RTT Quarterly April-June 2024: Ancient/Biblical Times

Image from https://www.britannica.com/sports/chariot-racing

During the second quarter we will be reading books that were written or take place in the Ancient/Biblical era. As in most older time periods, there is often debate about the actual dates. This issue can not be addressed, as different historians, countries, and even religions define the periods differently. Unofficially, Biblical/Ancient times begin when people learned to write and settled in cities (about 1200 BCE) and ended with the beginning of the Medieval Ages (around 500 CE). However, you choose your definition and book according to your dates!

Some ancient/Biblical Civilizations:
Greek, Rome, Egypt
Celtic Britain
Japan, China
Middle East (Mesopotamia, Persia, Hittites,)

Some books members have read previously for this prompt:

The Secret Chord Geraldine Brooks
Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
A Day of Fire by E. Knight
Romans, Celts, and Germans by Maureen Carroll
Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles
Torn from Troy by Patrick Bowman
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Eagles at War by Ben Cane
The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus by Margaret Atwood
The Murder of Tutankhamen by Bob Brier
Sarai by Jill Eileen Smith
A Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar
Mary, Called Magdalene by Margaret George
Brothers by Angela Hunt
I, Judas by Taylor Caldwell
Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George
Ben Hur by Lew Wallace
The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
Helen of Troy by Margaret George
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough
Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire (Gaius Petreius Ruso) by Ruth Downie
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

Please make suggestions and let us know what you will be reading. As always, both fiction and non-fiction will work.

Here is the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Quarterly_Theme_Rea...

This quarter is the most busy of the year for me at work, so I need some rather light reading and am planning on The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis and Death Comes As The End by Agatha Christie.

I have The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus on my shelf for years. I think I will attempt this for starters.

NRSV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible by Zondervan publishers. I think they also publish an NIV version, but NIV is more an "easy read" translation and isn't as academically accurate. Unfortunately, Zondervan is strictly Protestant canon and doesn't include the Roman, Greek, and Slavonic deuterocanons, but I have these in the NRSV New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha. I've been thinking of doing a cover-to-cover of the Bible, I've read the full Roman-Greek-Slavonic (but not Ethiopic, though I do have a copy of the Book of Enoch) deuterocanons, and Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible has superb illustrations and color plates. Not a project I'll complete in three months, but I can get a good start.

There are also some commentaries on the Psalms I'd like to read – C.S. Lewis's and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's as well as a reread of Mary Ellen Chase's – after I get through a complete read-through of Psalms in Zondervan.

I've already read a little of (just the Gospel of Thomas and the fragmentary Gospel of Mary Magdala) and want to finish The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus: The Definitive Collection of Mystical Gospels and Secret Books about Jesus of Nazareth edited by Marvin Meyer. It really isn't "definitive" (for example, it doesn't include the Gospel of Judas, but I may have Reading Judas by Elaine Pagels and Karen Armstrong around the house somewhere).

For those who have never read the Mahabharata, tnere's a magnificent blank-verse adaptation in English by Carole Satyamurti, Mahabharata: A Modern Retelling, that "only" runs about 900 or so pages. (My prose translation by Bibek Debroy runs to 10 paperback volumes.) One of these lifetimes I'd like to get to the full Debroy translation and also do a reread of Satyamurti.

I might also do a read of the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is. I've read the Gita in various editions (including a Norton Critical with its supplementary materials), but the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is is the text favored by in International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

And I could try getting to the Upanisads (Oxford World's Classics). I started on the version by Eknath Easwaran years ago but lost interest when I discovered that it was actually a very loosely (though prettily) translated abridgment. And I have the Rig Vega in the 19th century translation by Ralph T.H. Griffith.

I much prefer the Mahabharata story over Ramayana, which I've read in the terrible abridgment by R.K. Narayan and the interesting (for its color-illustrations) abridgment by Krishna Dharma. I also have around somewhere the Illustrated Ramayana: The Timeless Epic of Duty, Love, and Redemption (Bibek Debroy) and I might give that abridged version a read-through.

There are quite a number of good videos available on the Great Courses (I have a Wondrium subscription) of Greek, Roman, and other mythologies as well as Jewish and Christian antiquity. I've already watched most of the interesting ones on Asian religion and philosophy.

>3 Tess_W: I really liked that one by Atwood in the Canongate Myth Series. (I didn't all that much care for Jeanette Winterson's Canongate Weight on the Atlas myth.)

I've now had time to go through what I have, and in addition to >3 Tess_W:, these are possibilities:
The Secret History by Procopius this is like a tell all right before the fall of the Byzantine empire. on shelf

I have the first four Masters of Rome books by Colleen McCullough that I've wanted to read forever..on virtual shelf

Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland on virtual shelf

Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, Second Edition by Martha Roth, a "left-over" supplementary text from a class I took, never read on shelf

Hymns, Prayers and Songs: An Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Lyric Poetry by John Foster ditto above on shelf

The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora by Stephanie Thornton on virtual shelf

Count Belisarius by Robert Graves (6th century Byzantine) on virtual shelf

Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles. I have read before, but would not mind a re-read. on shelf

***Oh look, the "new and shiny!" I would love to read The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks. Mind you, I don't have it........

I'm going to start off with reading the next couple/few of books in the Marcus Didius Falco series (by Lindsey Davis) which take place during the reign of Vespasian (69-79 CE):

3. Venus in Copper
4. The Iron Hand of Mars
5. Poseidon's Gold
6. Last Act in Palmyra

We'll see how far I get...

I have an odd assortment of both fiction and non-fiction titles spanning Sumer/Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt and Biblical Times but I think I'll hew to Ancient Rome this time round.

Another one I just thought of that I've had sitting around for ages: Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers (H.T. Lowe-Porter translation, entire quartet in a single volume so it also qualifies for the Big Fat Book Challenge).

I’ve found a lot on my shelves to fit this time period and have picked two books that have been there quite awhile: The Birth of Classical Europe: A History from Troy to Augustine by Simon Price and Peter Thonemann and The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology by Joseph Campbell. These books complement each other well and I’m hoping to read them along at the same time….we’ll see. And one new book, the audio version of The Iliad in Emily Wilson’s translation—this has surprised me by being a real “page turner” on audio. An ambitious plan, but should make a great quarter of reading!

>9 dianelouise100: That's some heavy reading! I look forward to your reviews!

I read The Secret History by Procopius This was a tell-all by Procopius, who served as the official scribe and historian for Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora. (6th century) Procopius wrote what historians consider a respectable if not propagandistic war history of Justinian's reign. The publication of this book did not happen until after his death. One could only imagine the horrors this author would have been subjected to if he were alive when published. Is it true? Probably some of it; though to what degree or percentage one will never know. Most scandalous was the sexual appetite of Theodora. Evidently one of her favorite sexual escapades was sprinkling her genitals with grain and allowing geese and ducks to peck off the grains. ???? We do know that Procopius' numbers were incorrect as he uses the number 1 trillion to describe the number of people that Justinian slew. That was more than the total world population at that time, especially since part of these years were plague years. Favorite "new" word--rapine (violent seizure of someone's property). 3 stars 205 pages RTT: Biblical/Ancient



43. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor by Martha Roth This was a compilation of various laws that have been translated. There was no commentary and it was very dry. I recognized a lot of similarity between the Biblical Book of Deuteronomy and some of the Assyrian or Hittite laws. As Israel had fought wars with both, it is to be expected that certain customs would be transferred and adopted. Probably the most famous translation contained within is the Code of Hammurabi. I felt like I was reading a lists of things, no real story here, strictly the laws. The law about lending/borrowing an ox was very lengthy! 304 pages 3 stars RTT: Biblical/Ancient

I tried reading this for the last quarter but ended up not finishing it, but i think its an interesting book and would fit here pirkei avot: a social justice commentary The pirkei avot is the sayings of the fathers in the talmud thats rather the background of the ancient Judaism. Whats fascinating about this translation is that the rabbi (who is local) puts many of these difficult ( ie not pc sayings) into a more releventmodern light.

I just finished watching Jodi Magness, The Holy Land Revealed 5***** in a Great Courses video – 36 roughly half-hour sessions, 18 hours. Really excellent, and I do want to get to her other video in the Great Courses, Jesus and His Jewish Influences. She's an archaeologist by training and by inclination, although her actual academic appointment is as Professor of Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although I do want to get on to her other Great Courses video, I think my next Great Courses view (also for this quarter's time period) is going to be of The Mysterious Etruscans (24 segments for twelve hours).

Most of these Great Courses videos are really top notch (though I've had two or three that were clunkers). They're really only affordable, though, if you snag one on streaming as well as with a DVD and at a really sharp discount, say in the $30 range or so, or if you subscribe at $150 a year for unlimited viewing by streaming but without DVD. An annual subscription is a really good deal but only if you watch these courses regularly.

Looking at my Great Courses "Dashboard," I see that I've "watched more content than 85% of active members" over the past twelve months and "more content than 91% of active members" over the past month, which makes it a really good deal for me. Thing is, though, I need to nebulize twice daily for COPD, roughly 20-30 minutes one time and 30 minutes or more another time. Since I like to nebulize sitting up (the medicine cup shouldn't be at a tilt like it would be if you're lying down), I've started nebulizing while sitting at my desktop computer watching Great Courses videos, so I can take in three or four full-length courses in a month.

If you don't have the occasion and the incentive to watch those videos as frequently as I do, a subscription might be kind of pricey. For myself, though, I can find at least one Great Courses video (and generally a whole lot more) for every time period in our multi-year sequence.

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NOTE: I posted The Holy Land Revealed to the Wiki and did some initial set-up for this second quarter, but I didn't monkey around too much with things because I was afraid of messing things up. Tess, could you take a look at things and follow up on what I did? Tnanks!

>13 CurrerBell: You did fine! Thank you!

I finished a treatise written by Hippocrates titled "On Airs, Waters, and Places.' It is thought that he wrote this about 4-5 BCE. It is mostly advice to traveling physicians. He advised them to firstly always check the air quality of each city they were going to visit Also to observe: winds, water quality, terrain, and personal habits of the citizenry. Did learn a few new vocab words: fenny, meaning boggy. Hippocrates thinks he can evaluate the population of a city based on the above qualities of their environment. Amongst others he evaluates the Scythians, inhabitants of Phasis (eastern shore of the Black Sea), and the Macrocoephali. (long headed people, normally of the head deformation tribes in Africa, but Hippocrates is probably referring to an area in Turkey called Pontus. I had to look this up). This was a copy that came from a packet given to me for additional reading for a class I took 30 years ago. I don't believe it's in its entirety--I'm not sure of the date or who published. Off the shelf! 48 pages (probably more, but the font was only 6-7 and in double columns)

Just finished view The Mysterious Etruscans (Great Courses) and I'm only giving this one 4**** rather than 5*****. The problem wasn't with the instructor, who was quite good, but I did have two problems.

1. There were good illustrations – photos and drawings of the Etruscan artifacts, maps, etc – that the instructor was discussing, but I wish there had been still more of them. There were times when it seemed to turn just a little bit "talking head" – not seriously so, and there were quite a number of good illustrations, but having more of them could have made the discussion easier to follow.


2. Great Courses has close captioning, but it's very poorly proofed. I don't blame the instructors for this – it's the fault of the producers, the fault of the Great Courses administrators. When we're dealing (as we are in this course) with unusual names of persons, deities, etc, close captioning can be especially helpful but only if the proof-readers get the spelling correct! Great Courses close-captioning is often garbled, understandable to read but very annoying and in the case of unfamiliar terminology can really get confusing.

So, 4**** for this one, but I blame the producers and not the instructor, who himself was excellent.

its a huge issue, and personally understand the frustration. Seems to have gotten worse as you see more captioning out there. i think most producers wouldnt even realie there was captioning let alone be concerned about proofreading. Think you should contact the administrators and give them a heads up. They should find out what company is doing the captioning and call them on it

>17 cindydavid4:
>16 CurrerBell:

The problem is, so I've been told, is that the captioning is done from sound to text and we all know that more often than not, the two do not align! But I agree, I have the same problem when listening to audiobooks. Last night I was listening to a book and it read: Queen Ellie A (long a) nor. It was broken down into 3 syllables......and not till I looked up the second crusade did I catch on it was Eleanor of Aquitaine! Duh......

I was going to suggest the same thing, that they probably use some sort of auto-captioning software, which tends to make a lot of mistakes. I wish folks would follow up with some sort of human intervention to correct errors, but that may be cost-prohibitive.

I finished Sophocles play "Oedipus the King" from The Three Theban Plays, with a very readable translation by Robert Fagles.

>19 atozgrl: The same issue is all too apparent in kindle books and drives me absolutely nuts! Proofreaders, please!

>18 Tess_W: Do they spell her name as Aliénor in the book?

>22 MissWatson: I listened to it on audio, so I don't know! I just had never heard that pronunciation before!

>23 Tess_W: The way you described the unusual pronunciation made me think it might be. I notice that the French mostly use this version of her name.

>24 MissWatson: Well, the story began in Toulouse, so from the French it probably is!

Bart Ehrman, The Historical Jesus (Great Courses video) 4****.

A little too reductionist, insisting on very strict criteria of what is "historical" which leads to disregarding broader tradition. Quite good, but among Great Courses lecturers on Judaeo-Christianity, I definitely prefer Jodi Magness (The Holy Land Revealed, and I'm hoping to get to her other GC video, Jesus and His Jewish Influences, before this quarter's out, though I plan to switch to something non-Biblical for my next GC watch).

>26 CurrerBell: Historians will often do this (reduce). I classify them as liberal historians or conservative historians--no such thing, that's just how I organize them in my brain! I admire you being able to sit through those lectures. I've only done one so far and it was all I could do! AND, that's what I do for a living, mostly (80%) lecture!

I must admit, prehistoric, this time period, and Arthurian Britain time periods bore me to tears for reading!

I’ve finished the text of The Iliad in Emily Wilson’s wonderful translation and am now reading her Introduction. I’ll read either The Odyssey or Sarah Ruden’s Aeneid next. I’m enjoying this review of such seminal works in recent translations, though The Iliad was actually a first time read for me. I hope to reread the other two by the end of the quarter.

>27 Tess_W: I have COPD and nebulize a couple half-hour sessions a day. I find it much preferable to do so sitting up (it keeps the cup level so the liquid is captured better by the nebulizer) rather than lying down or sprawling in an easy chair, so I do my nebulizing at my desktop computer. It's a great chance to watch these Wondrium (formerly Great Courses Plus) videos by online streaming, and an hour a day averages out to a couple or more courses a month, so I get my money's worth for the $150/year subscription price.

ETA: I have quite a bit of reading (as opposed to viewing) I'm thinking of doing for this period. I'd particularly like to get to Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, Mary Renault's Alexander trilogy, and N.T. Wright's biography of Paul. As for next quarter, I'd like to finally tackle Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur and Chretien de Troyes (the latter in French), and maybe for "lighter" reading Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy.

>29 CurrerBell: I've been walking about 5 miles 5 times a week for the last 2-3 years. It is always the same route (I live in the country and most roads are not safe due to the high speed and negligence of the drivers) which is the only "safe" one. I'm often bored, although I do watch nature, etc. I bought a pair of earphones and listen to an audiobook whilst walking. Now I can barely walk (alone) without my earphones and a book! Except for NPR (which I can only tolerate so long), no good radio where I live, either. So when driving, I connect my tablet to the car audio and listen when I drive. I find that by listening while I walk and drive I can finish an extra book per week, usually. I also plug the earphones in while waiting for appointments.

I just realized that I forgot to post over here that I finished reading The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff for this challenge over a week ago. I really enjoyed it. I hope to read a nonfiction book for this challenge as well.

Elaine Pagels and Karen King, Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity 4****.

This one was a bit odd in its quality. The first half of the book is text co-authored by Pagels and King, and there I would give it at best 3½***. Not bad, but this textual discussion of this heterodox second-century scripture is a bit light-weight. It's not really so much an analysis of the scripture text as it is a multi-chapter general introduction running roughly a hundred pages.

What's really excellent, though, is the second portion of the book, consisting of King's translation of Judas accompanied by a fairly comprehensive end-note commentary on the text by King (substantially longer than the scriptural text itself), and here I'd give it at least 4½**** or even 5*****

Judas would have been written in the mid-second century. It couldn't have been later because it is one of the heterodox scriptures condemned by St Irenaeus of Lyon in Against Heresies {Wikipedia}, which itself was written around 180CE, Irenaeus dying a martyr just about the turn of the century; and it definitely postdates the canonical gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John) because it was written in response to and criticism of these canonical gospels.

There seems to be some expectation that Judas could be an antidote to the sometime anti-Semitism of the canonical gospels (especially John), but that's not the case. In fact, there's no reference in Judas to a Roman execution of Jesus – the Jewish leadership alone is implicated. Judas also might prove offensive to current-day readers for its snide references to homosexuality.

The significance of Judas is that it condemns orthodoxy's glorification of martyrdom, equating this to "blood sacrifice"; rejects atonement theology (Jesus died for the sins of the world), seeing this as a hideous "child sacrifice" theology; and denies a physical, bodily resurrection of the dead. Instead, resurrection is a spiritual resurrection (which isn't necessarily entirely contrary to the resurrection theology of the genuine Pauline letters) – but this isn't docetism {Wikipedia}, which denies the humanity of Jesus or of the suffering of his human body.

It would be too lengthy and complicated a discussion to completely summarize King's treatment of Judas. Suffice it to say that this heterodox scripture treats the "traitor" apostle as the only one who really "got it right" – he "betrays" Jesus at Jesus's own direction in order that Jesus can fulfill his destiny of dying to give an example of exactly how a spiritual resurrection will occur. Those who truly understand this message and live a life consistent with it will themselves be spiritually resurrected while the rest of humanity will simply die (i.e., no eternal lake of hellish fire, or whatever).

Judas, though, seems not to reject martyrdom entirely. Yes, die if need be as a result of your spreading the message of Jesus (Judas himself is finally stoned by the other apostles); but don't expect it to be an "express ticket" to heaven or to any bodily resurrection, don't claim that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church," and reject atonement theology.

>32 CurrerBell: Thanks for such an interesting review. I’m not really familiar with the noncanonical gospels and had not even heard of the Gospel of Judas, but what interesting theology. I’ve added this book to my list of NT readings.

>32 CurrerBell: sometime anti-Semitism of the canonical gospels (especially John)...In fact, there's no reference in Judas to a Roman execution of Jesus – the Jewish leadership alone is implicated

I have read that book and found it fascinating.
Have you ever read the zealot? fascinating look at the life and times of Jesus, including the roman occupation. In this book Aslan looks at the rebellions throughout Judea against the Romans, esp Masada and postulates that the gospels were written through the eyes of the Empire and their hatred of the Judeans that revolted against them, and it was this hatred that ended up being responsible for the first glimmer of anti semitism, that spread along with the spread of Christianity. I did have some issues with the book,but this seemed to fit so perfectly in to what we have seen develop throughout middle ages Europe and throughout our modern history. Id be interested in your comments

>32 CurrerBell: I certainly concur with your rating of the first half of The Gospel of Judas! I simply gave up on it, which is not the norm for me with books by Pagels, especially given that I believe that to deny Jesus' humanity is to deny the validity of the Resurrection and the promise of eternal life to all of humanity.

I have been remiss in posting my reviews/commentary of the books I've read thus far for this prompt!

Because I've been reading the Marcus Didius Falco series by Lindsey Davis, I decided to stick to the 10-year period of Vespasian's rule. I read the short biography that Suetonius wrote (in The Twelve Caesars translated by Robert Graves) which underscores Vespasian's notoriety for avarice but also duly notes that the coffers of the empire were pretty dry when he donned the purple stripe of rule. He basically got the Roman Empire back on its feet after years of political instability: He was the last of four emperors in one year and the first of the Flavian dynasty. He was noted also for his (re-)building projects including what we now call The Coliseum! There's not a whole lot out there in terms of Vespasian's rule, and in the timeline of the Roman Empire, his reign was a a blip-- but still a lot longer than Otho, Tiberius, and Titus who preceded him!

Because there's really not a lot of scholarship about Vespasian (Yes, I do see Mary Beard's Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern but because of personal finances will probably wait a couple weeks before I get my hands on a copy), what I have left are the well-researched historical fiction mysteries at hand:

APRIL

• Venus in Copper (Marcus Didius Falco #3; by Lindsey Davis; narrated by Simon Prebble) - While the previous installments are concerned with court intrigue and conspiracies, the plot in this story turns away from the gaze of Emperor Vespasian's eye and returns Falco to the less royal streets of Rome. He is hired by a freeman's household to investigate and thwart a gold digger from marrying into the family but complications set in and the case turns into a whodunit.
In addition to the cozy mystery, Ms Davis also provides insight into the classism of first century Rome: Vespasian is a "middle-class" soldier who has risen in the ranks and become Emperor; Emancipated slaves can ply their wiles in the market and it is neither impossible nor illegal for them to climb the social ladder to nouveau riche status; Republicans and citizens can scramble for greater respect and household goods but without considerable money, cannot hope to attain higher standing as a Senator or, in Falco's case, marry a Senator's daughter. There are times when Ms Davis's descriptions border on inventory listings but she manages to blunt this artlessness by having Falco have an auctioneer's acuity learned from his father. What saves the whole from mediocrity is a scene late in the book which winds up tension and then releases it with an emotional punch. It sounds as if even the audiobook narrator is affected. ⭐⭐⭐-1/2

• The Iron Hand of Mars (Marcus Didius Falco #4; by Lindsey Davis; narrated by Simon Prebble) - There is a lot going on in this book, maybe too much... Vespasian recalls Falco to court where Falco is assigned a diplomatic mission with a dash of espionage: Falco is to present a new standard of arms to the 14th Gemina in Germania, suss out their actual loyalty, find out what happened to a missing military officer or two and, locate two local rebel Celtic leaders and talk to them-- one of which is a prophetess. Along the way, there's graft and murder involving the local pottery trade, a hairdresser accompanying Falco who may or may not be just a hairdresser, twenty newbie soldiers, Falco's girlfriend's brother, the girlfriend herself, and stories that are tied to the land if not the plot. The author clearly had a wealth of research to work with but the actual story might have been better served with a stronger editorial hand. As it stands, it's not always clear what's going on or how what is happening is relevant. ⭐⭐⭐

• Poseidon’s Gold (Marcus Didius Falco #5; by Lindsey Davis; narrated by Simon Prebble) - A cozy historical mystery set in motion when Marcus is accused of having killed a centurion he has been seen recently arguing with. Marcus is drawn in to the legacy of his late brother’s schemes, missing statues, suspected fraud, the volatile relationship with his father and, his love for the strong-willed Senator’s daughter, Helena. The plot is solid and the peeks into the auction and art houses of Ancient Rome are interesting— though perhaps the overly detailed descriptions of furniture in every room of every place the characters move through might seem a bit tedious. There is a short history lesson showcasing Vespasian’s role in Judea and subsequent rise to power but the story shies away from court intrigue and runs through the streets and taverns of Rome. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

MAY

• Last Act in Palmyra (Marcus Didius Falco #6; by Lindsey Davis; narrated by Simon Prebble) - A court spy and rival of Marcus Didius Falco sends Marcus into what is now known as Syria where his cover and mission are quickly made clear to have been blown. Stranded with Helena in the desert region of the Hellenistic Decapolis, Marcus takes up with a traveling theater company as its playwright while also on a search for a missing hydraulis player and for a murderer of one of the acting company’s actors. Once again, the author tries to over a lot of ground— straining the credulity of the plot(s), larding the story with an excess of characters and locales, and laying in as much research as possible. But to her credit, Ms Davis does paint vivid depictions of the settings and create dynamic characters. So far this series has been a bit uneven, wavering between 3.0 and 4.0 stars for each book. I’ll be generous with this story and tip it to 4.0 if only because of what seems like a throwaway scene (Marcus lies drunk in a tent while Helena talks about him outside) actually demonstrates the author’s ability to portray emotional depth without dropping into melodrama (of which there is plenty later). ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I will continue reading the series along with the 75ers group-- so around four a year for the next few years. Buy then, this prompt will have rolled around again and I can pick a new Caesar!

those books made me think of an article I read today a plauge comes before the fall lessons from roman history

>37 cindydavid4: I never got around to reading Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire (by William Rosen) but I think from the overview I read, it followed (albeit a couple centuries later) the Antonine Plague. With the Roman Empire Empire already weakened/not fully recovered from the second-century pandemic, it couldn't survive this second blow.

A couple of years ago, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, I was reading a bit about The Black Plague (14th century) and I was stunned at the parallels between what I was reading and current events. After reading the article you posted, I can see those parallels being drawn even farther back in history.

Thank you for posting that link. And the web-site looks really interesting!

>37 cindydavid4:
>38 Tanya-dogearedcopy:

I have my older students bookmark that site......purely for the atomic clock countdown.......(upper right hand corner, it's now 90 seconds to midnight!) We check on it 3-4 times during the school year and discuss why the seconds may have changed.

I love that you have them aware of what it is, and why it moves. I will have to check out that website and see what else they write about

>38 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I vaguely remember justinians flea; and I think I meant to read it. looks intersting

Jodi Magness, Jesus and His Jewish Influences 4½****

I was going to do some of the classical history videos on The Great Courses Plus, but a couple that I started on didn't really catch me as far as the instructors were concerned (poor verbal delivery or whatever), so I went back to Jodi Magness (>13 CurrerBell:) because she's just so darn good.

This one, Jesus and His Jewish Influences, wasn't quite as good as The Holy Land Revealed, but I'll still give it 4½****. Magness's appointment at UNC Chapel Hill is in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies, but her professional background and inclinations are in the field of archaeology and she has twenty years or more in archaeological field work throughout Israel (including Masada) as well as some work in Greece. Jesus and His Jewish Influences is based almost exclusively on literary sources (in addition to the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, she presents Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, a little bit of Pliny and other pagan historians, and a good bit of Essene scriptures as well as rabbinic writings). I think she was a little more "grounded" in The Holy Land Revealed, where she includes a very generous amount of archaeological presentation (which is also good for much more interesting graphics than the very minimal graphics in Jesus and His Jewish Influences).

Magness's background is in Judaism, in contrast with her Chapel Hill colleague Bart Ehrman, a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and Princeton Theological Seminary; and I don't think she always makes as good an integration of Jewish and Christian studies as Ehrman might. She tends to make an excellent presentation of the Jewish background but then treats the Jesus material as a bit of an appendage. Actually, I think the problem may be that she's not quite sure whether she wants to present the "historical Jesus" in the manner of Ehrman or whether he wants to present the "Gospel Jesus" that would consider how his followers in the post-Temple era (when all four canonical Gospels, with the possible exception of a pre-70AD Mark, were written) saw Jesus himself and saw their own Jewishness. And there's very little if any discussion of the influence of gentiles on Christianity or of Paul's Pharisaical background.

Still, an excellent video series, one of the best ever on The Great Courses Plus – just not completely up to the quality of the more archaeologically oriented The Holy Land Revealed.

Incidentally, I see that Magness, just a couple months ago, has a new book released by Oxford University Press, Jerusalem through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades. A preview at Amazon seems to show quite a well-illustrated (though B&W only, it seems) volume. Quite tempting.

I read Death Comes As The End by Agatha Christie, which is set in Ancient Egypt. It was not my favourite, but it is my goal to read all of this author's work, so I am glad that this quarterly prompt made me stick to it.
One interesting aspect is that the novel is based on original letters that were written around 1950BC and were found in a tomb in the Theban Necropolis.

Oh that reminds me of the Cairo Geniza " is a collection of some 400,0001 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the genizah or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, Egypt.2 These manuscripts span the entire period of Middle-Eastern, North African, and Andalusian Jewish history between the 6th3 and 19th4 centuries CE, and comprise the largest and most diverse collection of medieval manuscripts in the world."

I got interested in this from reading in an antique land which led me to a rabbit hole of history. Excellent book for this theme btw

>44 cindydavid4: I'm just curious. Why are there hyperlinked numbers to Harry Potter novels in your post?

Also, yes, I took the BB for In an Antique Land (by Amitav Ghosh) :-)

>45 Tanya-dogearedcopy: where do you see that? I took that paragraph from Wiki . from the CairoGeniza page. I am confused..

Enjoy Ghosh!

>46 cindydavid4: Ah! I guess it picked up the Wiki footnotes. From here, it looks like "400,0001 Jewish manuscript fragments", "Old Cairo, Egypt.2", and "between the 6th3 and 19th4 centuries CE". When I click on the footnote numbers, it takes me to the corresponding title in the Harry Potter series!

I’ve finished The Odyssey in Emily Wilson’s very accessible translation, a great read, and I’m so glad to have read it immediately following The Iliad. The two complement each other beautifully. I’m enjoying reading Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter in Thomas Cahill’s Hinges of History series and listening to Elizabeth Vandiver’s lectures in The Iliad of Homer produced by the Teaching Company.

>47 Tanya-dogearedcopy: ok, thats weird!!! wonder how that happened!

>49 cindydavid4: Just how touchstones work - when you have square brackets, LT treats them as touchstones and with the Harry Potter books being the most popular series on the site by a large margin, a touchstone of just a number gets you a link to them more often than not. That’s why when I copy text from elsewhere I look out for square brackets. :)

Oh ok that makes sense. Ill keep that in mind!

I completed The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic by Mike Duncan. This book tells of events and personas that preceded the fall of the Republic. The book focused on political corruption and social unrest mostly fomented by Gaius Marius and Sulla. It was a very dramatic book for a non-fiction history. There seemed to me, although not an expert in this area, that there were pieces missing or glossed over: slave revolts, economic troubles, movement of farmers to the cities, and the decline of the military which allowed the Vandals at the gate. Perhaps the author focused on just a few major points for brevity's sake. 287 pages 3*

A quote for me to ponder--"When the Republic began to break down in the late second century it was not the letter of Roman law that eroded, but respect for the mutually accepted bonds of mos maiorum". I had to look up "mos maiorum", but it seems to translate to those customs and traditions that were adhered to that stabilized society--more the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. It was the interpretation of the law per the ancestors........

I read The Seven Wonders by Steven Saylor. This was the story of Gordianus, who is just 17 and Antipater of Sidon, the world's "greatest poet" (a real historical personage), Gordianus' teacher. For reasons we don't find out until the last chapter, Antipater faked his own death and with Gordianus traveled to some ancient wonders, solving crimes along the way. The problem being for me, that several of the "mysteries" were based on Greek myths, of which I had no knowledge, so the intricate details of the crime and its subsequent resolution made no sense. I almost DNF'd this book, but I persevered. 321 pages 3 stars (would have probably been higher had I been a better mythology student)

I finished Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology by Anonymous I saw this book free on Kindle. I decided to look up epigrams because: 1) I did not know what they were 2) I'm reading an ancient wonders book about Antipater, a Greek poet famous for his epigrams. I would say an epigram is a pithy saying, much like Ben Franklin's maxims or King Solomon's Proverbs. I flipped through this book for the most part and only read the epigrams attributed to Antipater. The problem I had was that many of his epigrams were messages to Greek gods/warriors and muses of which I had no knowledge. 220 pages 3 stars

I have finished Im Lande Ur, about the discovery of ancient Mesopotamia which also includes an abridged version of the Gilgamesh epic for the young, plus other ancient texts.

I’ve finished listening to The Iliad of Homer, Elizabeth Vandiver’s excellent series of lectures produced by the Great Courses. Vandiver is a good lecturer who speaks clearly and organizes her material carefully, so that following her train of thought and taking notes is easy for the listener. After beginning with some background information about epic poetry in general and more specifically about the function of the Iliad and the Odyssey in Greek culture, she moves to discussing the poem itself, focussing chronologically on significant episodes. Listening to this lecture series enhanced my understanding and appreciation of a poem that is a foundation stone of Western literary tradition. I’ll definitely be listening to more of her courses.

>56 dianelouise100: That sounds wonderful! I'm going to go mark that as a fav to remind me to listen to it in the future!

>56 dianelouise100: I going to put that on my Great Courses Plus watchlist too. Thanks!

I'm currently about 2/3 through the GC Plus course on Alexander the Great. Really excellent.

I had thought to reread The Aeneid in Sarah Ruden’s recent translation, which I own, but may get the Fagles’ translation from the library. Has anyone read either of these? I’m also not sure that I’m really ready to leave the Greeks yet, since various sources this quarter have drawn Herodotus’ Histories into my awareness. So I’ve yet to pick the June book for this theme. I was happy to note that E. Vandiver has a series of Great Course lectures on both the Aeneid and The Histories of Herodotus.

>58 CurrerBell: Are you still planning to read the trilogy about Alexander by Mary Renault? I haven’t read anything of hers and have been wondering if I should.

>60 dianelouise100: At this stage, I doubt it. I have too many other readings for this remaining month of Q2. In particular, I do want to get around to Marilynne Robinson's recently published Reading Genesis (even though it's so recently purchased that it won't qualify as a ROOT) and I've got an awful lot of other possible reading – especially Joan Breton Connelly's The Parthenon Enigma, which qualifies for Q2 as well as for the June Wonders theme. And I've got to get to get to Nina Bawden's Circles of Deceit (the only Bawden I own) for this month's Bawden read in Virago.

I'm also planning a heavy-duty read of the ten volumes that I have in the Time-Life Wonders of Man series for the June theme. They're short, a lot of photo plates, and so they'll help me boost my ROOT count, which is falling behind. I'll then decide which if any I want to keep and give the rest to a fifth-grade teacher in my congregation, who can use them for her kids in their classroom library.

Not sure what I'll be doing on the Great Courses Plus when I finish Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Empire. The instructor, Kenneth Harl, is really super, so I may go on to another of his GC courses, The Fall of the Pagans and the Origins of Medieval Christianity (which is almost exclusively classical, not medieval, so it's definitely a Q2 video).

ETA: As to Renault, I checked my catalog and I see I've read The Charioteer 3½*** along with (on Kindle) the two Theseus novels (4**** and 3½*** for the first and second respectively). It's been a while since I read these three and I didn't review them, so it's hard to give much detail today.

I’d planned to read the Aeneid and make this a quarter devoted to the three ancient epics, but have decided instead to stick with the Greeks. I’m currently listening to Elizabeth Vandiver’s lectures on Herodotus entitled Herodotus: the Father of History. After the lectures I’ll be reading as much of The Histories as I can to finish out the quarter, and Herodotus may intrude into Arthur’s time—or not, as I am obeying my rule of “no structure” without any difficulty.

>61 CurrerBell: I’ve noted your ratings for Renault, also Kenneth Harl. I’ve been eyeing Reading Genesis for some time now, will be glad to see your take.

Just finished Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Empire 5***** (Kenneth Harl). Really outstanding (including occasional touches of humor, such as episodes where Alex's imitators tried to use war elephants and got them stuck bringing them in through city gates!) and an interesting counterpoint, in the post-Alexander Hellenistic world, to the anti-Hellenism presented by Jodi Magness in her Great Courses (The Holy Land Revealed) discussion of the books of Maccabees.

I just picked up a copy of Mary Beard's Twelve Caesars and it isn't what I thought it was! I thought it was a biography of twelve caesars long the lines of Suetonius but the subtitle set me straight: "Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern". It's more of an art history book (makes sense if I had given it more than a cursory thought as SPQR is a book that I had tried in audio only to be frustrated by the artwork she refers to but that I couldn't see!) Anyway, it's only really about 288 pages (appendix and index add almost 100 pages more) and there are plenty of illustrations in glorious color! I think I'm going to try and get this finished before the end of the month/quarter :-)

>64 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I hope it's serendipitous!

Elaine Pagels, Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation 2½**.

A quick read and rather superficial. I've been simultaneously watching Craig Koester's The Apocalypse: Controversies and Meaning in Western History (Great Courses video), which is much better. My biggest problem is that Pagels is awfully skimpy on her actual analysis of the Revelation text, to which Koester devotes greater attention; but Pagels really doesn't give that much attention to the impact of Revelation after Athanasius of Alexandria in the fourth century, with little attention given to Revelation in the Reformation era, in African-American culture, and other times and places.

I haven't finished the Koester video and won't for another week or so, but I'll post about that when I do. Before I started either Pagels or Koester, I did give a reread to Revelation using the positively gorgeous NRSV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan publisher), the only defect of which is that it's a strictly Protestant canon – but I also have the New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha, which includes the Roman, Greek, and Slavonic deuterocanons.

I read Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. Although it has a few flaws, I enjoyed reading this book immensely.

I'm coming to this group mid-year, so I'm afraid I won't get anything read before the end of June, BUT one of my goals this year is to focus on The Ancient World section of historical fiction in The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Ultimate Reading List. This was published in 2007, so it doesn't include any recent titles. These are on my list (I won't get to all of them this year, but the goal is to maybe read 3 or 4 - too bad I wasn't following this group earlier, or I certainly would have made it a priority this quarter!):
The Assyrian
The Beacon at Alexandria
Gates of Fire
The Gilded Chamber
Hippopotamus Marsh
King and Goddess
I added a few more from other sections of the book, and some of my own selections...
I, Claudius
Roman Blood
Silver Pigs
One for Sorrow

Then, a few weeks ago, an online friend of mine, who happens to be a channeler and does past-life stuff, responded to my gardening plans by casually saying "well you know how it is when you were once a gardener at the hanging gardens of Babylon..."

Of course, that sent me right to Google to "research" this. One theory suggests that the hanging gardens were actually in Nineveh, not Babylon. This makes sense to me. One of the books above -
The Assyrian - would seem to fit perfectly. It is about the son of Sennacherib, the creator of the famed palace and gardens in Nineveh... close enough. Looking for it on Libby it suggested a couple of other books to me:
Song of Redemption which is about King Hezekiah and his daughter - Hezekiah was the king of Judah during the reign of Sennacherib. And now I see that that is the second of a series so I must read the 1st book first...
Gods and Kings which I already own on Kindle. Oh good, it is also about Hezekiah...
The prophet Isaiah is also from that time period, so I put a hold on
Isaiah's Daughter. That one has a waiting list of ~8 weeks though.

Oh! I can count a book for this quarter. I read
The Wolf Den in April, the first of a trilogy set in ancient Pompeii. I read this one because the next book The House with the Golden Door is in my list of "door" titles which is my main "theme" for the year. I've had a hold on it since April, and it is still ~4 weeks out on Libby. Here's my review of The Wolf Den:

"A sometimes emotionally difficult read, since this depicts the lives of women enslaved to work as prostitutes in Pompeii. Not overly familiar myself with ancient Roman customs, what little research I did supported the general historical accuracy of the lives of these women, including the wearing of togas. Normally only worn by men, it is generally accepted that prostitutes did wear a form of toga, which would have marked them as inferior. Free women did not wear togas, and the usual stola and tunic was forbidden to prostitutes. As slaves, they had no legal protection, and were often abused. Any resulting children were the property of the owner, to dispose of (or not) as they pleased. Not heavy on plot. This is about the women and their complicated feelings and relationships with each other, with their owner, with the community, and with their customers."

Description (from Amazon): Amara was once the beloved daughter of a doctor in Greece, until her father’s sudden death plunged her mother into destitution. Now Amara is a slave and prostitute in Pompeii’s notorious Wolf Den brothel or lupanar, owned by a cruel and ruthless man. Intelligent and resourceful, she is forced to hide her true self. But her spirit is far from broken. Buoyed by the sisterhood she forges with the brothel’s other women, Amara finds solace in the laughter and hopes they all share. For the streets of the city are alive with opportunity—here, even the lowest-born slave can dream of a new beginning. But everything in Pompeii has a price. How much will Amara’s freedom cost her?

>68 WelshBookworm: Welcome to the group! I came to this group just a couple years ago and my stacks have exploded with recommended books and others that have caught my eye!

I get a little obsessed with lists so I think The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List (by Shelley Mosley) seems awfully dangerous to my shelves’ ability to handle any more weight and my budget’s allowance for more books! 😂

>69 Tanya-dogearedcopy: And everybody has their own ideas about what constitutes the "ultimate" list of books to read. I got a copy through ILL at the library to look at before I decided I wanted to have it, and found a used copy pretty cheaply. I'm mostly interested in the historical fiction.

I have finished Von Gibbon zu Rostovtzeff in which the author presents the life and work of fifteen eminent scholars of ancient history. It was fascinationg to see how the discipline evolved over the centuries.

Susanna Kearsley's "The Shadowy Horses" sets an archaeological dig around the Roman Legio IX Hispana which went missing in Britain in 120C.E.

"Skystone" by Jack Whyte fits this category as well as the Arthurian legends.

Long before there was an Arthur or Camelot, there was the Roman occupation of Britain beginning in the 1st Century C.E., lasting until the beginning of the 5th Century. The first part of the story establishes the character of and relationship between Romans General Caius Britannicus and his primus pilus, Publius Varrus. These two men will become the grandfathers of Arthur.

Caius and Publius are fictional, but the major Roman characters and events are historically accurate. The overrun of the Hadrian Wall in 367C.E., which features the two men in action, the revolts against command and Rome, multiple emporers, the steady decline in morale and effectiveness of the legions and the ultimate with drawal of all legions back to Rome are factual.

Because he foresees this collapse coming long before others, Caius lays the foundation for a secure settlement around his ancestral lands. Publius, cashiered out of the legion due to an injury which left him crippled in one leg, returns to his grandfather's smithy where he turns out weapons for the legions based in Colchester, a job which others look down upon, including Caius, initially. Caius urges Publius to join his colony near Aqua Sulis, but Publius refuses until circumstances force him to flee Colchester.

The skystone of the title will become the metal from which Publius will forge Excalibur.

oh I like that!

Just finished my last read (watch, actually) for this quarter, Craig Koester's The Apocalypse: Controversies and Meaning in Western History (Great Courses video) 4½****. I took off a half-point on this one because I didn't find it quite up to the quality of the two Great Courses videos that I watched this month by Jodi Magness (>13 CurrerBell: >42 CurrerBell:) and the Alexander GC video by Kenneth Harl (>63 CurrerBell:). Koester was quite good, but just a little bit "flat" at times in his presentation, not quite up to Magness or Harl (and both of their subjects were more interesting as well).

Koester's video was far better, though, than the Revelations book by Elaine Pagels (>66 CurrerBell:).

Okay, that's it for me for this quarterly read. I now (with the Koester video) have six Great Courses, along with two books by Elaine Pagels (on Judas and Revelations). I've been primarily Biblical for Q2 but also include (on GC videos) the Etruscans and Alexander the Great.

I really do want to get on to this month's reads, Wonders of the World, and here I have ten out of 24 of the Newsweek Book Division's Wonders of Man series which are all fairly short and which I'd like to get out of the way for ROOTing. And there are also a few "Wonders" GC videos, both human and natural (though I don't count videos for ROOTing, even if they are lengthy and academically rigorous like the GC).

Mmmmm, and bad me, I've also got two Early Review books to get finished and reviews posted, and it's been a couple years no.

ETA: The Koester video isn't just the "Biblical era"; it includes Revelation's influences on the early and high Middle Ages, the Reformation, African-American spirituals, social reform, and current-day stuff like "Left Behind" as well as more basic spirituality. The first twelve of the 24 sessions, though, concentrate on a thorough explication of Revelation, so I think this one does qualify for Q2. One thing I found especially useful was Koester's explanation of the differences between amillennialism, pre-millennialism, post-millennialism, and dispensationalism.

pirkei avot : a social justice commentary

finally got around to finishing this; written by a local rabbi, this considers the commentaries of the rabbis of the talmadic time period

" Pirkei Avot means 'the ethics of the fathers, or the words of the sages ' 'The Talmud* deals with rituals, sarifices and points of theology. The Pirkei Avot** draws upon Jewish ethical tradition and expands these teachings in a clear and simple way. "ethics of the fathers should serve as an inspiration and challenge to our generation to follow in th foorstes of the sages-to offfer new wisdom, to uncovernew revelation, to unite past, present and future, and to help the Jewish people and all humanity to fin their way toward a perfected world"

He takes the paragraphs from the Talmud and commentaries and considers a more modern interpretation

One of the pirket avot I have always tried to follow "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to disist from it" a commentary includeded by the author: our work to heal the brokeness of the world is never done 'if thre is a sapling in you hand when you hear the Messiah has come complete the planting of the sapling, then go and welcome the Messiah, onve we stop planting for the future, the path toward redemption is lost forever

*The Talmud is a record of the rabbinic debates in the 2nd-5th century on the teachings of the Torah

**It contains sayings attributed to sages from Simon the Just (200 BCE) to shortly after Judah haNasi (200 CE),

My Libby audiobook hold on The House With the Golden Door finally came available, so I will at least start it in this quarter. Maybe even finish it, but I have another audiobook to finish first. It is set in Pompeii before the eruption of Vesuvius that buried everything. It is the second book of a trilogy. I read The Wolf Den in April.

I finished Alexander the Great by Frank Lipsius, which I have had on my shelves probably since I was in college. It recounts Alexander's life and military conquests. It's a very straightforward retelling of his story, accompanied by many illustrations, including current photos of some of the places Alexander visited, pictures of many ancient artifacts, statues, and busts, etc. It's a good introduction to Alexander the Great. This fulfills my goal to read a nonfiction book for this challenge, in addition to the fiction book I read last month.

I can report one more book for this period, Alexander in Babylon, which is a retelling of his last days. I would have liked to know a bit more about how the author came to his topic and how much was known about Mesopotamia at the time. I got a strong sense that his descriptions of Babylon were heavily flavoured by the Bible.

I’m falling behind in my reads for Reading Through Time but I finished Blood of the Celts: The New Ancestral Story which was a new look at the Celts and what present techniques and scholarship can tell us about these ancient people. It was very readable.

I FINALLY got my hold on the 2nd book of a trilogy set in 1st century Pompeii: The House With the Golden Door. The 3rd book, The Temple of Fortuna, seems to only be available on audio through Audible, so I may be using one of my credits.

I am late with Geschichte der Spätantike because it runs to 604 pages. A concise history of the later Roman Empire.