Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome Audiobook

" If you have a scholarly bend, you will enjoy this book on Hadrian the Emperor. I found it a bit dry. "

" This was an enjoyable look at the life of a man who seemed to be fairly sane and likable (at least, compared to some of his predecessors). The book only suffers because when compared to the first emperors (Caesar, Augustus, Claudius, and even Caligula and Nero) Hadrian just isn't as quirky nor was his life as filled with intrigue and drama. Hadrian's main impact on history may be the way he tried to infuse Roman society with more of Greek culture. He was definitely a "deep" individual who was tormented by a lot of personal demons (for instance, did he convince his "one true love" to commit suicide in an effort to urge the gods to restore Hadrian's own youth and health?), and it's unfortunate that so few of his own writings exist to reveal more of his true personality. "

" A competent but somewhat arid biography. Everitt's sources are well documented and his scholarship seems sound enough, but there also seems to be quite a lot of filler material here. The first third of the book covers Hadrian's youth and ascension to the throne ("taking the purple" is the phrase Everitt loves) and while some background is necessary, the level of detail here bogs the reader down. If you can slog your way through the extraneous detail, Hadrian does finally come to life in the second half of the book. "

" I really liked the subject and it's been a while since I've read about the Romans aside from the fall of the Republic and the Civil War. The book itself is ok. Everitt is a good writer, but seemed like he was on auto-pilot for much of book. I'm guessing he over-estimated how much he could pull from primary sources before he signed the book contract. Still, you could do a lot worse if you want an introduction to 2nd century Imperial Rome and the shenanigans of their leaders. "

" A good biography of an philosophic and enigmatic emperor. Suffers a bit from the comparative lack of sources, but does a remarkable job at filling in with some good context. "

" Enjoyable book with a good long look into the far reaching roman empire.This book was very readable and went into detail about Hadrian and Trajan,his predecessor.There seemed to be a great deal of research in writing thisbook "

" A must read for Roman history geeks. Everitt always does a great job telling stories about people that make them feel much more real than your typical biographer. "

" Anthony Everitt is good with Roman history "

" Fantastic, visual, lyrical, informative, entertaining. Reads like a novel. Great biography. "

" Very enjoyable but not comparable with the epic drama in his Cicero and Augustus biographies. "

" Mostly liked it. A little too much speculation on the motives/"psychology" of Hadrian from very little evidence ("You can't really do psychology based on X, but" doesn't give license for such speculation), but overall interestingly written with lots of good refs at the back. "

" Not very happy with this book, mostly because he plays rather fast and loose with the epigraphic and archaeological evidence to make connections to the narrative sources. Good for drama, but many of his connections with lesser figures and Hadrian are really unconvincing. "

" Good read. I felt like I was reading about real people. He put me there with them. "

" Very interesting. FYI Hadrian was the one who tried to change the name of Judea to Palistine. Since his troops were the only ones to be defeated by the Jews, he wanted to erase their name from the maps and history. "