Katharina Volk

Roman Reflections is a collection of essays that focus on what is Roman about Roman Philosophy. Going into this book, I only knew that the Romans borrowed a lot of ideas from the Greeks. The most obvious contribution was to their Pantheon of Gods and Goddesses; Zeus became Jupiter, Aphrodite became Venus, Hermes became Mercury and so on. I also knew that the Romans were more practical in what they learned and utilized, but that could be a gross generalization.

As I mentioned, the book is a collection of essays. They attempt to show that Roman thought was not merely a carbon copy of the Greek modes of thought but rather took those ideas to a new level. The book is very scholarly with the original Latin and then a translation done by the author of that particular essay. All of the essays have extensive footnotes, but I don’t think this book is for someone with a casual interest in Philosophy.

I don’t really think I am going to finish this one off anytime soon because it just isn’t that interesting to me. The really unfortunate thing is that I bought this book, though not at the retail price. Though since I bought it that does mean I have plenty of time to finish it or make an attempt to do so. Until then, I will put it on the Dropped Shelf and hope for the best.… (more)