by Anthony Everitt. This account of the Roman Empire at its height completes Everitt's trilogy of Roman biographies, which began with Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician (about the fall of the Roman Republic) and continued with Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor (about the establishment of Roman rule by one man). Here, Everitt composes a skillfully analyzed and well-researched narrative of the life of an emperor who excelled as both a soldier and an administrator. Despite his inability to win over the Roman Senate, his self-congratulatory personality, and his habit of discarding friends on a whim, Hadrian was a poet and painter who Hellenized the Roman Empire and halted the wars of conquest that expanded the empire, preferring to manage the territory already conquered. Hadrian was, in Everitt's words, "a good Nero." VERDICT This excellent, readable biography is highly recommended to both lay readers and scholars interested in ancient, Western, and Roman history.—Library Journal (Check Catalog)
Monday, September 28, 2009
Hadrian and the triumph of Rome
by Anthony Everitt. This account of the Roman Empire at its height completes Everitt's trilogy of Roman biographies, which began with Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician (about the fall of the Roman Republic) and continued with Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor (about the establishment of Roman rule by one man). Here, Everitt composes a skillfully analyzed and well-researched narrative of the life of an emperor who excelled as both a soldier and an administrator. Despite his inability to win over the Roman Senate, his self-congratulatory personality, and his habit of discarding friends on a whim, Hadrian was a poet and painter who Hellenized the Roman Empire and halted the wars of conquest that expanded the empire, preferring to manage the territory already conquered. Hadrian was, in Everitt's words, "a good Nero." VERDICT This excellent, readable biography is highly recommended to both lay readers and scholars interested in ancient, Western, and Roman history.—Library Journal (Check Catalog)
