ROUTE 66 A.D.,HOW THE ROMANS INVENTED TOURISM, by Tony Perrottet, non-fiction

I referenced Tony Perrottet in my post on GUARDS, GUARDS, and realized that I hadn't written about this book. This is another quirky travel book which describes the Romans' love of travel, and their determination to write comments about their trips in ancient graffiti.They loved the Egyptian tombs--just see their writings, still to be seen below ancient hieroglyphs. Perrottet and his pregnant girlfriend, who sounds like a remarkably patient sort, retrace the Romans pathways from Greece to the Mideast to Egypt. Perrottet vividly recounts Roman experiences at the first Olympics--the Naked Olympics, expanded in greater detail in his book of that title.

Interestingly enough, Lindsey Davis describes these same paths of tourism in SEE DELPHI AND DIE, a Marcus Didius Falco Roman PI book. Davis is punctilious about her research, and the two books together illuminate this fascinating and previously unknown area of Roman life. It's astonishing the way that our choreographed and prissy Olympics have evolved from the vicious Grecian ones.