Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
What books would you like published?
#91
Oops again, I just realised it was not the 'full length book' bit you took exception to, but the notion that Luttwak might be out of date. There's been loads of new evidence since he wrote though hasn't there? And, as I understand it, quite a few specialists in the period (which he was not, I think - he was a security policy advisor or something) have picked holes in his work in articles etc.

kindest regards

Phil
Reply
#92
I think Duncan was kidding Phil. Luttwak's work has caused a great discussion between such notable historians as Benjamin Isaac, Everett Wheeler and others. He's been picked apart, blow up, defended, corrected, lauded and everything in between. Nevertheless, as far as I know, that's only been done in academic publications. The book your proposing definitely sounds interesting to me.
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
Reply
#93
Quote:I think Duncan was kidding.
Just back after our enforced exile, and already I'm creating havoc! :oops:

Yes, I was simply sticking up for Luttwak, one of the revered tomes from my undergraduate days (along with Webster's Roman Army and Frere's Britannia), which (inevitably) begin to look a little threadbare after 25+ years. (And who doesn't?! Smile )
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
Reply
#94
I would like to see abook titled 'The End of Roman Gaul'.
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
Reply
#95
Yes, that would be interesting, perhaps to be followed by similar volumes on other provinces.

Phil
Reply
#96
Quote:I would like to see abook titled 'The End of Roman Gaul'.

What aspects about the end? All of it? That would be a serious academic undertaking, since so much is fragmentary and contained in, for example, hagiographies. I suppose you could use Sidonius Apollinaris as a base and work from there, but still.... The complexities are enormous! Confusedhock:

What dates are you thinking about? And would you include the Visigoths as 'allies' of Rome and therefore an integral part of the story, or see them as a separate entity, so meaning that their realm in the West, once secured, would not be included in the story??

I tell you what - you lot don't ask for much, do you?? :lol: :lol:


______________________________________

Ian (Sonic) Hughes
Ian (Sonic) Hughes
"I have described nothing but what I saw myself, or learned from others" - Thucydides, Peloponnesian War
"I have just jazzed mine up a little" - Spike Milligan, World War II
Reply
#97
Quote:I would like to see abook titled 'The End of Roman Gaul'.
Wightman has a chapter on "The Fifth Century" in her [amazon]Gallia Belgica[/amazon], and Rivet similarly ("The Late Roman Period") in his [amazon]Gallia Narbonensis[/amazon].

(Wonder what happened to the Batsford "Provinces" series.)
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
Reply
#98
I know that many books already touch on the subject, but while we're flooded with 'End of Roman Britain' books, a good one on Roman Gaul is lacking.

I would like:

Period: from 300 to 500 AD
Regio: from the Med to the Rhine, including Belgium, Germany & The Netherlands, in fact the Gallic diocese. One can't separate these from 'Gaul' proper.

Subjects:
- political history, including the ways of transition of power from Romans to Franks, Goths and Burgundians.
- military history, with a good study of how the Roman army transmogrified Big Grin from a Roman army into forces supporting Frankish kings, civitates and Procopius' proud border guards.
- cultural history, how the Gallic citizens came to be satisfied with a new world order dominated by batbarian kings and elites.
- economic history, how the Roman civilization ended in that economic slump where writing, imported pottery, glass and roof tiles vanished.
- religious history, or how pagan Gaul came to be Christian Gaul (or did it?).
- One are that has only seen a scant attention is the integration of Alans & Sarmatians (Kovalevskaja).
- Another are is Brittany.

Of course all of this with a healthy backup study of the primary sources, which are plentiful when you compare Gaul to Britain. :roll:

It's much, I know, and yet it's not.
French authors have of course done all of this, Ian Wood and Bachrach also have done a lot of it when it comes to the early Meroviangian Franks, German authors have done a lot too about (especially) the archaeology of the Rhine area. Drinkwater & Elton edited a great book where much of this was touched upon in a boatload of great (yet short) articles. Vallet & Kazanski did a similar thing for the military studies. I miss a good integrated study in the tradition of the 'End of Roman Britain' books.

Spain would be a good second, indeed.
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
Reply
#99
I would love to see a book on fortifications, with pictues, diagrams, details of construction, the strategic location of each, etc etc. from camp to fortresses, and detailing the evolution of each location from sstart to destruction..... if that makes any sense.....
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
Reply
Duncan wrote:

Quote:(Wonder what happened to the Batsford "Provinces" series.)

Yes, I started collecting those. They promised books on Roman Turkey and Africa but after the obligatory book on Roman Britain the series sort of fizzled out!
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.

"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.

"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
Reply
How far back were they published? Batsford was, or became, part of the Chrysalis group which had lots of problems. They are now an imprint of Anova which emerged from Chrysalis through some kind of management buy out thing. This makes them part of the same stable as Brassey's and Conway (beloved of all naval enthusiasts). The commissioning editor for these last two happens to be a friend of mine, so I'll ask him what the prospects of the series ever being revived are, but I'm not sure anything new has been published under the Batsford imprint for a good while now.

Phil
Reply
Quote:Drinkwater & Elton edited a great book where much of this was touched upon in a boatload of great (yet short) articles.
J. Drinkwater and H. Elton (eds), [amazon]Fifth Century Gaul: a crisis of identity?[/amazon] (CUP: Cambridge, 1992).

Some excellent stuff in there. And it was recently reprinted in paperback, too.

Table of contents can be accessed here.

[size=75:37pm7lud]P.S. Does anyone know why the Library of Congress link (above) isn't working? (It worked fine at first, but now it just gives a time-out error.) Anyway, once you get to the LofC web site, you can easily search their Catalog for the contents of all sorts of volumes. Brilliant![/size]
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
Reply
Phil wrote:
Quote:How far back were they published?

'Exploring the Roman World' series

Roman Italy. T. Potter. (1987)
Roman Spain. S.Keay. (1988)
Roman Gaul & Germany. A.King. (1990)
Roman Britain T. Potter & C. Johns. (1992)

Proposed but to my knowledge never published

Roman Turkey. H & C. Williams.
Roman North Africa. R. Wilson.

Sorry Phil. I think this is a completely different series to what Duncan mentioned. These books were published by British Museum Publications although the Roman Britain volume was published by Guild Publishing. Still I would like to see something along the lines of the last two books as well as something on Israel, Syria and Jordan.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.

"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.

"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
Reply
Hi Graham,

have you tried this on Roman Syria and the Near East?


http://www.amazon.com/Roman-Syria-Near- ... 0892367156

I've probably cut and pasted this link wrong, but it should take you to

Roman Syria and the Near East by Kevin Butcher. Haven't seen it in the flesh myself, but sounds interesting.

Phil
Reply
Quote:I think this is a completely different series to what Duncan mentioned.
The "Provinces of the Roman Empire" series were:
  • S.S. Frere, Britannia (Routledge 1967; 1978; 1987)
    J.J. Wilkes, Dalmatia (Routledge 1969)
    A. Mócsy, Pannonia & Upper Moesia (Routledge 1974)
    G. Alföldy, Noricum (Routledge 1974)
    G.W. Bowersock, Roman Arabia (Harvard 1983)
    E.M. Wightman, Gallia Belgica (Batsford 1985)
    A.L.F. Rivet, Gallia Narbonensis (Batsford 1988)
Round about 1990, Batsford announced forthcoming volumes on Tripolitania (to be written by David Mattingly), Judaea-Palaestina (to be written by Mordechai Gichon), and Egypt (Dominic Rathbone).

The first of these seems to have appeared as:
D. Mattingly, Tripolitania (Ann Arbor, 1994)
[size=75:hft0lb0i](I've never seen this book :oops: )[/size]

And the others presumably morphed into:
M. Sartre, The Middle East under Rome (Harvard, 2004), and
R.S. Bagnall & D. W. Rathbone, Egypt: From Alexander to the Copts (London, 2004)
[size=75:hft0lb0i](Again, I've never seen these.)[/size]

So, I guess I've answered my own question! Big Grin
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
Reply


Forum Jump: