needed a look into Rome’s role in Britain, and, finally, a better understanding of the Roman Empire, its history and its overwhelming impact on our world, even after the fall of Rome, and through the Byzantine Empire, the Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire, the Early Modern era, the Enlightenment, and all the way up into our modern world, which is to say, all the way from approximately 500 BC to the present day. Our world is tremendously impacted by the Roman Republic, as well as the Roman Empire. We simply cannot avoid it, more on that in a later post.

My first book of “research” material was the Rosemary Sutcliff Eagle of the Ninth trilogy. The three volumes, The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, and The Lantern Bearers, take the reader from the first century of Roman occupation in Britain all the way to the last days of Roman rule, and beyond. While these stories have their historical flaws, since archeological discoveries of the late 20th century corrected some of the conclusions the author makes, they are still a very imaginative and descriptive introduction to the world of Roman Britain, and they are great stories!

After reading those three books, I moved on to a solid history of Roman Britain. Roman Britain: A New History 55 BC-AD 450 by Patricia Southern came to me via Amazon as an ex-library book from Wales, I thought this was a very nice bit of historic connectivity. I will warn you, if you want to retrace my steps historically, histories written by British authors are very meaty with detail, but if you aren’t used to that depth and methodical chronological progression you might find them a bit, well…heavy going. I don’t, but I’m a full-blown history nerd.

And now I’ve moved on to a survey of Roman history extracted from “The Great Courses” History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective taught by Professor Gregory S. Aldrete. Supplemented by the Hillsdale College free online course The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic.

Though my college history and art history degrees took me to many fascinating places (China, Scythia, Latin America, et al), historically, I didn’t spend much time in ancient Rome or Classical history in general, so what started as a fun fitness project to keep me focused has turned into a degree adjunct.

I’ve posted a lot in the past, during the early years of my blog, about gateways to history. There are many small discoveries or curiosities that pique our interest and gradually pull us into more detailed research of any given historical event, personage, or era. Sometimes it’s an epic movie, other times a documentary, sometimes a map, travel, or even an object. So, I’ll add to that list a vicarious fitness project, which swathed in a history topic, can pull you toward a better understanding of past events and people.

Keep thinking history!

by amandastiver

Roamin’ with the Romans

I recently acquired a thin volume called The Romans and their Empire, book two of the “Cambridge Introduction to the History of Mankind” edited by Trevor Cairns.

I have lamented my lack of detailed knowledge of the Classical world and I started to remedy that by reading a volume on the Athenian Navy. Rome was also in my sights, not unlike the Visigoths of old, and now, thanks to this little jewel of a book, I’ve begun to put Roman history in its place.

Little book, big info

What I like about this volume is its short length and the breezy way history is presented. I’m guessing the target audience is a 13-15 year old or an adult history novice. It doesn’t mire itself in boring analysis, but it does demand at least a working knowledge of past events. Expectation is a good thing, it makes us strive to achieve more, in this case filling our minds with the outline of human history.

The book is illustrated with photographs of ruins, reconstructed models of Roman life, maps, and some great little cartoonish illustrations of various events in Rome’s history. It goes by quickly, but is a rather nice outline of the Roman past from Republic to Dictators.

Wherever you Rome…

What I’ve learned so far is that Rome was founded back in the 700’s B.C. and developed its form of representative government around 510 B.C. Gradually it conquered and collected the various tribes around the Italian peninsula into a relatively cohesive smallish empire.

Apparently the Romans treated their subjugated peoples better than the Greeks had done. If you lost to Greece they could, on a bad day, kill your entire population, or maybe just the adult males, and on a good day simply sell you into slavery. The Romans were nicer, they didn’t kill you as they knew the value of positive relations and the wealth that functioning subjugated peoples could bring them.

The Romans even tolerated a certain amount of religious freedom, as long as you weren’t a troublesome Christian, Jew or a Celtic Druid. But alas, their republic couldn’t last forever, as it seems, can any modern republic of which we see evidence each day in the United States. As the empire expanded the power of the people shrank.

Et tu Rome?

In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar became Emperor of Rome, principal citizen, and dictator. The republic survived in form if not in deed. The senate could not thwart the will of the Emperor (more pity that) and for a while the arrangement worked as long as there was a series of good Emperors, but then they wound up with a whole slew of rotters and things got bad.

That’s the jist of the story. Good book, good resource, unfortunately out of print, but Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com or other booksellers probably have a used copy or two. If you want to develop a working outline of ancient Roman history without bogging down in excess information, this is your gateway. You can add the details later!

– Amanda Stiver