05-20-2002, 03:57 AM
"Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate" by Susan P. Mattern, University of California Press, 1999. ISBN 0520211669.<br>
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I just finished this title not long ago, and thought it was useful. Mattern examines Roman strategy from the point of view of those Romans who made the decisions to go to war. She makes the comment;<br>
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"The Romans behaved on an international level like Homeric heroes, Mafia gangsters, or participants in a society where status and security depend on one's preceived ability to inflict violence."<br>
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Pretty apt, when one thinks about some of the object lessons the Romans made, such as the sack of Corinth or the reduction of Jerusalem and Masada. Mattern spends a lot of time looking at the literature and historiography of Imperial Rome to support her thesis. <p></p><i></i>
<br>
I just finished this title not long ago, and thought it was useful. Mattern examines Roman strategy from the point of view of those Romans who made the decisions to go to war. She makes the comment;<br>
<br>
"The Romans behaved on an international level like Homeric heroes, Mafia gangsters, or participants in a society where status and security depend on one's preceived ability to inflict violence."<br>
<br>
Pretty apt, when one thinks about some of the object lessons the Romans made, such as the sack of Corinth or the reduction of Jerusalem and Masada. Mattern spends a lot of time looking at the literature and historiography of Imperial Rome to support her thesis. <p></p><i></i>
