Thoughtful, three-dimensional portrait of a woman who helped reshape ancient Rome.
The scheming, murderous empress of Robert Graves’ I, Claudius gets more sympathetic treatment in this brief biography.
Graves followed the example of ancient historians who viewed Livia Drusilla (58 or 59 B.C.E.–29 C.E.) as power-hungry and overbearing; Brandeis classical studies professor Gillespie, to the contrary, depicts her as the devoted wife and equal partner of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor. A member of the patrician Claudian family, Livia overcame the scandal of divorcing her first husband and marrying Augustus three days after the birth of her second son to become a symbol of the modest, chaste Roman wife and mother. This image buttressed Augustus’ campaign to justify the end of the Republic by positioning himself as the “first citizen” who restored Rome to its traditional values. Livia’s demure public persona only partly abated unease about her influence over Augustus, wielded most notably to ensure that her son Tiberius succeeded him as emperor. The unprecedented honors Augustus granted Livia, including financial independence and the right to be depicted in public statues, reinforced the impression that she had power greater than any previous Roman woman. Showering charitable contributions on institutions associated with such “womanly things” as marriage and motherhood kept her generally admired, although political struggles with Tiberius after Augustus’ death in 14 C.E. began to damage her standing. Nonetheless, Livia remained popular enough that the Senate wanted to honor her with the title “Mother of the Country.” Tiberius blocked it, but her grandson, Claudius, had her declared a goddess in 42 C.E., and she was an object of cult worship into the late second century. Drawing on ancient and modern sources, Gillespie provides nuanced assessments of Livia’s relationships with Augustus, Tiberius, and other members of the imperial family, though general readers may find its web of adoptions, marriages, and divorces hard to untangle.
Thoughtful, three-dimensional portrait of a woman who helped reshape ancient Rome.Pub Date: July 21, 2026
ISBN: 9780300275100
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
An erudite guide to the biblical world.
Revelations from the Old Testament.
“The Bible has no rivals when it comes to the art of omission, of not saying what everyone would like to know,” observes Calasso (1941-2021), the acclaimed Italian publisher, translator, and explorer of myth, gods, and sacred ritual. In this probing inquiry into biblical mysteries, the author meditates on the complexities and contradictions of key events and figures. He examines the “enigmatic nature” of original sin in Genesis, an anomaly occurring in no other creation myth; God’s mandate of circumcision for all Jewish men; and theomorphism in the form of Adam: a man created in the image of the god who made him. Among the individuals Calasso attends to in an abundantly populated volume are Saul, the first king of Israel; the handsome shepherd David, his successor; David’s son Solomon, whose relatively peaceful reign allowed him “to look at the world and study it”; Moses, steeped in “law and vengeance,” who incited the slaughter of firstborn sons; and powerful women, including the Queen of Sheba (“very beautiful and probably a witch”), Jezebel, and the “prophetess” Miriam, Moses’ sister. Raging throughout is Yahweh, a vengeful God who demands unquestioned obedience to his commandments. “Yahweh was a god who wanted to defeat other gods,” Calasso writes. “I am a jealous God,” Yahweh proclaims, “who punishes the children for the sins of their fathers, as far as the third and fourth generations.” Conflicts seemed endless: During the reigns of Saul and David, “war was constant, war without and war within.” Terse exchanges between David and Yahweh were, above all, “military decisions.” David’s 40-year reign was “harrowing and glorious,” marked by recurring battles with the Philistines. Calasso makes palpable schisms and rivalries, persecutions and retributions, holocausts and sacrifices as tribal groups battled one another to form “a single entity”—the people of Israel.
An erudite guide to the biblical world.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-60189-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A feast for students of ancient history and budding historians of any period.
A delightful new translation of what is widely considered the first work of history and nonfiction.
Herodotus has a wonderful, gossipy style that makes reading these histories more fun than studying the rise of the Persian Empire and its clash with Greece—however, that’s exactly what readers will do in this engaging history, which is full of interesting digressions and asides. Holland (In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire, 2012, etc.), whose lifelong devotion to Herodotus, Thucydides and other classical writers is unquestionable, provides an engaging modern translation. As Holland writes, Herodotus’ “great work is many things—the first example of nonfiction, the text that underlies the entire discipline of history, the most important source of information we have for a vital episode in human affairs—but it is above all a treasure-trove of wonders.” Those just being introduced to the Father of History will agree with the translator’s note that this is “the greatest shaggy-dog story ever written.” Herodotus set out to explore the causes of the Greco-Persian Wars and to explore the inability of East and West to live together. This is as much a world geography and ethnic history as anything else, and Herodotus enumerates social, religious and cultural habits of the vast (known) world, right down to the three mummification options available to Egyptians. This ancient Greek historian could easily be called the father of humor, as well; he irreverently describes events, players and their countless harebrained schemes. Especially enjoyable are his descriptions of the Persians making significant decisions under the influence and then waiting to vote again when sober. The gifts Herodotus gave history are the importance of identifying multiple sources and examining differing views.
A feast for students of ancient history and budding historians of any period.Pub Date: May 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-670-02489-6
Page Count: 840
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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