Why I'm doing this

Because I am a historiphile, I always have been. I love reading about antiquity in all its glory as well as its brutal shame. I do not romanticize the past, but I always seek a balance between recognizing savagery and tipping my hat to the truly great accomplishments of our predecessors.

This blog will focus, at least for the time being, on Ancient Roman history, from the 700's BCE to the 500's CE. And yes, though I am a Christian, and a very serious one at that, I will be counting years using the BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) system. It's what good scholars use, and though I'm just a dude sitting on a couch with his laptop, I would like to follow the practices of good scholarship.

That being said, I will by no means simply report history as it is told to me by Tacitus or any other aristocrat. They have their stories, but their stories revolve around themselves, and I would like to find and reveal the hidden stories; the legionnaire who has been digging a trench for three days for a temporary fortification and dies of exhaustion, the people who lived in peace until salt was discovered in the nearby mountains. Of course, I won't completely ignore the wealthy and victorious (who typically have told the story of Rome), but I won't be relying on their word alone.

The most important question that Historians should answer is, what can we learn from the past? While many see similarities between Rome and the modern-day United States, I will balance my conclusions with practical realities. The Romans did not have satellite technology, they didn't have firearms, and they had little to no notion of the liberty of the common man. While I do think there is much we can learn from them, we should not get carried away in any kind of Battlestar Galactica "All of this has happened before . . ." kind of philosophy. While I do believe that history repeats itself, I don't believe it ever repeats itself the same way.

I will also write extensively about Rome's neighbors and competitors. Expect some huge posts about Carthage in the future, as well as the early Spanish and Bythinians. For now, or at least the next few months, I will be focusing on early Rome, that is the BCE Rome. How did a city on the western side of the Italian Peninsula become so important to so many? This and other questions will be answered (in part) next time. Pax Vobiscum.