The deadline is looming for Mommsen and I have 300 pages left. I feel like I'm in school again, reading as fast as I can and kind of dreading opening the book.
His writing is engaging for a history text. I love his little asides about who he thinks is right or wrong, and the personal additions about the characters that are written as if they are his old friends. But MAN I can't tell a Lucianus Lacullus from a Marius Lucretanus (and I'm making those up because I can't remember actual names) for the life of me! Who are these people and where do they come from?!
My only hope for this text is that I can get some solid glimpse of Roman life and the way the world has been shaped by it. And that I can finish it in time for our discussion - which is kind of like climbing Everest.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Progress
I like to think that we, as a people, have made progress in the last two thousand years; that we're more diplomatic and less violent.
After reading more about Rome though I wonder if that's true. Maybe we don't put heads on spikes and drag dead bodies through the street but have we really made any progress? Lately I've been thinking that our progress has been all in weapons design. We don't have to physically fight, we just shoot 'em, or bomb 'em, or torpedo 'em out of the water. It's no less damaging to those involved and far more damaging to the earth.
Will we always fight? Have there ever been peaceful human beings on earth?
After reading more about Rome though I wonder if that's true. Maybe we don't put heads on spikes and drag dead bodies through the street but have we really made any progress? Lately I've been thinking that our progress has been all in weapons design. We don't have to physically fight, we just shoot 'em, or bomb 'em, or torpedo 'em out of the water. It's no less damaging to those involved and far more damaging to the earth.
Will we always fight? Have there ever been peaceful human beings on earth?
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Blood and Guts
As I read farther into The History of Rome I'm amazed at the violence that existed in the Roman world. I wonder at how they could have sustained the wars and given rise to the culture that exists today when they regularly massacred so many people.
It's a different world than one I'm familiar with a world in which the decapitated bodies of statesmen are dragged through the streets while their heads hang in the forum. Can you imagine what would go through our minds if senators were being murdered and literally hung up to dry inside our halls of government? Horrible. And this is the foundation of our culture. Hmm...
I also wonder how they fed all of these soldiers and politicians and who was doing all of the work? I'm assuming it's the women and the slaves doing all of the actual labor to ensure survival, but Mommsens says nothing about that. He also mentions nothing about the daily life of your average Roman (or Latin, or Italian, etc.) just blood and guts.
Maybe it will get more sedate as I read farther, but somehow I doubt it. It will soon be March fifteenth, the Ides of March, and that makes me think of the bloody death of Ceasar. I haven't gotten anywhere near that in the book but I know it's coming and that makes me think that things don't cool off for the Romans.
It's a different world than one I'm familiar with a world in which the decapitated bodies of statesmen are dragged through the streets while their heads hang in the forum. Can you imagine what would go through our minds if senators were being murdered and literally hung up to dry inside our halls of government? Horrible. And this is the foundation of our culture. Hmm...
I also wonder how they fed all of these soldiers and politicians and who was doing all of the work? I'm assuming it's the women and the slaves doing all of the actual labor to ensure survival, but Mommsens says nothing about that. He also mentions nothing about the daily life of your average Roman (or Latin, or Italian, etc.) just blood and guts.
Maybe it will get more sedate as I read farther, but somehow I doubt it. It will soon be March fifteenth, the Ides of March, and that makes me think of the bloody death of Ceasar. I haven't gotten anywhere near that in the book but I know it's coming and that makes me think that things don't cool off for the Romans.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Mommsen is Hard
Mommsen is proving to be more difficult to get through than I anticipated. I'm finding that I'm slow to make progress and staying motivated to read it is a challenge.
The problem is context. I don't understand any of the geographic places or the different populations he's talking about. There are the Romans, The Latins, and the Italians...Aren't they all the same? Guess not. Then there's Numidia and Numantia, are they the same? Is one a city and the other a country? I recognize Libya and there was one reference to Tunisia. These only sort of help, at least I can locate the general vicinity but otherwise it's the Jabberwocky of geography.
The problem is context. I don't understand any of the geographic places or the different populations he's talking about. There are the Romans, The Latins, and the Italians...Aren't they all the same? Guess not. Then there's Numidia and Numantia, are they the same? Is one a city and the other a country? I recognize Libya and there was one reference to Tunisia. These only sort of help, at least I can locate the general vicinity but otherwise it's the Jabberwocky of geography.
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