Ronald Syme - Böcker

The Roman Revolution is a profound and unconventional treatment of a great theme - the fall of the Republic and the decline of freedom in Rome between 60 BC and AD 14, and the rise to power of the greatest of the Roman Emperors, Augustus. The transformation of state and society, the violent transference of power and property, and the establishment of Augustus' rule are presented in an unconventional narrative, which quotes from ancient evidence, refers seldomly to modern authorities, and states controversial opinions quite openly. The result is a book which is both fresh and compelling.

Roman Papers Volume 1

Before his death in late 1989, Sir Ronald Syme approved the publication of these 59 papers on Roman history which complete this collection of his life's work. Volume VI covers such varied topics as "Human Rights and Social Status at Rome", "Marriage Ages for Roman Senators", "Oligarchy at Rome: A Paradigm for Political Science", "Military Geography at Rome", "Diet on Capri ", "A Dozen Early Priesthoods", and "Some Unrecognized Authors from Spain ". Volume VII contains solely later, unpublished work which was still in manuscript form at the time of Sir Ronald's death. The final item is a spoof on Tacitus, comprising a Latin text on the story of Titus and Berenice with historical commentary. The work is aimed at scholars and students of Roman history, Roman literature, Roman philosophy, and classics.

Shortly before his death in September 1989, Sir Ronald Syme approved the selection and publication of these fifty-nine papers.Volume VI, composed of previously published articles and reviews, offers a splendid cross-section of Syme's interests: the Roman revolution; the Augustan aristocracy; Tacitus and Sallust; historical geography; the Roman army; a variety of classical authors (Horace, Ovid, Strabo, Seneca, Justin, the Historia Augusta); the Emperor Hadrian; colonial elites; historiography, ancient and modern; and Roman political thought and society.Volume VII consists of twelve unpublished papers (originally intended to form part of a separate book, `Pliny and Italia Transpadana'), in which the two Plinies and their age are put under searching scrutiny. It is rounded off by a Latin text purporting to derive from a lost book of Tacitus' Histories (duly equipped with commentary); and by an Index to both volumes.

While the monarchy established by Caesar Augustus attracts assiduous study, not enough has been said about the old nobility renascent after years of civil war. One clear reason is the nature of the evidence, most of it sporadic or recondite. To be made intelligible, the theme demands constant recourse to better documented periods. The exposition has to range backward to the closing age of the Republic and forward to Nero's death. In fact, the best testimony to the Augustan aristocracy derives from the Annals of Tacitus. After splendour and success, evident notably in the second decade of the reign (on which this book is centred), the ancient houses went down in the embrace of the dynasty, itself from the outset an aristocratic nexus. Covering something like a century and a half in the history of Roman families, this book may be taken as a supplement no less than sequel to The Roman Revolution (OUP 1939) and to Tacitus (OUP 1958).

Roman Papers Volume III

Volumes Iv and V of Roman Papers contain forty-two of Sir Ronald Syme's papers composed between 1981 and 1985. A good many deal with the younger Pliny and Tacitus; other ancient authors examined here include Strabo, the elder Pliny, Statius, Quintilian, and Arrian. Several papers focus on the Spanish provinces and on the Greek east. New light is shed on the 'Hispano-Narbonensian nexus' that emerged under the Flavians and was to form the Antonine dynasty, on the emperor Hadrian and his Antonine successors, and on the usurper Avidius Cassius. There is an Index of Persons for the two volumes at the end of Roman Papers V.

These volumes contain papers composed between 1981 and 1985, many of them dealing with Pliny the Younger and Tacitus, as well as Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Statius, Quintilian, and Arrian. Several others concern the Spanish provinces and the Greek east.

No historian of ancient Rome in this century has had a greater influence on historical research or won greater international acclaim than Sir Ronald Syne (1903-89). His outstanding position was due mainly to his first two books, The Roman Revolution, which appeared in 1939, and Tacitus (two volumes, 1958) - although he went on to produce many more monographs, and seven volumes of his Roman Papers have so far appeared. The long gap between his first two books is partly explained by the war, which took him on official duties to Belgrade and Ankara; and he spent the years 1943-5 at Istanbul as Professor of Classical Philology. It was known that in spite of the war, Syme had continued to write in these years, in particular `Strabonia', investigations into the famous ancient Geography composed by Strabo, a native of Asia Minor in the time of Augustus. After Syme's death, the manuscript was discovered among his papers: he had not quite completed the work, but what he had written, with almost complete annotation, represents a substantial and fascinating study of the historical geography of Anatolia in the Hellenistic and early Roman period. Syme ruthlessly dissects the often incoherent and inconsistent text of Strabo, at the same time providing rich detail on client kings, Roman generals and emperors, writers and travellers. Above all, he shows unequalled ability to understand the landscape and settlement of Anatolia; and the work is composed in the same forceful and elegant style that made his other books classics of historical literature.

This volume collects twenty-six previously unpublished studies on Republican history by the late Sir Ronald Syme (1903-1989), drawn from the archive of Syme's papers at the Bodleian Library. This set of papers sheds light on aspects of Republican history that were either overlooked or tangentially discussed in Syme's published work. They range across a wide spectrum of topics, including the political history of the second century BC, the age of Sulla, the conspiracy of Catiline, problems of constitutional law, and the Roman conquest of Umbria. Each of them makes a distinctive contribution to specific historical problems. Taken as a whole, they enable us to reach a more comprehensive assessment of Syme's intellectual and historiographical profile.The papers are preceded by an introduction that places them within the context of Syme's work and of the current historiography on the Roman Republic, and are followed by a full set of bibliographical addenda.

With this classic book, Sir Ronald Syme became the first historian of the twentieth century to place Sallust - whom Tacitus called the most brilliant Roman historian - in his social, political, and literary context. Scholars had considered Sallust to be a mere political hack or pamphleteer, but Syme's text makes important connections between the politics of the Republic and the literary achievement of the author to show Sallust as a historian unbiased by partisanship. In a new foreword, Ronald Mellor delivers one of the most thorough biographical essays of Sir Ronald Syme in English. He both places the book in the context of Syme's other works and details the progression of Sallustian studies since and as a result of Syme's work.