The Roman Way

Summary

In The Roman Way, Edith Hamilton shows us Rome through the eyes of the Romans. Plautus and Terence, Cicero and Caesar, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, and Augustus come to life in their ambitions, their work, their loves and hates. In them we see reflected a picture of Roman life very different form that fixed in our minds through schoolroom days—and far livelier.

Here, Hamilton makes vividly interesting the contrast between Roman and Greek culture. Moreover, it reveals how surprisingly similar was Roman civilization to that of modern America—in respects ranging from an interest in good roads and good plumbing, to the popular veneration of home and mother. Our heritage from Rome includes everything from moral laws to stock characters in the drama. Skillful, witty, subtle in understanding, this book shows us what the Romans were like, how they lived, what they thought and accomplished.