B. H. Warmington

Warmington gives a sober and balanced assessment of the reign and life of Nero based on the available sources, reflecting the approach and concerns of scholarship in the late 1960s. He gives a good assessment of the sources (principally Tacitus, Dio Cassius and Suetonius), Nero's background among the Julii-Claudii and the Domitii, and a positive assessment of Nero's predecessor, Claudius. For the majority of his reign the youthful Nero was under the tutelage of the philosopher Seneca and the Praetorian commander Burrus, who really ruled the Roman empire in his name. During this time the empire was administered competently and the senatorial class accommodated. Warmington also provides some insights into Nero's mother, Agrippina the Younger, and Nero's efforts to free himself from her influence. With the demise of Agrippina, Seneca and Burrus, Nero began increasingly to indulge his pro-Greek and artistic tastes. He moved to Naples and toured Greece. Nero also increasingly alienated the senatorial class, biasing our sources against him. His neglect of the armies probably led to the revolts in which he perished. Nero failed to respond decisively in the situation. While he did persecute Christians, Nero was only really brutal to members of his extended family. His poor reputation rests on his mistreatment on the senatorial class - from whom we draw the written sources - and the way he scandalised them by aping Greek customs and feeding his artistic pretentions, which led him to shocking things for a noble Roman - nude exercise, public singing and acting, and competing personally in events like the Olympics (for which he was awarded all the prizes in advance). He certainly wanted to be treated like a divine king in the Greek style, which seemed like megalomania to many Romans. He may well have been popular with many plebeian Romans, and certainly with the Greeks, but their opinion counted for little. Warmington is a good introduction to Nero.… (plus d'informations)

5330. Carthage Revised Edition, by B. H. Warmington (read 5 Dec 2015) This is a revised edition of a history of Carthage which was first published in 1960 and was written by a Cambridge-educated English historian and this revised edition was published in1969 and reprinted in 1993. It is a workmanlike history, without any effort to be 'popular' and hence, especially in the early chapters, is not exciting. But the account of the Punic Wars was full of interest for me, even though on 23 June 1961 I read Hannibal One Man Against Rome, by Harold Lamb and on 30 Nov 1971 read The Reluctant Warriors, by Donald Armstrong and on 27 Aug 2003 I read The Punic Wars by Adrian Goldsworthy and on 21 March 2011 I read The Ghosts of Cannae by Robert L. O'Connell. I thought it of interest that when Rome was debating whether Carthage should destroyed there was a faction in Rome which opposed such destruction because Rome needed the competition in order not to decay. But that faction did not prevail and in 146 B.C. Carthage was destroyed by Rome and, as predicted, Rome eventually fell--but not as quickly as the faction predicted.… (plus d'informations)

Nice overview of a subject with traditionally little historic treatment.

The author begins with the Phoenician founding cities including Tyre and Sidon, as well as the various Phoenician colonies spread throughout the Mediterranean during Carthage's formation in the 8th century BC. At times the history of Carthage's later conflicts with the Greeks in Sicily is confusing, as is the author's recount of the events of the First Punic War with Rome.

In any case, worthwhile reading since there are few books written on the Carthaginian empire.… (plus d'informations)