A History of the Roman World

A History of the Roman World

By. Salmon, E.T

The Book A History of the Roman World is about the history of Rome and the height of the Roman Empire. The book goes in great detail on the Emperors and the timeline of events in the Roman Empire, however, there is much more to the empire than those two aspects. This book fails to show the social aspect such as the integration of other cultures into the empire, and the differences between the social classes.

The first strength of this book is that information on emperors of Rome is easy to look up in this book. It goes into detail on how each emperor came into power to how they were killed or why they left power. Each emperor is depicted on what they did and how it helped or hurt the empire.

The next strength is the timeline of events is very important (as it is in any history book). This book is as precise as can be with the ancient information. It has each emperor's ruling years in it and when important events happened. It doesn't jump around from one event to another, it leads into them in order.

Thanks to Humanities in Western Tradition, I have gained a greater understanding that there were many different social classes in Rome, such as the Plebians and the Patricians. The plebians were the common people, who did all the fighting and work. They still had no political power. The patricians were the upper, wealthier class that ran the government, until Caesar came along. (Yes, I actually learned something in this class) This book had nothing about them. It didn't have anything that showed the social disorder or order of the Roman Empire. Reading this book doesn't inform on how the lower class was treated. This book goes into how the senate served the government, but it doesn't say how they were revered by the people.

While being very informative in where the Roman Empire expanded to, this book was unrevealing on how the new conquered areas fit into the empire. Did the new areas just sit there and keep to themselves? This book doesn't mention anything on the subject. The integration of other cultures on the Roman society is absent in this book.

Another weakness is the emptiness of religion. The Jews and Christians didn't exist in the Roman Empire, according to this book. There is little reference to any type