pickA fairly good short primer to the Wall, its purpose, the sequence of use there, etc. Tries to contextualise it in terms of what's going on in the empire at each stage, though that's quite complex and this is a short book. Some interesting images, but hard to make out properly due to being printed in black and white.
Overall, not bad, I enjoyed it well enough.
From the introduction: ...“today's fashionable hostility to empires“...
Sir, what? Am I about to read a book lauding everything the Roman Empire ever did...?
so-soThe Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome, by Guy de la Bedoyere (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: A history of the Ptolomaic Empire, from its beginnings in the aftermath of Alexander the Great‘s death to its end under the famed queen Cleopatra
Review: There‘s a lot of excellent content here and I was excited for a volume focusing on one of the great Hellenistic kingdoms. ⬇️
pickThis is just the 1st of 8 volumes. I went in expecting to learn a lot (and I did) but not expecting the humor and the quality of the prose. I‘m not jumping right in to volume 2, but I do hope to finish the whole thing by the end of 2026. Pic is the map on the endpapers of my edition.
And the relevance to our current situation keeps coming. Sigh.
Let‘s hope it‘s not irrevocable. And this was written in 1776. Do we never learn?
I always thought of this as something I “should” read, but didn‘t look forward to it (so it languished on my shelves for decades) but he‘s actually amusing. Just barely into Chapter 2 and I‘ve read at least four quotes out to my ever-suffering husband.
pickAfter 1177 BC, by Eric Cline (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: An exploration of the latest evidence on the recovery of the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean, and Mespotamian worlds in the aftermath of the Late Bronze Age Collapse.
Review: I am a big fan of Cline‘s book 1177 BC, which documented the disappearance within a single generation of a centuries-old network of civilizations. ⬇️
