The Portable Roman Reader
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Book Overview
The Romans conquered most of the known world and detailed their conquests in calm, unapologetic histories. They were a supremely urbane people who longed poetically for the farming life. Valuing toughness and practicality in all things, they turned the love poem into a cynical rebuke and wrote tragedies in which the unfathomable actions of gods gave way to the staggering cruelties of man. As the empire slid into decay, Tacitus pulled back the curtain on the perverse intrigues of the emperors, and a Roman-educated Christian named Augustine recounted his spiritual awakening in what may be the world's first psychological novel. This collection presents the essential writings of the Romans in their finest English translations- the comedies of Terence and Plautus; the histories of Julius Caesar, Livy and Tacitus; the oratory of Cicero; poems by Catullus, Virgil, Horace, and Martial; the philosophy of Lucretius and Boethius, along with the stylishly narrated and often ribald myths of Ovid and Apuleius.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0140150560
ISBN13:9780140150568
Release Date:January 1977
Publisher:Penguin Publishing Group
Length:672 Pages
Weight:1.01 lbs.
Dimensions:1.2" x 5.1" x 7.9"
Age Range:18 years and up
Grade Range:Postsecondary and higher
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Wonderful for a student
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
I'm a freshman in high-school and am very interested in Classical literature and history. This book is wonderful. It gives you a flavor for some of the greatest Roman authors, and also gives you a feel for the time they were written. The introduction is wonderfully written, and his insight on the Roman culture is really quite interesting. I wish Davenport had done more books, one on Greek literature would have been spectacular, but to my knowladge there are no more. :( I highly recomend this book for a young person interested in Roman authors. He'll take you from early Roman comedy through the Republic, the Golden and Silver Ages, to the bitter end of the Empire.
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