lllustrated Encyclopaedia of Ancient Rome

The opening pages of this title don’t grab your attention. There are maps, notes about dates, and suggestions on thematic trails that might be used as an alternative to the alphabetical way through the book. But once these necessary preliminaries are over, there is plenty for the young enthusiast to enjoy. This isn’t an introduction to Roman life. Nor, at 160 pages, is it attempting to be comprehensive. It is cleverly pitched for readers who have an interest in Roman life and some historical awareness and are keen to broaden their knowledge. Corbishley’s chosen subjects are a good mix of social and political history with biographies of important figures. He is lucid and lively, achieves a good balance of general information and interesting detail, and is aware where specialist terms need more explanation. He is careful, too, to keep the reader aware of change and variation in Roman history. The entries are cross-referenced by the highlighting of subjects that have their own entries. The text is supported, too, by well chosen and captioned illustrations, many of them colour photographs taken by the British Museum or Corbishley himself, sometimes of remains and artefacts, sometimes of reconstructions and re-enactments, so that the reader is presented with a variety of visual evidence. The high quality of these reproductions may explain the relatively high price of the book.