Marcus Aurelius

[Goffredo]

I agree with Jenny. The Birley book (1987) is good although I found the style somewhat difficult to read. The description of the situation in the Northern Wars is very interesting and it makes me wish there was more recent book on the same topic with more focus on the military situation (North and on the Eastern Parthian front). I remember that the impression I got was that the Northern Wars must have been terrible and far from obvious. In the long run the Romans won and Marcus was even thinking of taking territory across the Danube. But it was an extremely difficult war. Indeed it seems that in 171 the Romans got seriously beaten. Birley says 20000 lost; it seems a lot to me but even if a factor two too large it is still a serious defeat. In fact it must have been bad because the defeat opened Italy to a invasion (Aquilea was almost lost). When those in Italy were finally intercepted and beaten, among the enemy dead there were women (some with weapons) meaning that it is was a migration of people looking for land! Then, over the years several high officers were killed in action (two governors - Moesia inferior and superior, and also the Praetorian Prefect). SO the situation was very serious indeed.<br>
p.s. From the military point of view the book might be outdated, not in terms of dates or names of Legions, but in terms of sensitivity towards roman military affairs. One example: in one of the appendices the author, describing the equestrian statue of Marcus in Rome, says that Romans didn't use saddles! There are some nice pictures of the column of Marcus although they are old and before the recent restoration the soot from pollution makes the details hard to read. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/ugoffredo.showPublicProfile?language=EN>goffredo</A> at: 4/14/01 12:39:05 pm<br></i>