The Aeneid - Virgil

The Aeneid
Virgil
Trans. Robert Fitzgerald
Vintage
Copyright: 1990
978-0679729525

The amazon.com product description:

Virgil's great epic transforms the Homeric tradition into a triumphal statement of the Roman civilizing mission. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald.

Okay, I've seen some non-descriptive descriptions before, but this one's pretty near the top. Still, I guess it does sum things up fairly neatly.

Although The Aeneid is written in the Homeric style, it dates from much later - the time of Augustus. The poem is also unfinished, or so the postscript says, because Virgil died. This is one of the most famous of the Roman poems too.

The Aeneid deals with the story of Aeneas' travels from the conquered city of Troy after the Trojan War as told in The Illiad and The Odessey, when he journeyed to Italy to found a new city on the commands of Venus. As to this particular translation? I can't say anything about the translation from my own experience, not having enough latin to even attempt the original. But, the Fitzgerald translation was the one we had in class at college. Also, there's a review from Bernard Knox on the back cover, who's written the introduction to the Fagles translation of The Aeneid IIRC. I can definitely say that this is a very readable book.

On the other hand, I felt like I needed a detailed map of the Mediterranean with all the old names in order to follow the route that Aeneas takes. That's one thing that this book lacks: a good map. I would have said also that I needed a glossary to the names, but I discovered that hiding at the very end of the book after I finished the read last night. Otherwise, I'd likely have found myself resorting to hoping the Oxford Classical Dictionary had them. I'm still thinking of doing that anyway.

Reading this with my notes (such as they were) from class was definitely interesting. They reminded me of the use of simile and elaborate naming conventions which are rife throughout the poem. There's also the traditional invocation of the Muses, both at the beginning of The Aeneid and then again several times throughout.

This poem drops names left, right and center. Especially during the battle scenes of the final two or three books. I kept going "who's that?" and "which side is he on again?". Because of that, I felt that they went on too long and I found myself skimming. Admittedly, that's because I was completely lost.

There are also quite a few references to events that happened after the time of Aeneas but up to the time of Augustus. The scene in the underworld and also the scenes depicted on Aeneas' shield were two of the best examples of those, and that's why I'm thinking of resorting to the Oxford Classical Dictionary. I shouldn't admit this, given that I went to University for Classical Studies, but I missed a lot of those references.

Overall though, I quite liked the read. I read The Aeneid for the Pre-Printing Press Challenge, and also because I was inspired by my read of Jo Graham's novel based on the poem: Black Ships.

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows And Scorpion Bombs - Adrienne Mayor

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows And Scorpion Bombs
Adrienne Mayor
Overlook Press
Copyright Date: 2009
9781590201770

According to the cover of Greek Fire, Poison Arrows And Scorpion Bombs:

Flamethrowers, poison gases, incendiary bombs, the large-scale spreading of disease... are these terrifying agents and implements of warfare modern inventions? Not by a long shot. Weapons of biological and chemical warfare have been in use for thousands of years, and "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs," Adrienne Mayor''s fascinating exploration of the origins of biological and unethical warfare draws extraordinary connections between the mythical worlds of Hercules and the Trojan War, the accounts of Herodotus and Thucydides, and modern methods of war and terrorism.
"Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs" will catapult readers into the dark and fascinating realm of ancient war and mythic treachery-and their devastating consequences.

You don't have to be an expert in classical and early medieval history to enjoy this book. Adrienne Mayor has written a book that anyone who likes history can enjoy reading and learning from.

Although the main thrust of the book is centered on the Classical era and the world of the Greeks and the Romans, there are also incidents from Chinese, Indian and Middle-Eastern sources discussed as well. In terms of time frames, the incidents go all the way up to the early to mid fourteenth century, alhtough most of them, as I already said, come from Greek and Roman sources.

For each of the incidents described, whether it be from Thucydides, Dio Cassius etc. or legends and myths, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs describes the incident, then gives archaeological evidence backing up the author's conclusions along with any modern experiments proving or disproving her opinion. At the same time, she goes into detail about the mindset of the time towards these weapons of mass destruction, their problems for either side and also looks at similar modern issues, especially in the U.S.A.

We think of weapons of mass destruction, be they chemical or biological as being relatively new things in the scope of history. However, as proved by Adrienne Mayor, clearly they were not. Poisons, fires and disease have been around for thousands of years. Of course people were going to figure out ways to use them for their own purposes.

Some of the examples, though clearly 'low tech' were still extremely ingenious, and I'd bet, if used today, would still cause problems and distractions, such as the scorpion and snake bombs. Other ideas though, are just strange to the modern mind set, such as some of the recorded recipes for poison. Still, when broken down the way they are in this book, they make a sort of sense.

There are times though, when I wish the author had gone into more detail, such as the section on Hannibal using vinegar to crack rocks, along with the other uses mentioned. I wouldn't mind knowing why it worked.

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs is an interesting book on history, and one, frankly, that I wish I'd had while classes were still in session. If only because of the above mentioned incident with the vinegar on heated rock. The books I was using for a term paper disregarded the whole thing, and here's one saying that the ancient authors were right. Would have been helpful for said term paper.

One thing's for sure. This book is going to make me think a bit differently about the ancient world and their attitudes towards warfare. I'd gotten the traditional background in my classes on ancient heroism and beliefs, and here's a completely different perspective.

The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction - Christopher Kelly

The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction
Christopher Kelly
Oxford University Press
Copyright: 2006
9780192803917

While the book The Roman Empire A Very Short Introduction by Christopher Kelly was an interesting read, there were some aspects I found to be less than satisfactory. The biggest issue was the book is so short and there is so much to Roman history. It simply doesn't have the space to go into whys and after effects of events. For example, the battles given seem to be more of a list of dates, locations and commanders. The book skims the surface of the Roman Empire, dipping further in here and there, with 'there' usually not being what I'd like to know: daily life for the ordinary person. Additionally, there is no bibliography or 'Further Reading' section included, which would be useful for someone choosing this as a starting point to find out about the Roman era of history. Usually an introductory text will give some hints as to where to find out more on the subject in question. It would have been nice as well to know which translation(s) the author was using for quotes, as well as to know where in any particular work the quote came from.

On the other hand, this little book did include something I don't remember seeing in any of my textbooks from history classes before: an explanation of how life-spans and the proportions of a population at any given age is determined. If that is the typical method, it is something especially interesting to know, as I'd figured that the numbers were more gained from archaeology. Apparently not. Also, there are some interesting comparisons to modern day given, such as on page 10, which really brings home the scale of the Roman Empire more than simple numbers do. Another nice point was the last chapter, which looks at modern uses of Roman history and propaganda based on that history. The author also makes some interesting points about the layout of Plutarch's Lives, which is especially interesting as today, rather than being arranged as they were in ancient times; paired with one Greek and one Roman, for the most part the Lives are generally sold in two volumes with one being exclusively the Roman Lives and one the Greek. Therefore any implications and inferences Plutarch intended to come from reading them in parallel the way the original readers did is something that are not as easily picked up on.

Overall, this book has its good points and it's not so good ones, and between them the two more or less cancel each other out.