Paper Summary:

This paper discusses "The Roman Historians" by Ronald Mellor and the four historians he describes: Sallust, Livy, Tacitus, and Ammianus Marcellinus. The writer shows how Mellor's book provides a picture of the moral values expected of political Romans and their people, and how the writings of the four historians have the common theme that history was written to guide others in the future to ruling a nation with virtuous qualities and expectations. Each of the four historians discussed paints a picture of declining Rome and the negative aspects of rule. The paper concludes, if history indeed repeats itself, then there is a parallel between ancient Roman political history and America's government and political agenda today.

From the Paper:

"Although the historians wrote mainly for political purposes, teachers of Roman states used examples from poems, biographies, autobiographies, and stories written by the historians to teach morals to their students (4). Although there are many influential historians, there are two in particular who focused their writings based on morals. One writer who influenced many of the writings of Roman history is Marcus Porcius Cato (234 -149 BCE). (17). Cato is primarily remembered for criticizing families of aristocratic upbringing for their practices in "personal luxury, political corruption, and servile acceptance of Greek ideas"."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Mellor, Ronald. The Roman Historians. London & New York: Routledge, 1999.

Visitors who viewed this Book Review also liked these:

• Analytical Essay # 42103 : "The Roman Fountain"
• Essay # 87173 : "Augustus and the Roman State"
• Essay # 32553 : "The Roman Republic"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: