Yes, I've been reading.

The actual title of this is "Roman Honor; The Fire in the Bones". Barton, who the well read out there will remember as the author of "The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans", has a produced a very dense discussion of what Honor meant to the Ancient Romans and how it changed from the Repulican to the Principate, and how it is different from what we (in the West anyway) understand today.

I differ a little with Barton on somethings-I don't see the Romans as distant as she does, but I've argued that before; and some of her explanations of "Roman" ways are still valid for the way some people behave today.

However, it is clear that Barton did her homework, and the book is heavily footnoted. What do I mean by heavily? I mean that there are plenty of page where there are more footnotes than text. Its almost like getting several books in one.

I judge her observations and conclusions generally sound, and her explanation of the tension in the way Romans (especially of high rank) expressed honorable behavior is very good.

This isn't an introductory text. But, if you've spent as much time with the Old Romans as I have, this is a well argued book that will make you think.

Roman Honor; The Fire in the Bones
by Carlin A. Barton
University of California Press, 2001
ISBN:0520-225-252
www.ucpress.edu