12-13-2012, 06:09 AM
As usual about this time of year, there's a lot in the newspapers about the best publications of the year, so I thought it might be fun to ask a similar question here.
What was your best book of 2012? It doesn't have to be something published this year, just something you read - old or new, fact or fiction.
But it has to be about ancient history (so no 50 Shades of Grey... )
Mine would be David Potter's The Roman Empire at Bay, which I asked about last autumn and finally read this spring. It's a huge and compendious history of the empire between AD 180 and 395 - Potter alternates a narrative account of political and military developments with lengthy excursions into social, religious, philosophical and literary themes. Most of these are fascinating, exceptionally erudite and (most importantly) very readable, and together they build up a detailed composite picture of the empire in transition - highly recommended!
mile:
What was your best book of 2012? It doesn't have to be something published this year, just something you read - old or new, fact or fiction.
But it has to be about ancient history (so no 50 Shades of Grey... )
Mine would be David Potter's The Roman Empire at Bay, which I asked about last autumn and finally read this spring. It's a huge and compendious history of the empire between AD 180 and 395 - Potter alternates a narrative account of political and military developments with lengthy excursions into social, religious, philosophical and literary themes. Most of these are fascinating, exceptionally erudite and (most importantly) very readable, and together they build up a detailed composite picture of the empire in transition - highly recommended!
mile:
Nathan Ross