Anatolia
Carthage
Egypt
Germ. Inf.
Greece
Judaea
Mesopotamia
Persia
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About LIVIUS


Livius is a website on ancient history. It is essentially a one-man endeavor that has been maintained since 1996 by Jona Lendering from Amsterdam, Holland. He read history at Leiden University (where he graduated in 1993), specialized in Mediterranean culture at the Amsterdam Free University (until 1996), and worked at excavations in Holland and Greece. After teaching methodology and theory at the Free University, he worked for some time as an archivist for the Dutch government. He is currently a freelance teacher (ancient and Dutch history; more...) and likes to write reviews of Dutch novels (more...).

Jona Lendering is the author of several books, all in Dutch. Reviews can be found here (many in Dutch). Some other bits and pieces can be found here.

  • Oorlogsmist. Veldslagen en propaganda uit de Oudheid 2006 Amsterdam (Fog of War. Ancient Battles and Propaganda). A book on war and the representation of war (more...; chapter).
  • Polderdenken. De wortels van de Nederlandse overlegcultuur 2005 Amsterdam (The roots of the Dutch consensus culture). A little book about medieval peat reclamation, polders, dikes, windmills and the political, economical and social consequences of the Dutch war against the sea (reviews).
  • Alexander de Grote. De ondergang van het Perzische Rijk 2004 Amsterdam (Alexander the Great. The Demise of the Persian Empire). It contains several recently discovered Babylonian texts and  takes into account modern sociological theories about the pristine state, and ideas about transcultural leadership that have been developed at modern business schools. A part of it has been translated into English and can be found here. (reviews).
  • Stad in marmer. Gids voor het antieke Rome aan de hand van tijdgenoten 2002 Amsterdam (The marble city. Literary travel guide for ancient Rome). A book on daily life in ancient Rome, hailed as "the best book on Rome in the Dutch language" by the NRC Handelsblad. An English review can be found here and a translated part can be found here (other reviews).
  • Interim-ABC, 2002 The Hague. A skeptical inventory of management jargon, a coproduction with Klaas de Roo and Paul Mentzel (reviews).
  • Archeologie van de futurologie, 2000 The Hague (Archaeology of the futurology). A brief history of futurology, including evaluations of the most important futurological methods.
  • De randen van de aarde. De Romeinen tussen Schelde en Eems, 2000 Amsterdam (The edges of the earth. The Romans in the Low Countries). The history of the Roman occupation of Belgium and the Netherlands, including a collection of hundred translated Greek and Latin texts. (A translated chapter can be found here; other parts were used in this article; reviews.)
  • Een interim-manager in het Romeinse Rijk. Plinius in Bithynië, 1998 The Hague (An interim-manager in the Roman empire. Pliny in Bithynia). A brief introduction to Roman history and government, culminating in a description of Pliny the Younger's governorship of Bithynia-Pontus (reviews).
The next projects will be a collection of sources and a book on the rise of Early Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism. Other projects: a history of the Seleucids, a dictionary of blunders by classicists, archaeologists, and historians (with Marcel Hulpas), or a history of the Roman legions, not unlike the webpages already devoted to this subject. Other plans are a book on the influence of Islam on Europe, the Mediterranean culture under the Severan dynasty, a history of pre-Islamic Iran, a book on Babylonia, and a book on the 'long but single year' 69. 
Anatolia
Carthage
Egypt
Germ. Inf.
Greece
Judaea
Mesopotamia
Persia
Rome
Other