An entertaining whistlestop tour of a few hundred years of Roman history.
As a coda to the destruction of Macedon, a Roman embassy was sent to Alexandria where the new Seleucid king, Antiochus IV, was taking advantage of the political chaos that had enveloped the kingdom, in order to try to conquer Egypt. They met at Eleusis, not far from Alexandria. As Antiochus approached, the chief Roman ambassador, Gaius Popillius Laenas (himself a former consul and brother of the man who had been so abominable to the Ligurians), is said to have drawn a circle around him with his cane, telling Antiochus that before he stepped out of it he would have to decide whether or not to leave Egypt and accept peace with Rome.
This is the same Eleusis that was home to the Eleusinian Mysteries, which have long fascinated me.
Cassius’ early history include the view that Faunus – often considered a native Italian divinity with prophetic powers – was actually a man whom Evander, the oldest Greek settler in Latium, had met when he arrived there and called a god. Similarly, Hercules was really a robust farmer of Greek extraction, who had likewise lived in Latium but before the arrival of Evander; while the Greeks who allowed Aeneas to pass freely through their ranks because they so respected him created the concept of sacrosanctity – the inviolability of a person.
There’s probably a story there. Sacrosanctity was extended from there to Roman tribunes, the administrators elected by the people for the people.
Rome’s last king, Tarquinius Superbus, invent(ed) crucifixion.
I’ve got a hundred Kindle notes from this book. The benefit of the whistlestop tour is that Potter can strew the book with many many wonderful little facts.
Vespasian arrived in Rome in the autumn of AD 70 and would not leave Italy again. Concentrating his energies on restoring the state finances, ruined by Nero and the subsequent wars, he would also oversee some massive construction projects in Rome and the restructuring of the imperial defences. He would be long remembered for his creative approach to revenue enhancement (including a urinal tax),
The drawback is that very few people are around for more than a couple of pages, and in some sections it becomes a welter of Roman names that appear once or twice and are never seen again, so it can be difficult to keep things straight. That said, it’s a lovely primer for this crucial period, a period I’d largely forgotten about in the decades since I last read Roman history seriously, and I’m definitely better set to finally attack Tom Holland’s RUBICON.
THE ORIGIN OF EMPIRE, David Potter (UK) (US+)
Discover more from WARREN ELLIS LTD
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.