The title of this book caught my eye; the concept of basing a book exploring the Roman games around a single incident involving Commodus seemed an interesting angle to take on a well-trodden subject. Unfortunately, such high concepts need to be matched by a comparable amount of flair and Toner is unable to sustain it throughout.
By halfway through the author clearly realised that he couldn't cover all the ground he wanted, so added a lengthy epilogue to fill in the gaps that the Commodus story does not allow for. This undermines the book; if the plan was to write a general thematic overview of the social history of the Roman games under the Emperors, why not just do that? Rather than shoe-horn it into a concept that only works for the first 70 pages.
What makes this worse is that these first 70 pages covering Commodus are actually the weakest with its awkward and at times ugly writing style. It is like Toner is aware that something is fundamentally structurally wrong, but thought it to difficult to fix so ploughed on regardless. Even the citations (which are not as thorough as they should be) are lacklustre in the first half.
This is a shame as when Toner moves past his literary device and onto the sociological aspects of the Roman games he is at his strongest and most interesting, even the writing style improves immeasurably. He highlights the fascinating parallels between the behaviour of fans in groups which echo down to today and provides rare insights into a group of people we know the least about, the normal Roman. The final epilogue about Christian martyrdom in the games is also fascinating, but as a standalone essay as it does not fit into the Commodus narrative (hence the awkward epilogue)
If only Toner had not constricted himself with the Commodus theme then this could have been a very good book indeed. Instead, it is a bit of mess.
Don't Go.
By halfway through the author clearly realised that he couldn't cover all the ground he wanted, so added a lengthy epilogue to fill in the gaps that the Commodus story does not allow for. This undermines the book; if the plan was to write a general thematic overview of the social history of the Roman games under the Emperors, why not just do that? Rather than shoe-horn it into a concept that only works for the first 70 pages.
What makes this worse is that these first 70 pages covering Commodus are actually the weakest with its awkward and at times ugly writing style. It is like Toner is aware that something is fundamentally structurally wrong, but thought it to difficult to fix so ploughed on regardless. Even the citations (which are not as thorough as they should be) are lacklustre in the first half.
This is a shame as when Toner moves past his literary device and onto the sociological aspects of the Roman games he is at his strongest and most interesting, even the writing style improves immeasurably. He highlights the fascinating parallels between the behaviour of fans in groups which echo down to today and provides rare insights into a group of people we know the least about, the normal Roman. The final epilogue about Christian martyrdom in the games is also fascinating, but as a standalone essay as it does not fit into the Commodus narrative (hence the awkward epilogue)
If only Toner had not constricted himself with the Commodus theme then this could have been a very good book indeed. Instead, it is a bit of mess.
Don't Go.
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