"Romajin-no Monogatari (III)" by SHIONO Nanami

The third book of the "Roma-jin no Monogatari" series is about the struggles after the establishment of a large country around the Mediterranean Sea. There are some famous people in this period including Gaius Gracchus (154-121 BC), Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (153-121 BC), Gaius Marius (157-86 BC), Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (138-78 BC), and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106-48 BC). The enemy in this period is mainly in Rome as the subtitle of this book 'Syousya no Konmei (Confusion of the winner)' shows. After them the famous Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) appears, but that is written in the next book.

(Finished reading on Oct.31, 2007)


The more detailed Japanese version of this article is here!

Japanese character(s) (kanji)
* Syousya no Konmei : 勝者の混迷

"Romajin-no Monogatari (II)" by SHIONO Nanami

The second book of the "Roma-jin no Monogatari" series is about the Punic Wars, which were fought between Rome and Carthage. (264 BC to 146 BC) The subtitle of the book is 'Hannibal Senki' or Hannibal War. I think many European people know very much about these wars, but we Japanese do not know so much. In fact I studied the world history in the senior high school, but I have almost no knowledge in my memory (^_^;;; According to the author SHIONO, a typical text of the world history for Japanese students of senior high schools contains only five lines for the description of this book.

After Rome pushed away the Carthage from Sicily by the First Punic War (264 BC to 241 BC), there were some peaceful time in Rome. However, when the Carthaginian Hannibal crossed the Alps, the Second Punic War (218 BC - 241 BC) started in the main land of Italy. The Roman armies were defeated many times by him, but at last a young Roman commander Scipio succeeded to run Hannibal out of Italy. Rome destroyed the Macedonia in 167 BC, then Carthage was also ruined after the Third Punic War (149 BC to 146 BC).

(Finished reading on Oct.19, 2007)


The more detailed Japanese version of this article is here!

Japanese character(s) (kanji)
* Hannibal Senki : ハンニバル戦記

"Romajin-no Monogatari (I)" by SHIONO Nanami

SHIONO Nanami is a famous Japanese writer. She lives in Italy and writing many books mainly about Italian history. One of the series of her books is this "Roma-jin no Monogatari" or 'the tales of Romans'.

I read the first book of this series whose subtitle is "Roma-ha Ichinichi-ni-shite Narazu" or 'Rome cannot be built in a day'. This contains the history from the founding of Ancient Rome in A.D. 753 to the unification of the Italy Peninsula in A.D. 270.

(Finished reading on Oct.8, 2007)

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The more detailed Japanese version of this article is here!

Japanese character(s) (kanji)
* SHIONO Nanami : 塩野七生
* Romajin-no Monogatari : ローマ人の物語
* Roma-ha Ichinichi-ni-shite Narazu : ローマは一日にして成らず