Roman Record Keeping & Communications

Author(s): Paul Chrystal 

ISBN: 9781781556580
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The first book to analyse Roman record-keeping and communication.
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  • The first book to examine Roman record-keeping and communication—one of the key building blocks of civilisation and empire

  • Analyses the role played by these Roman obsessions in what was effectively the Roman equivalent of social media, used to disseminate information, official and private, throughout the Roman world

  • Supremely well researched from many different historical sources

  • Rich in detail and superbly illustrated with photographs and drawings


The assumption is that most of what we know about the Romans and their history comes from Roman and Greek historians. While this is true up to a point, the reality is that there are many other primary sources that combine to give us the composite picture we have today of the Romans and their world.

The Romans had, in effect, their own brand of social media, engineered to disseminate information, legislation, propaganda, and misinformation to state and religious officials, citizens, the military, and to the enemy—wherever they be. We know what the Romans did for us: roads, central heating, and so on, but, just as importantly, they also developed and perfected records, record-keeping, and other methods of information storage and communication. It is the Roman preoccupation with record keeping and dissemination that informs the picture we have today of Roman civilisation.

Roman Record Keeping & Communications is the first to analyse what Roman social media is: the keeping of records and archive material, and ways of communicating it. Uniquely, this volume assesses the impact this information had in Roman history and on our own appraisal of that history.


BOOK ISBN 9781781556580
FORMAT 234 x 156 mm
BINDING Hardback
PAGES 240 pages
PUBLICATION DATE 15 March 2018
TERRITORY World
ILLUSTRATIONS 34 colour illustrations

 

 






Paul Chrystal is an author of more than twenty-five books and a broadcaster. Ten of his books are on York including A History of Chocolate in York(2012) and The Rowntree Family of York (2013). He writes articles for national newspapers and regularly appears on the BBC World Service and BBC Local Radio. He is married with three children and lives near York.

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