Characters and events of Roman history, from Caesar to Nero (1909) by Guglielmo Ferrer

Characters and events of Roman history

Contents of the book:

"Corruption" in ancient Rome, and its counterpart in modern history. - The history and legend of Antony and Cleopatra. - The development of Gaul. - Nero. - Julia and Tiberius. - Wine in Roman history. - Social development of the Roman empire. - Roman history in modern education. - Index

Excerpt:

The first lecture, "The Theory of Corruption in Roman History," sums up the fundamental idea of my conception of the history of Rome. The essential phenomenon upon which all the political, social, and moral crises of Rome depend Preface v is the transformation of customs produced by the augmentation of wealth, of expenditure, and of needs, — a phenomenon, therefore, of psycho-logical order, and one common in contemporary life. This lecture should show that my work does not belong among those written after the method of economic materialism, for I hold that the fundamental force in history is psychologic and not economic. 

The three following lectures, "The History and Legend of Antony and Cleopatra," "The Development of Gaul," and "Nero," seem to concern themselves with very different subjects. On the contrary, they present three different aspects of the one, identical problem — the struggle between the Occident and the Orient — a problem that Rome succeeded in solving as no European civilisation has since been able to do, making the countries of the Mediterranean Basin share a common life, in peace. How Rome succeeded in accomplishing this union of Orient and Occident is one of the points of greatest interest in its history

Guglielmo Ferrero was an Italian historian, journalist and novelist, author of the Greatness and Decline of Rome. Ferrero devoted his writings to classical liberalism and he opposed any kind of dictatorship and unlimited government. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twenty times in six years.

 Translated by Frances Lance  

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