Book Reviews

In Gods, Kings, and Merchants in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia, Dominique Charpin (Professor at Collège de France, Paris) examines the manners in which the religious, political, and economic spheres maintained fluid boundaries, often time intersecting...

Religions of the Constantinian Empire by Mark Edwards is a phenomenal book. He writes a very comprehensive book on the beginnings of and influences on Christianity in the Constantinian Empire. He divides his study into three parts. The first...

The First Emperor: Selections from the Historical Records by Sima Qian, translated by Raymond Dawson is an abridged version of Sima Qian's much longer history. Sima Qian (145-86 BCE) is known as the Grand Historian of China and an important...

Dubai is a city that elicits sharp opinions. While its shopping malls, glittering lights, luxury hotels and villas, and iconic futuristic architecture continue to attract large numbers of tourists and business investors, many others simply...

Caligula. Gladiator. Spartacus. HBO's series Rome. If you've seen any on-screen adaptation of life in the Roman Empire, you've seen some depiction of gossip worthy or taboo sex. Cleopatra seduced Caesar; Caligula held infamous orgies...

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Ancient Israel is one of Wiley Blackwell's several companion books. Aimed at producing "a multifaceted entry into ancient Israelite culture", each article addresses a unique scholarly focus in the study of...

Shaye Cohen's third edition of his work about Jewish life from the Maccabees to the Mishnah is most valuable as an overview. Oddly enough, he offers the most poignant critiques in his third edition preface, writing that sometimes he "speaks...

Contrary to popular belief, military history does not begin in Greece. In his book, The Origins of War, Arther Ferrill traces the development of war from prehistoric times until the time of Alexander. Ferrill begins his work in an unconventional...

Every empire has a cultural rival that both terrifies and fascinates the populace. During Rome's tenure as a Mediterranean superpower, the city had more than a few epic rivalries with its neighbors. Only one was so terrible, so frightening...