Roman Honor: The Fire in the Bones by Carlin A. Barton (PDF)

Description

This book is an attempt to coax Roman history closer to the bone, to the breath and matter of the living being. Drawing from a remarkable array of ancient and modern sources, Carlin Barton offers the most complex understanding to date of the emotional and spiritual life of the ancient Romans. Her provocative and original inquiry focuses on the sentiments of honor that shaped the Romans’ sense of themselves and their society. Speaking directly to the concerns and curiosities of the contemporary reader, Barton brings Roman society to life, elucidating the complex relation between the inner life of its citizens and its social fabric.Though thoroughly grounded in the ancient writings―especially the work of Seneca, Cicero, and Livy―this book also draws from contemporary theories of the self and social theory to deepen our understanding of ancient Rome. Barton explores the relation between inner desires and social behavior through an evocative analysis of the operation, in Roman society, of contests and ordeals, acts of supplication and confession, and the sense of shame. As she fleshes out Roman physical and psychological life, she particularly sheds new light on the consequential transition from republic to empire as a watershed of Roman social relations.Barton’s ability to build productively on both old and new scholarship on Roman history, society, and culture and her imaginative use of a wide range of work in such fields as anthropology, sociology, psychology, modern history, and popular culture will make this book appealing for readers interested in many subjects. This beautifully written work not only generates insight into Roman history, but also uses that insight to bring us to a new understanding of ourselves, our modern codes of honor, and why it is that we think and act the way we do.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “A bold book. . . . written with passion. Like her earlier Sorrows of the Ancient Romans, it is also likely to arouse passionate responses, positive and negative, among her professional colleagues. The pace is rapid, the argument built up under short vivid sub-sections.” ― Times Literary Supplement About the Author Carlin A. Barton is Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans (1993).

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is a superb book – immensely enjoyable to read, chock full of absorbing, in depth insight. With its verve and range, it’s jazz like use of the ‘poetics of quotation’, it is to Classical scholarship, what Camille Paglia is to literary criticism, Albert Murray to the novel, Marshall McLuhan to Communications Theory. I’m glad I discovered it! It is valuable reading for anyone. It will be especially valuable for psychologists and psychotherapists working in the tradition of James Hillman and Rafael Lopez Pedraza who value scholarship not only on its own terms but also for the generative insight it yields into the poetry and psychopathology of ordinary life. This book does that. The mildly adverse reviews that have appeared in scholarly journals (Kaster, Shaw, Moore) give evidence not so much of what is deficient in Roman Honor as what is deficient in contemporary Classical scholarship – too academic, too narrow, too tone deaf, as it were, to resonate and enrich beyond what even in today’s world remains the confinements of elite universities.

⭐I don’t have much to add that has already been expressed in a better way by other reviewers, other than saying this is one of the most important nonfiction books that I’ve read. Many interesting ideas presented in these pages.

⭐Being farmilliar with some Roman/Greek classics helps to get more out, but very accessable. Footnotes are fantastic as you go through. This should be taught in school. How to be a person of honor and integrity.

⭐I love Roman history and this book is the only one that treats these ancient people like human beings and not a strange alien race. I love the detail when it concerns their beliefs, customs and the Roman moral code.

⭐As advertised and on time!

⭐This is one weird book. Barton bounces back between ancient Roman speeches, comments on Freud, French films, rock bands, Christian origins and cracker barrel philosophy. She sometimes writes like the Camille Paglia of classical philology. Her footnotes, which are helpfully printed on the page they annotate, often read like a series of asides. Her parenthetical remarks — particularly those which have little or nothing to do with Roman histody (like her claim that American free speech is based on the premise that we can say whatever comes into our heads) are often tendentious and almost always provcative. Barton has a “dump truck” mind — if she thinks of something, she can’t help putting it into her hopper and pouring it on the page.And yet it works. First, Barton has a wonderful command of Latin — she would be a terrific, if idiosyncratic, translator. I have rarely read an author more comfortable with her sources. Second (and related), she can tease out what the Roman writers are getting at behind what they say. Third, she offers a wonderfully fresh view of the Romans as passionate, insecure, and rather histrionic creatures, far removed from the stoic supermen idolized by Livy and Cato. Of course Barton probably overstates her case and at times simply gets it wrong. But what is important about this book is her demonstration that the traditional view of the Romans not only needs revision but is sometimes 180 degrees off. One cannot help but wonder who Barton is (and, frankly, why we haven’t heard more about her). Even if the book lacks focus and does not come to a conclusion (or rather coes to about 20 of them), her eclectic style of analysis is worth 50 more “responsible” monographs. I want to hear more from her.

⭐Dr. Barton has done a magnificent job of introducing the Roman world to the modern reader. Throughout the book, she makes reference to the differences between modern culture and that of the Romans without simplification. This was not an easy task, since the book will probably not be a disappointment either to a well-read Classics scholar or a beginner in both its clarity and thoroughness. Dr. Barton did a great job in weaving together the various texts of the Roman world into a complete picture that is captivating. Yet, I never felt lost, even as a beginner in this area. For me, ‘Roman Honor’ was a real eye-opener, not only to the Roman world but to my own. I think Dr. Barton offers marvelous insights into the roots of modern society while exploring an ancient culture. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

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