Tom Holland (1) (1968–)

Durante mucho tiempo, la Pax Romana se ha venerado como una edad de oro. En su apogeo, el Imperio romano se extendía desde Escocia hasta Arabia, y en él vivía en torno a una cuarta parte de la humanidad. Era el Estado más rico y formidable que el mundo había visto hasta entonces.

Pax narra la deslumbrante historia de una Roma en la cúspide de su poder, historia que comienza en el 69 d.?C., cuando cuatro césares gobernaron el imperio en fugaz sucesión, y termina siete décadas más tarde, con la muerte de Adriano. Desde el brillo de la capital hasta los reinos allende las fronteras romanas, el célebre historiador Tom Holland retrata el imperio en todo su esplendor. Asistiremos absortos a un desfile de espectaculares e impactantes escenas, como la destrucción de Jerusalén y Pompeya, la construcción del Coliseo o las conquistas de Trajano. Holland hace que los romanos cobren vida ante nuestros ojos, desde el más humilde esclavo hasta el emperador, y muestra cómo la prosperidad de la paz romana se construyó también gracias al poder sin precedentes de las legiones.… (mehr)

Christianity, from the outset, has been reformed by new adherents. So Christ's message was altered by his disciples and radically altered by Paul. There were reformations throughout the ancient years as e.g. Constantine establishing the Council of Nicea and discarding various views as heresy. A major reformationb was made by Gregory VII who established the power of the papacy over empire and set standards for priests of education and behaviour including celibacy. There was the Reformation of Luther, the counter-reformation and a long list of protestant reformations e.g. Calvinism and the Puritans. At every step, Holland argues, the reformation establishes a Christian value, or series of values, as over-riding what has become the norm; but the reformation could not occur in the absence of that norm because Christian values inform both.… (mehr)

This horror novel is based on the mechanism of the supposed contents of the lost memoirs of Byron, which in reality were burned on his death with their contents unrevealed. Here they reveal Byron's transformation into a vampire, before he becomes world famous, the first real celebrity in the modern sense. There is a framework narrative set in the present day but the main story is Byron recounting his vampiric life and adventures around Greek and the near East; this is a very well written and atmospheric Gothic narrative, by an author better known as a historian of the ancient world. Inevitably there are some very disturbing and repellent incidents (frankly also true in Byron's real world biography), and by the end, I definitely felt my next read should be something "cleansing". But this is an excellent traditional horror story.… (mehr)