The Classical Roman Reader: New Encounters With Ancient Rome Reviews

:::.............................. REVIEWS The Classical Roman Reader signals a new era in the study of the literature and thought of ancient Rome. From the Greek and Italian origins of Rome to the decline and fall of the empire, the firsthand accounts-the speeches, histories, plays, philosophies, texts, poetry and more-present ancient Rome in all its glorious variety. Here you'll find everything under the Roman sun, from the epic poetry of Virgil to the broad comedy of Plautus; from the recipes of Apicius to Cato's treatise on farm management. Covering such topics as politics, architecture, cooking, religion, the role of women, science, rhetoric, warfare, and law, among others. The Classical Roman Reader will appeal to general readers wanting a ready reference to major Roman figures and ideas and students looking for the first time at the glory of Roman civilization. by Ron Gottesman, Professor of Humanities, University of Southern California Kenneth J. Atchity's Roman Reader: New Encounters with Ancient Rome is a vast banquet of a book, feast enough to satisfy Sir Epicure Mammon. To read the collection through is to save $100,000: it provides a liberal and liberating education by offering, in the best English translations, the documents that inform and imbue every aspect of present-day civilizations, especially, but not only, Western ones. These documents--linguistic, legal, religious, medical, scientific, literary, military, moral, philosophical, gustatory, to identify a few--help us to understand the thousand year history of ancient Rome and to appreciate the extent to which post-Roman cultures are footnotes to the marvelous millennium we sample in this remarkable illustrated anthology. It is not too much to say that Atchity's erudite and passionate commentaries, glossaries, chronologies, etc. make him Virgil's Virgil. From Dante to Emerson, Freud and Joyce, many travelers have been put under the spell of Roman grandeur. Atchity and his associate editor Rosemary McKenna reveal the undiminished power of Ancient Rome to enchant and instruct. If you have two friends, buy three copies; if you want another friend, buy four.