Roman Syria and the Near East

Rating:
Summary: Must read for Roman Syria lovers!
Review: Dr. Kevin Butcher has simply outdone himself in this exploration of Roman Syria. Obviously he knows the period intimately, and this knowledge shows itself in the many important details in this book. Anyone who wants to know more about this intriguing and far-removed period would do well to buy this book. I'm glad I did! It reads almost like a novel!

Rating:
Summary: Everything You Wanted to Know about Roman Syria
Review: Wow! ROMAN SYRIA AND THE NEAR EAST by Kevin Butcher is a great book for those interested in Rome in the Eastern lands. It deals with the time period from about the 1st century b.c.e. to the coming of the Arab Muslims in the 7th century c.e. and it covers what really are several modern nations today.
The book is divided up into four parts with individual chapters in them. Part I is entitled Grand Narratives and includes chapter 1 - An Incidental Annexation and chapter 2 - Rome, Syria, Parthians and Persians. These are really broad history, how Rome got involved in this area and who was fighting whom for what. Part II is called Organizing Space and Time and consists of chapter 3 - Political Entities and chapter 4 - Time and Motion. This is how the region and people were organized as cities, ethnicities, etc; who the players were so to speak, and how time was reckoned in different ways. This can be really confusing. Part III is named Production and Consumption and contains chapter 5 - Exploiting the Available and chapter 6 - Portable Antiquities. This is production, commerce, and trade. Part IV is entitled The Construction of Communities and contains chapter 7 - Public Values, chapter 8 - Impure Genres, chapter 9 - The Pious World and chapter 10 - The Military. There is also a short epilogue. Chapters 8 and 9 were my favorite, but only because they contain information about things I'm particularly interested in: art, architecture, and religion. Every one of these chapters, however, holds enormous information in clear and easy to understand language. It has b & w photos and illustrations and at the end of the writing several beautiful color photo plates. I loved the picture of the funerary monument at Hermel just because it had a rainbow in it.
This book also contains a map of the region, a list of rulers, selected bibliography and text notes, end notes, and an index.
Though Butcher is quick to say this isn't a definitive, all encompassing work, because too much is still to be discovered and analyzed, it sure feels all encompassing. It is everything you wanted to know about Roman Syria and the Near East. If you are doing research about the Romans in Syria or if you are just have a general interest in Roman history, this is your book. Loved it.