Recently I was on holidays in Adelaide, and picked up Martin Goodman's book 'Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations'.
I was interested in the book partly because of the complimentary blurbs from people such as Tom Holland (whose Rubicon I have read three times, and each time with great pleasure), but also because I wanted to know more about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem from an historical rather than theological point of view.
Well, I am at p266 of 585, and I'm not sure that I am going to get as much about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem (and the consequences) as I thought. But it has so far provided a tidy comparison of Roman and Jewish ways of thinking and living in the first century. So I can't complain.
What I'm wanting to get into is Schama's Citizens. I found a nice second hand copy in a local bookshop. My ignorance of the history of the French Revolution is shameful. John W Kleinig recommend this volume to me as the way to go.
And John W Kleinig is a man who knows about the temple in Jerusalem.
And so we come full circle.
2 comments:
I still have your copy of Rubicon (which was very very good) and will try to remember to bring it tonight to our Blognic and Book Launch.
Shama's book sounds good. I like his stuff too.
Oh, and I really like the clever take on the Huntington phrase "clash of civilisations" too!
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