The Roman Empire ruled the September 2021 meeting. Covering large spans of both geography and time, the topic provided an opportunity to show a wide range of books, from classic texts to modern retellings. From ancient Rome to medieval Britain to Reformation France, the books presented emphasized the influence of the Roman Empire and its continued impact following its decline. Members offered works of mythology, theology, and history. The books are arranged here in categories of primary texts, reference and nonfiction, and historical fiction and modern retellings.
Primary Texts
 |
| Ashen Sky |
Gilman, Benedicte. Ashen Sky: The Letters of Pliny the Younger on the Eruption of Vesuvius. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007. Illustrated by Barry Moser. Gilman translates the two letters written by Pliny the Younger (61 – c. 113 CE), a lawyer and magistrate of Rome, to Cornelius Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 120 CE), a historian and politician, about the death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder (c. 23 – 79 CE), a philosopher and provincial governor, and about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Gilman also introduces the letters and provides information about the volcanic eruption, biographical sketches of the writer, recipient, and subject of the letters, and the history of the letters' survival. Moser illustrates Pliny's descriptions in the letters with black-and-white relief engravings.
 |
| The City of God |
Augustine, 354-430. The City of God. Translated by Marcus Dods. New York: The Modern Library (Random House), 1977. Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430 CE) wrote The City of God in response to allegations that Christianity was responsible for the decline and fall of Rome. Theodosius I, emperor from 379 to 395 CE, issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 CE, which established Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. Thirty years later, in 410 CE, the sack of Rome by the Visigoths resulted in a backlash against Christianity by many Romans, who saw the city's fall as a punishment for abandoning the traditional Roman religion, paganism, in favor of the Catholicism of the Nicene Christians. Augustine wrote The City of God arguing that Christianity was not responsible for the sack of Rome; instead, Christianity was responsible for the success of Rome. It was written not only in response to the criticism of the pagans but also to console Christians during this stressful time. Augustine claimed the book's message was primarily spiritual, not political, despite the context in which it was written. He contended even if the earthy Empire was imperiled, the City of God would ultimately prevail; he asserted his focus was on the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, rather than the earthly politics of Rome.
Written in Latin, Augustine completed De civitate Dei contra paganos (On
the city of God against the pagans) in 426 CE, sixteen years after the sack of
Rome. The book was first translated into
English by John Healey in 1610. It was
again translated by Marcus Dods (1834 – 1909), a biblical scholar and minister
of the Free Church of Scotland, and first published in 1871; Dods credited
George Wilson and J. J. Smith with translating some sections of the book. Dod's translation was first republished by
The Modern Library with a new introduction by Thomas Merton in 1950. This copy is a reset issue of the 1950
edition, issued May 12, 1977.
 |
| The History of the Kings of Britain |
Geoffrey of Monmouth.
The History of the Kings of Britain. London: Folio Society, 1984. A pseudohistorical account of British history,
Geoffrey's work chronicles the kings of the Britons over roughly two thousand
years. The work was widely popular and considered
historically accurate well into the 17th Century. Though its historical accuracy has been
discounted, the work retains significance as medieval literature. Written around 1136 and originally titled Historia
regum Britanniae in Latin, the book contains the early known version of the
King Lear story as well as early Arthurian legend. Book Four of The History of the Kings of
Britain covers the Roman rule of Britain beginning with the invasion of
Britain by Julius Caesar and ending with the death of Constantine. While some of the events described by Geoffrey
are corroborated by contemporary histories, many more accounts are outrageously
inaccurate.
 |
| Douay-Rheims Roman Catholic version of the Bible, in 3 volumes: Old Testament, books 1 and 2; New Testament |
Martin, Gregory. The New Testament of Jesus Christ, Translated Faithfully into English out of the Authentical Latin. Rhemes: John Fogny, 1582. Roman Catholic Version, or Douay–Rheims Bible. New Testament.
Martin, Gregory. The Holie Bible, Faithfully Translated
into English out of the Authentical Latin.
Doway: Laurence Kellam, 1609. Roman
Catholic Version, or Douay–Rheims Bible.
Old Testament, Volume One: Genesis through Job.
Martin, Gregory. The Second Tome of the Holie Bible,
Faithfully Translated into English out of the Authentical Latin. Doway: Laurence Kellam, 1610. Roman Catholic Version, or Douay–Rheims
Bible. Old Testament: Volume Two: Psalms
through Malachi.
 |
| Title pages of the Douay-Rheims Roman Catholic version of the Bible |
One of the most important and enduring actions by the Protestants at the beginning of the Reformation era was to translate the Bible into the language of the people so that they could read and interpret it for themselves. The Roman Catholic Church for centuries had recognized the Latin Bible only as the true Word of God and left it to the clergy to interpret it to the people who were not able to read it for themselves. When the Protestant reign of Queen Elizabeth was restored after the Roman Catholic tenure of "Bloody" Mary, a number of English Catholic leaders immigrated to France and established a seminary in the city of Rheims to educate their ministers to restore the Catholic Church in England after the Reformation antics were over.
Amazingly, the Catholic leaders in
Rheims received permission from the Pope to prepare a translation of the Latin
Bible into English. One of their
professors, Gregory Martin, was authorized to do the translation, and the New
Testament was completed in 1582, though the Old Testament was not published
until 1609-10 after the seminary had moved to the city of Douai.
The Roman Catholic version never achieved the popular
endorsement of the people. The Catholics
had been taught for centuries that the Latin Bible was the only true Scripture
and would not consider an English translation, and the Protestants found
amusement in many of the unusual renderings, once referring to it as "a
translation in need of translation." Consider this verse from the popular 23rd
Psalm: "Thou hast fatted my head with oil, and my chalice inebriating, how
goodly is it!"
 |
| Psalm 23 (22 in the Roman Catholic version) |
As in the Protestant Bible with its anti-Catholic annotations, the Rheims/Douai version was equally anti-Protestant: "One cannot serve God and mammon, Christ and Calvin, the true church and heretical conventicles." Later editions made improvements over these first printings, especially the revision by Richard Challoner, but the Roman Catholic version never achieved the recognition and respect which the Protestant versions, particularly the Authorized "King James" Bible, enjoyed.
Reference and Nonfiction
 |
| Rome and The Roman Empire |
Fowler, W. Warde. Rome. Second edition, revised by Martin Percival Charlesworth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952. Reprint. Volume 42 of The Home University Library of Modern Knowledge. Fowler offers an overview of the development and growth of the Roman Empire. The majority of the work focuses on the Republic, the period in which Rome was led by a representative government; minor attention is given to the Principate, when the republic was transformed into an emperor-run government. First published by Fowler in 1912, a second edition was revised by Charlesworth in 1947 for the Home University Library series.
Charlesworth, Martin Percival. The Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954. Volume 219 of The Home University Library of
Modern Knowledge. Charlesworth describes
the everyday life of Roman citizens in the first three centuries of the Empire,
covering the reigns of Augustus through Constantine (27 BCE – 337 CE). He depicts the living and work conditions,
prevailing thoughts, and benefits and protections afforded by Roman
citizenship. Charlesworth argues life in
imperial Rome was generally peaceful and stable during the first two centuries,
but this standard of living waned in the third century, following the reign of
Caracalla (198 – 217 CE).
The Home University Library of Modern Knowledge was a series of popular non-fiction books that ran to over 200 volumes. The first volume was published in 1911. The series was bought out by Oxford University Press in 1928 and continued under that name until 1966.
 |
| Roman Britain |
Richmond, Ian. Roman Britain. London: William Collins, 1947. From the Britain in Pictures series (#113 of 126 titles), published from 1941 to 1948. Richmond was an archaeologist and Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire at the University of Oxford. He also held simultaneous posts at the British School at Rome, the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, and the Society of Antiquaries of London. Using antiquities and artifacts excavated at archaeological sites in Britain, Roman Britain provides a history of Britain in the Roman period, focusing on the period 55 BCE to 449 CE. Richmond's history is complemented by 8 color plates and 22 black-and white images, illustrations, and maps. Richmond expanded this popular essay into a much larger book of the same title in 1955.
The Britain in Pictures series was published from 1941 to 1948, consisting of 126 printed titles (out of 132 intended books). The purpose of the series was to tell a social history of Britain to instill a sense of pride in its citizens during and after World War II. Seeking to maintain a sense of national identity, the series sought to celebrate Britain's contributions to the arts, sciences, industry, and culture. Michael Carney, a bibliographer of the series, called it "the best kind of propaganda." Many of the books were written by popular authors of the time including George Orwell, Cecil Beaton, Edith Sitwell, Graham Greene, John Betjeman, Vita Sackville-West, and Elizabeth Bowen.
Historical Fiction and Modern Retellings
 |
| I, Claudius |
Graves, Robert. I, Claudius. New York: Random House, 1961. Book Club edition. First published in 1934, this historical novel is written in the form of an autobiography of the fourth Roman emperor, who ruled from 41 to 54 CE. The novel tells the history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which consisted of the first five emperors of Rome: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. While a work of fiction, Graves draws from historical accounts of contemporaneous Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus. I, Claudius was followed by a sequel, Claudius the God, in 1935. I, Claudius won the 1934 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
 |
| The Dark Island |
Treece, Henry. The Dark Island. New York: Random House, 1952. First edition. "A distinguished historical novel of the dawn of Britain," The Dark Island is part of the author's Celtic Tetralogy. The story is set in first century Britain and situated in the time of Caratacus (c. 10 – c. 50 CE), a British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who resisted the Roman conquest of Britain. Treece's fictional story follows the context of the defeat of Caratacus by the Romans after the invasion. Treece portrays Celtic Britain as a dark and violent world before the "civilizing" influence of Rome; the Romans, however, are not the heroes, as the theme of this story is the notion of holding on to ideals in the face of overwhelming forces.
 |
| Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes |
Riordan, Rick. Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes. New York: Hyperion Publishing, 2015. Illustrated by John Rocco. Dubbed the "storyteller of the gods," Rick Riordan refreshingly retells the myths and legends of the ancient Greek gods and heroes. Told in the voice of Percy Jackson, the author's modern fictional character and narrator, ancient Greek mythology is reimagined in the modern world. The Greek gods, for example, live atop the Empire State Building but humans cannot see the additional floors. Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes retells the legends of the Greek heroes Perseus, Psyche, Phaethon, Otrera, Daedalus, Theseus, Atalanta, Bellerophon, Cyrene, Orpheus, Hercules, and Jason. This title is a companion to Percy Jackson's Greek Gods (2014), which similarly retells the myths of Zeus, Hestia, Demeter, Persephone, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, and Dionysus.
 |
| Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Ultimate Guide |
Knight, Mary-Jane.
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Ultimate Guide. New York: Hyperion Publishing, 2009. With trading cards (9 cards). The Ultimate Guide is a novelty
companion book to Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians
series. The handbook is a fully
illustrated guide to the gods, heroes, and monsters of the Percy Jackson
universe of Greek mythology. The
manual-style book features a flap enclosure with a magnetic clasp containing trading
cards, diagrams, and maps.
 |
| The Ultimate Guide trading cards |
