Rome: A History in Seven Sackings
Rome has been sacked more than seven times in its long history. The seven ‘sackings’ chosen by Matthew Kneale for this book include five undoubted sacks and two foreign occupations in the 19th and 20th centuries, which scarcely qualify as sacks. The seven sackings are in fact simply dramatic moments between 335 BC and 1944 AD at which Kneale gives us a snapshot of the city. They are very detailed snapshots, illustrating the architecture, culture, society, economy, hygiene, food and much else of the author’s adopted home.
If readers are looking for a detailed account of the political and military events behind each sacking, they may find this book disappointing, but if they want to know what it was like to be a Roman not only in the city’s time of glory but in its years of decline and in the modern era, this is just the book.
