As Damion Hunter, I have written six novels set in the first and second centuries of the Roman Empire, for which I have done extensive research. My picks are all books that I have found most useful and accessible for the writer who wants to ground her fiction in accurate detail and for the reader who just wants to know the little stuff, which is always more interesting than the big stuff.
Did you know the ancient Romans had a thriving tourist industry? They did. They made world tours, bought souvenirs and dubious relics (cyclops skulls) and appropriated other cultures’ antiques and took them home to Rome. Full of fascinating information, and funny to boot.
The ancient Romans were responsible for many remarkable achievements—Roman numerals, straight roads—but one of their lesser-known contributions was the creation of the tourist industry. The first people in history to enjoy safe and easy travel, Romans embarked on the original Grand Tour, journeying from the lost city of Troy to the Acropolis, from the Colossus at Rhodes to Egypt, for the obligatory Nile cruise to the very edge of the empire. And, as Tony Perrottet discovers, the popularity of this route has only increased with time.
Intrigued by the possibility of re-creating the tour, Perrottet, accompanied by his pregnant girlfriend,…
The author is a scholar, a professor of Classics, so he knows his stuff. He is also a wonderful writer. This is a collection of small and fascinating facts about Rome and the ancient world. A sampling of entries includes notes on Hannibal’s reputed use of jars of poisonous snakes as catapult ammunition, Roman fly fishing, window glass, and the mechanics of Nero’s revolving dining room.
The ancient Romans have left us far more information about themselves than has any other Western society until much more recent times. But what we know about them is sometimes bizarre, and hardly fits the conventional view of the Romans as a pragmatic people with a ruthlessly efficient army and a very logical and well ordered language.
A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities is a serendipitous collection of odd facts and opinions, carefully gleaned from the wide body of evidence left to us by the Romans themselves. Each highlights a unique and curious feature of life in ancient Rome. Readers will…
This book has all the details of how to keep a Roman household going, from buying and cooking dinner to making lye for laundry to throwing out the trash. It describes in wonderful detail exactly how and with what they did it, including heating, lighting, bathing, and a fascinating section on the unlovely yet vital subject of sewage.
Running of the Roman Home explores the real 'every-day' life of the Romans and the effort required to run a Roman household. It considers the three elements of housework - supply, maintenance and disposal.
It is divided into sections on how the Romans collected water and fuel, milled flour and produced thread; how they cleaned the house, illuminated it, did the washing up, cleaned their clothes, got rid of waste water and sewage, and threw out their rubbish.
The evidence is taken from literary, archaeological and artistic sources, and often compared to historical or modern parallels from communities using the…
A wonderful account of the sometimes counterintuitive world of Roman medicine. They could treat cataracts, for instance, but couldn’t recognize appendicitis because they weren’t allowed to conduct autopsies. The chapters on Roman army medicine are excellent. There is also an excellent chapter on women’s diseases, birth and contraception.
Topics include the effects of disease and medicine on people at different levels of Roman society, the role of the physician in the Roman army, contraception, drugs, surgery, and magic. Jackson (curator, Department of Pre-historic and Romano-British antiquities, British Museum) adds evidence from excavations, sculptures, reliefs, vases, and wall-paintings to the testimony of ancient medical authors. Fascinating and chilling. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
This follows a British woman who has married a Roman army veteran through a year in Britain during the reign of Hadrian. It is filled with tons of accurate detail about every aspect of daily life. It is written as a novel but because the author is a scholar of Roman British history and archaeology, you can count on her accuracy in a way that I ordinarily don’t rely on with novels.
Roman Britain is vividly portrayed in this fascinating and authentically detailed story about a year in the life of an ordinary woman and her family.
The year is AD 133. Hadrian is Emperor of Rome and all its vast empire, including Britannia. The greater part of that island has long been under imperial rule and the Roman legions control most of the land, quelling uprisings and building new forts and towns. Around the fortress of Eboracum (now known as York), a bustling garrison settlement is developing, while along the north-west frontier of Hadrian's empire, the legions are completing the construction…
I've been passionate about music for almost my entire life. Jazz music in particular speaks to me but not just jazz. I love music, full stop. I really discovered jazz when I attended a jazz club workshop in London and there, I had to join in or leave. I chose to join in and since then I have never looked back. I was introduced to more jazz musicians and now write about music for three major columns as well as Readers’ Digest. My Women In Jazz book won several awards. I have been International Editor for the Jazz Journalist Association and had my work commissioned by the Library of Congress.
With input from over 100 musicians, the book discusses what exactly jazz is, and how you know you are listening to it. Do we truly know when and how jazz first originated? Who was the first jazz musician? How does jazz link to other genres? What about women in jazz? And writers and journalists? Do reviews make any difference?
This book is a deep dive into jazz's history, impact, and future. It discusses jazz's social, cultural, and political influence and reveals areas where jazz has had an impact we may not even realize.Its influences on hip hop, the connection to…
This book is very different from other, more general jazz books. It is packed with information, advice, well researched and includes experiences from jazz musicians who gleefully add their rich voices to Sammy's in-depth research. All genres, from hard bop to be-bop, vocal jazz, must instrumental, free jazz, and everything between is covered in one way or another and given Sammy's forensic eye. There is social commentary and discussions of careers in jazz music. The musical background of those in the book is rich and diverse. Critics comment: "This new book by Sammy Stein is a highly individual take on…
Faustus Valerianus is the son of a Roman father and a British mother. Now both parents have died within a month of each other, and so he sells the family farm and enlists, joining legendary general Julius Agricola's campaign to conquer the entirety of the British Isles, ending with a devastating battle among Caledonia's dark mountains, in which he is followed by both the call of his mother's blood and his father's restless shade.
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