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Sto caricando le informazioni... Antony and Cleopatra (originale 2010; edizione 2010)di Adrian Goldsworthy (Autore)
Informazioni sull'operaAntony and Cleopatra di Adrian Goldsworthy (2010)
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"Far from being a book that an expert on late Republican and early imperial Rome might dismiss as “popular,” Goldsworthy’s history should be considered essential reading for anyone interested in the rise of Octavian and the birth of the principate." Adrian Goldsworthy gives an uninspiring account of the city [of Alexandria]. His prose fails to fly and uninstructed readers may occasionally get stuck in dense narrative thickets, but, a judicious scholar, he knows his subject backwards. Above all, Goldsworthy understands military matters. "Goldsworthy’s account of an Antony demoralised by earlier failures, making one wrong decision after another, and at last — disgracefully — saving himself, is persuasive, and fits all the sources."
In this remarkable dual biography of the two great lovers of antiquity, preeminent historian Adrian Goldsworthy goes beyond myth and romance to create a nuanced and historically acute portrayal of his subjects--who were first and foremost "political animals." Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)937.05History and Geography Ancient World Italian Peninsula to 476 and adjacent territories to 476 Italian Peninsula to 476 and adjacent territories to 476 Civil strife 146-21 B.C.Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
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There is a bad tendency of biographers of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII, going back all the way to William Shakespeare (indeed, going all the way back to Roman times) to sensationalize or romanticize: To give us Cleopatra the femme fatale or the two of them as besotted lovers. There has also been a certain tendency, in recent years, to hold up Cleopatra as a feminist icon because she was an early queen who truly ruled.
It's mostly bunk. Popular bunk, good for sales, but it's not true. Mark Antony was a moderately talented man who first got lucky because Julius Caesar liked him, and then got unlucky because he wasn't nearly as smart as that punk kid Octavian, and he never figured that out. Cleopatra, by all available evidence, was a very intelligent, very efficient woman -- who, however, loved power and was ruthless in her use of it. She may have been a good lover, but that doesn't mean you'd want her for your ruler. And this book lets us see that: We see Antony in his spendthrift ways, his drinking, his womanizing, his inability to read a situation. And we see Cleopatra in her endless scheming.
We also have pointed out to us all the things we don't know, ranging from what Cleopatra looked like (was she exceptionally beautiful, or was she the woman with the hooked nose on her coins?) to the ancestry of a whole bunch of people, to the various treaties, agreements, and negotiations that we simply are not privy to. At times it gets a little monotonous to simply be told that we don't know -- but that's far better than thinking we know something we don't!
And, on top of all that, it's a good read.
I wouldn't call it a perfect book. For those who don't know much Roman history, it's a bit weak on Roman officialdom (quaestor, aedile, praetor, consul, tribune) and their authority (imperium, and its extension once out of office; also, the relationship between office and military service, and the management of legions). I would have put in more about the later Ptolemies (Ptolemy VI and his brother Ptolemy VIII and their sister-wife Cleopatra II and their daughter-wife Cleopatra III) and how their relationships put Egypt in the weak situation it ended up in in the time of Cleopatra VII. The coverage of the Pharsalus campaign, which ultimately resulted in Julius Caesar meeting Cleopatra, struck me as a little thin, too. And I would have liked to see more about Antony's and Octavian's senior followers -- especially on Antony's side: Why did Canidius join him and stick with him? But those are small things -- if the questions intrigue you, you can try other sources. On the whole, this is an excellent piece of work that will benefit anyone interested in the fall of the Roman Republic. ( )