The Severans: The Changed Roman Empire

by Michael Grant

The Severans analyses the colourful decline of the Roman Empire during the reign of the Severans, the first non-Italian dynasty. In his learned and exciting style, Michael Grant describes the foreign wars waged against the Alemanni and the Persians, and the remarkable personalities of the imperial family. Thus the reader encounters Julia Domna's alleged literary circle, or Elagabalus' curious private life-which included dancing in the streets, marrying a vestal virgin and smothering his enemies with rose petals.

With its beautifully selected plate section, maps and extensive bibliography, this book will appeal to the student of ancient history as well as to the general reader.

Genres: History, Roman History, Ancient History

133 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Michael Grant was an English classisist, numismatist, and author of numerous popular books on ancient history. His 1956 translation of Tacitus’s Annals of Imperial Rome remains a standard of the work. He once described himself as "one of the very few freelances in the field of ancient history: a rare phenomenon". As a popularizer, his hallmarks were his prolific output and his unwillingness to oversimplify or talk down to his readership.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

When originally published, the title was THE SEVERANS: THE CHANGED ROMAN EMPIRE. It covers the powerful Septimium Severus, who was maneuvered by fate and his own firm character into position as the Augustus, and the four incompetent emperors who followed him. Grant sorts through the slim sources to describe the insane Caracalla, the brief outsider Macrinus, the hopeless children Elagabalus and Severus Alexander, and the women of the family who actually ran things.

For a combination of readability and scholarship, I turn to Michael Grant. I reread THE SEVERANS because I wanted to compare what he said with what Barry Strauss said in his TEN CAESARS. There were a few places where Grant said "We don't know," which Strauss stated as fact. Whether in the intervening 20+ years more facts have come to light, or historians have come to a consensus, I don't have any way of knowing.

Read three times

[Ginger Heskett]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14341343

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A companion piece to Collapse & Recovery of the Roman Empire tracing the history of the Severance Dynasty, with an emphasis on it's founder Septimius Severus