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A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War Paperback – August 7, 2006

by Gary Forsythe (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 23
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During the period from Rome's Stone Age beginnings on the Tiber River to its conquest of the Italian peninsula in 264 B.C., the Romans in large measure developed the social, political, and military structure that would be the foundation of their spectacular imperial success. In this comprehensive and clearly written account, Gary Forsythe draws extensively from historical, archaeological, linguistic, epigraphic, religious, and legal evidence as he traces Rome's early development within a multicultural environment of Latins, Sabines, Etruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians. His study charts the development of the classical republican institutions that would eventually enable Rome to create its vast empire, and provides fascinating discussions of topics including Roman prehistory, religion, and language.

In addition to its value as an authoritative synthesis of current research, A Critical History of Early Rome offers a revisionist interpretation of Rome's early history through its innovative use of ancient sources. The history of this period is notoriously difficult to uncover because there are no extant written records, and because the later historiography that affords the only narrative accounts of Rome's early days is shaped by the issues, conflicts, and ways of thinking of its own time. This book provides a groundbreaking examination of those surviving ancient sources in light of their underlying biases, thereby reconstructing early Roman history upon a more solid evidentiary foundation.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    420 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of California Press
  4. Publication date
    August 7, 2006
  5. Dimensions
    5.98 x 1.05 x 8.82 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0520249917
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0520249912
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent synthetic treatment of early Roman history found in both modern literary and archaeological materials."

From the Inside Flap

"A remarkable book, in which Forsythe uses his thorough knowledge of the ancient evidence to reconstruct a coherent and eminently plausible picture which in turn illuminates early Roman society more immediately than any other category of evidence is able to do. Forsythe displays his impressive ability to demonstrate to what extent and why the tradition that dominates the extant historical narratives is not credible."--Kurt Raaflaub, author of The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece

"An excellent synthetic treatment of early Roman history found in both modern literary and archaeological materials."--Richard Mitchell, author of Patricians and Plebeians

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First Edition (August 7, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 420 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520249917
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520249912
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.44 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.98 x 1.05 x 8.82 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 23

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Gary Forsythe

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
23 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jared L. Gibbs
5.0 out of 5 stars It's good, but
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2013
Verified Purchase
I have enjoyed this book, but for many readers that are not used to a text book style almost of a book
One person found this helpful
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Gderf
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference text
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2015
This extensive reference work that covers from the Neolithic period to nearly the end of the Republic is not a casual read. Voluminous source references, ancient and modern, integrated into the text along with interspersed sociology and history makes for some difficult reading. It's more suitable as a study text than a popular history. It will likely be a standard reference covering ancient development of Italian immigrations followed by the Roman kingdom and Republic. Forsythe is especially adept at weaving mythical origins into the history. He covers development of religion and the legal system including a chapter devoted to the twelve tables. The best of the book is a history of the Etruscans, Latins, Sabines, Samnites, etc. and their gradual incorporation into the eventual 35 tribes that became Roman citizens. Development of early Roman foreign policy starting with Greece and Carthage is very well done. A history of Italian warfare, Roman defeats as well as successes is interspersed with sociology. Forsythe is careful to explain that the historical sources carry a heavy pro-Roman bias, leaving room for further research into veracity. Reading from start to finish is a hard push, but the more I indulge in browsing this book the more I appreciate it.
13 people found this helpful
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PJM
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2017
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okay
One person found this helpful
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C.San Miguel
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book.
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2017
I had the great privilege of actually meeting the author during my time at Texas Tech University and I must state that I was completely amazed at the depth of knowledge that Dr. Forsythe had of the ancient world. And to me what was more amazing is the fact that the professor is blind but yet he is considered one of the top historians in his field.
4 people found this helpful
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B. Brown
4.0 out of 5 stars A Critical history of Cornell?
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2006
The author has produced a timely corrective to the traditional narrative history of Rome's beginnings written by T J Cornell a decade before. Cornell's work is exhaustive but a fair proportion of its target audience will not be critical of his general acceptance of the later narrative sources for early Rome nor are they likely to challenge Cornell's confidence in the tradition they contain. Forsythe intervenes at this point, providing us with a survey of Rome's history to the first Punic war that is sceptical about how much we can know with certainty, with greater scepticism the further back in time we go. This is an important work for scholarly and general audiences. But one will wonder too whether it amounts more to an over-corrective to Cornell than to simply a judicious and cautious history. Forsythe's scepticism mostly consists of pronouncements that a figure, date or event transmitted by the narrative tradition (usually Livy) is "unhistorical". This is often stated without offering alternate explanations and, in some cases, without any justification, sometimes when it is not immediately clear why such an element of the tradition should so obviously be a later intrusion. Readers should therefore be aware that "critical" is the operative word in this book and, while that is to be praised in view of the difficult nature of the evidence, one should, every now and then, turn that critical faculty back on to any author who makes claims about what is and what is not an authentic element in a highly problematic tradition.
43 people found this helpful
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Mark Mantel
2.0 out of 5 stars A critical history of the critical history of early Rome.
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2021
This book is certainly not a history of early Rome. But it isn’t even a critical history of early Rome. Rather, it is a critical history of the critical history of early Rome. It is probably of value to historians and to those interested in their shop talk. For every morsel of knowledge one has to chew on a half dozen giblets of undigested disputations. In a traditional history, a scholar would weight the various arguments and make a call and weave it into a coherent story. Those who wanted to get “critical” might reveal some of these calls so that the student gets a more nuanced portrait. But this book dumps all the problems in the reader’s lap as though this mess is a kind of gem to be treasured. To me, it betrays a kind intellectual ill breeding, so to speak. There is a sort of laziness to all this apparent rigour.

Compare this book to, say, Steven Runciman’s History of the Crusades, where every sentence is like elegant music. Runciman does not leave the reader without a healthy sense of the difficulties involved in the story and the information upon which it is built. But one finishes his work with a profitable portrait of “what it was like.”

And this? This leaves one only with a portrait of what being a historian is like. I don’t deny that such knowledge too has its value. And in that sense, this book is likely very excellent. But should it not rather be called something like: “Approaches to the Critical Study of Early Rome” or “ Problems in the Critical Study of Early Rome?”

Forsyth is clearly a serious student and teacher of his subject and it gives me no pleasure to bash his book. I think he wrote something of tremendous value and his efforts were worthwhile. They just aren’t worthwhile to someone who wishes to learn about Rome and not about the scholars who study Rome.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Michel Charbonneau
3.0 out of 5 stars Essential but complicated reading
Reviewed in Canada on July 19, 2017
Verified Purchase
Essential but complicated reading. Must be ready to go through a mass of expert details to get a glimpse of the circumstances surrounding the founding of Rome. Author spends a lot of lines discussing the unreliability of the written sources available and the new information available through archeology.
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