Volume 24, Number 11 · June 23, 1977
In Defense of Empire
By Ernst Badian
Empire Without End
by Lidia Storoni Mazzolani, translated by Joan McConnell, by Mario Pei, foreword by Mario Pei
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 242 pp., $10.95
The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire From the First Century A.D. to the Third
by Edward N. Luttwak, foreword by J.F. Gilliam
Johns Hopkins University Press, 255 pp., $12.95
'In our own disordered times, it is natural to look back for comfort and instruction to the experience of Roman imperial statecraft.' Thus writes Professor Luttwak. Livy, one of the historians treated by Lidia Mazzolani, started his own history of Rome in order to distract his mind from the unbearable present by steeping himself in the examples of virtue offered by antiquity. Early in the nineteenth century, Barthold Georg Niebuhr turned to the history of Rome (as he later told Francis Lieber) in order to distract his mind from the reality of Napoleon's control over Europe: 'We felt like Tacitus.'
Review, 5449 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |