I took on the challenge of reading a “school book” for our month long road trip while we moved cross country from Arizona to North Carolina. I am not always good about reading books one at a time and knew that, at least this way, I couldn’t escape the book and I took no other books with me for my own reading pleasure, so to speak. My plan was to have this book review in a few weeks ago but with a move across the country, and internet access being not what I had planned, I am late. My apologies to the author and our editors for making them wait!

Lives of Famous Romans is listed for ages 12 to adult and covers the homeschool categories of ancient history, roman history, children’s literature, and biography. The book is 222 pages long including the index. It is all text with no pictures. To some people this may be unneccessary information, but to others it will give you a sense of whether this is a book your child would handle well. We all know as homeschooling parents that each child is different and learns at a different pace.

Mrs. Coolidge covers the lives of 12 of the most influential masterminds of Roman history. However, you do not just learn the basics about the man but you get an inside view of his life and the times around him, and the character of the man and his constituents. You also get a sense of which men hold strickly to an old Roman point of view.. ie who cares about Rome as a city and who cares about the idea of Rome. We start the book off with Cicero, and his great law accomplishments and never lacking courage, and end the book with Diocletian and Constantine, who had such extreme differing views of the Christian church. You’ll have to buy the book to find out who the other 9 famous Romans are

I am a genealogy buff and am very interested in geography as well because of my hobby. I loved that family heritage was included within the cameos of the men. I like learning who was descended from who and where they originated from. This makes this book a multi-tasking book to me because I can cover several subjects all at once when using it. The next time I read it along with my children, I will be sure to have a copy of an old world map, a timeline, as well as a family genealogy chart handy. By working in this way, my children will have a view of a living history.

All in all the book was a good read. It isn’t a novel and doesn’t need to read as such. It is a teaching book, one similarly written as Plutarch’s Lives, of which I also own a copy of. I would never dare sit and read the nearly 1300 pages of that at one sitting. Take your time and break it down with what works best for your family. Study the 12 men at once or at different times throughout the year. Most of all ENJOY learning all the things you never knew about these brilliant men of Roman history!

Sallie is an off-again, on-again homeschooling mom to her 4 children, ranging from elementary to high school. In her writings, she discusses the challenges of homeschooling a child with disabilities and offers insight to those who sometimes feel all alone in a round hole world.