Rome: A Living Portrait of an Ancient City (Ancient Society and History) - Hardcover

Dyson, Stephen L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801892538 ISBN 13: 9780801892530

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Stephen L. Dyson has spent a lifetime studying and teaching the history of ancient Rome. That unparalleled knowledge is reflected in his magisterial overview of the Eternal City.

Rather than look only at the physical development of the city―its buildings, monuments, and urban spaces―Dyson also explores its social, economic, and cultural histories. This unique approach situates Rome against a background of comparative urban history and theory, allowing Dyson to examine the dynamic society that once thrived there. In his personal effort to reconstruct the city, Dyson populates its streets with the hurried politicians, hawking vendors, and animated students that once lived, worked, and studied there, bringing the ancient city to life for a new generation of students and tourists.

Dyson follows Rome as it developed between the third century BC and the fourth century AD, dividing the great megalopolis into distinct neighborhoods and locales. He shows how these communities, each with its own unique customs and colorful inhabitants, eventually grew into the great imperial capital of the Italian Empire.

Dyson integrates the full range of sources available―literary, artistic, epigraphic, and archaeological―to create a comprehensive history of the monumental city. In doing so, he offers a dramatic picture of a complex and changing urban center that, despite its flaws, flourished for centuries.

About this title

About the Author:

Stephen L. Dyson is a professor of classics at the University at Buffalo and has spent his career writing about archaeology and Roman history. His numerous books include In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts: A History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, The Roman Countryside, and Community and Society in Roman Italy, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Review:

"A well-written account notable for its attention to the human side of Imperial Rome and the livelihoods of its inhabitants as well as to the personalities of its leaders and the lavish history of the creation of their monumental capital."

(R. Ross Holloway, Brown University)

"An important addition to the literature on classical Rome... Highly recommended."

(Choice)

"This exploration of Rome and what happened there seeks not only to examine the physical and structural evolution of the city from earliest times until the early Christian era, but also to explore its social and cultural history."

(Oxbow Book News)

"This book successfully manages to link the tangible remains to the wider themes of Roman history."

(Jerry Toner Journal of Roman Studies)

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0801892538
• ISBN 13: 9780801892530
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 488