Questioning Reputations: Essays on Nine Roman Republican Politicians

Questioning Reputations: Essays on Nine Roman Republican Politicians by R.J. Evans

reviewed by Bryaxis Hecatee

In Questioning reputations: essays on nine republican politicians (2003) we find a book whose main goal is to invite us to re-evaluate what we know of nine iconic personalities of the first century B.C., three of them major actors of the period and six of them, analyzed in pairs, being considered as minor personages in our sources despite their undeniable importance in the events of the time. This is done by a close analysis of the ancient sources, each of which being searched for bias or hidden agendas that might make their historical authors distort the facts. First looking at specific aspects of the lives of Marius, Pompey and Caesar, R. J. Evans continues by comparing the lives of Saturninus and Glaucia, Drusus and Sulpicius and then Clodius and Milo...

...read the full review of Questioning Reputations: Essays on Nine Roman Republican Politicians by R. J. Evans

I say, just reading the review .... how terrible in this day and age to have typos and double lines and mistakes like that. It would make me question any sources or conclusions; figuring the author did not even take the time to read over what would seem a first and very rough draft.

I like the subject matter; I don't think I would purchase the work based on this review.

The amount of errors in this book due to what appears to be poor editing is quite worrying but I've gotta say that I do like the sound of the book as a whole, the main protagonists that are discussed are some of the most interesting people and some of my favourite characters from this era of Roman history, plus I do like the fact that the author maybe strays from the path occasionally, so for that reason I just might invest in these essays!

Btw nice review Bryaxis

I'm not sure the author's all that much at fault for the editing process, but some of the mistakes could indeed be his. As for the content in itself, it's truly a book to read only if you want to go deeper than usual and question the accepted reading on events and peoples of the time, even if you don't accept everything at the end. But I would probably not invest in the book for a private library, it might be better to go to your local library and loan it there instead.

and, GPM, thanks : I try to be fair in my reviews and bring out the bad as well as the good, so I hope I achieved my gaol.