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Om forfatteren

G. W. Bowersock is professor emeritus of ancient history at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. His most recent book is From Gibbon to Auden: Essays on the Classical Tradition.

Værker af G. W. Bowersock

Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World (1999) — Redaktør — 263 eksemplarer
Julian the Apostate (1978) 113 eksemplarer
Roman Arabia (1983) 100 eksemplarer
Fiction as History: Nero to Julian (1994) 75 eksemplarer
The Crucible of Islam (2017) 66 eksemplarer
Hellenism in Late Antiquity (1990) 58 eksemplarer
Martyrdom and Rome (1995) 35 eksemplarer
Augustus and the Greek World (1965) 25 eksemplarer
Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (1969) 20 eksemplarer

Associated Works

The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: I - Greek Literature (1985) — Bidragyder, nogle udgaver60 eksemplarer
Petra Rediscovered: The Lost City of the Nabataean Kingdom (2003) — Bidragyder — 47 eksemplarer
The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations (1988) — Bidragyder — 39 eksemplarer
Caesar Augustus: Seven Aspects (Clarendon Paperbacks) (1984) — Bidragyder — 30 eksemplarer
Rethinking the Mediterranean (2005) — Bidragyder — 17 eksemplarer
Tacitus and the Tacitean tradition (1993) — Bidragyder — 11 eksemplarer
The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations (1986) — Bidragyder — 11 eksemplarer

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The book is set out more or less as a chronological biography from Julian's birth to his accession to the throne as sole Augustus in 361. From there, it takes on a more thematic aspect as it describes his policies and movements throughout his time in Naissus, Constantinople and then on to Antioch, where the narrative picks up again and swiftly carries the emperor to his greatest triumph - against the Sassanid Persians at their own capital of Ctesiphon - and his final end on the return journey.

The major downside to this work is Bowersock's clear, at times vitriolic disdain for the Emperor Julian and many of his policies. In the early part of the book, he writes seemingly as an apologist for Constantius II, portraying him in a far more favourable light than most other historians of the period. He castes Julian in the mold of a zealot and a bigot, and eventually as a persecutor of Christians, something which most historians stop short of. This is not the book one should read first on Julian, as I can imagine it would colour one's views irrevocably against the man.

Despite this, however, Bowersock's writing is clear, his style engaging, and his research clearly meticulous. If one is able to see beyond the surface layer of strongly opinionated commentary, an incredible amount of knowledge in a short run of pages (only 119 for the main section) is revealed. For that reason, this is a must-read for anyone with a solid background knowledge of Julian, looking to learn more.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
KatherineJaneWright | 3 andre anmeldelser | Jul 17, 2022 |
Oxford University Press as publisher was already a good hint that this wouldn't be an easy read, but I love to learn completely random facts about the world that are thoroughly reviewed and that I'll never need again, so I'm fine with that.

The topic itself is pretty obscure: A pre-islamic conflict between jewish Arabs in the territory of today's Yemen and christian Ethiopians at the other side of the Red Sea that is in the end not much more than a proxy war between the Byzantine and the Persian empires.

Bowerstock analyses and explains meticulously the body of source material, the power structure in the region, the influence of outside and historical powers like the Roman, Meroitic and Egyptian empires and the development of the conflict.

The lessons? Propaganda is everything, it's not about religion, and every aggressor always has good reasons.
… (mere)
½
 
Markeret
DeusXMachina | 1 anden anmeldelse | Mar 2, 2020 |
This is not a history of early Islam so much as an attempt to position early Islam in the surrounding cultures. I found it quite interesting.

I read this in German. The translation reads smoothly.
 
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MarthaJeanne | 1 anden anmeldelse | May 5, 2019 |
The core thread of these lectures is an argument that the Greek novel,which flourished from the late first century to the fourth, draws themes and ideas from then-nascent Christianity. It can get useful to have a reference to the novels themselves on hand (such as Reardon's). Overall, an interesting if shortish book, covering texts which are not part of the most common classical education (with the one exception of the Philoctetes).
½
 
Markeret
jsburbidge | 1 anden anmeldelse | Nov 9, 2018 |

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Værker
27
Also by
24
Medlemmer
1,054
Popularitet
#24,450
Vurdering
3.9
Anmeldelser
14
ISBN
53
Sprog
4
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