SANTOSUOSSO, Antonio 1936-

PERSONAL: Born July 20, 1936, in Taurasi, Italy; married, 1964; children: two. Education: University of Toronto, B.A., 1968, M.A. 1969, Ph.D. (history), 1972.

ADDRESSES: Home—55 Balcarres Road, London, Ontario, Canada N5X 2H6.

CAREER: University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, lecturer, 1971-72, assistant professor, 1972-74, associate professor, 1974-81, professor of history, 1981—; The Newcomers, Nielsen-Ferns, television consultant, 1976-80.

MEMBER: Renaissance Society of America; Renaissance Society of Canada.

WRITINGS:

The Bibliography of Giovanni Della Casa: Books, Readers and Critics, 1537-1975, L. S. Olschki (Florence, Italy), 1979.

Vita di Giovanni Della Casa, Bulzoni (Rome, Italy), 1979.

Soldiers, Citizens, and the Symbols of War: From Classical Greece to Republican Rome, 500-167 B.C., Westview Press (Boulder, CO), 1997.

Storming the Heavens: Soldiers, Emperors, and Civilians in the Roman Empire, Westview Press (Boulder, CA), 2001.

Contributor to numerous scholarly journals.

SIDELIGHTS: Antonio Santosuosso is a professor of history at the University of Western Ontario where he specializes in the cultural history of sixteenth-century Italy. His first two published works focused on Giovanni Della Casa, a Catholic bishop and writer, whom John F. D'Amico, writing for the Journal of Modern History, referred to as "one of the great sixteenth-century Italian exponents of the ideal gentleman."

In Vita di Giovanni Della Casa, Santosuosso reveals details of the Italian bishop's life, reflecting on one of Della Casa's more famous works, Galateo published in 1558, a study, wrote D'Amico, of "the more rudimentary aspects of grace." "Like many of his contemporaries," D'Amico observed, "[Della Casa] chose the ecclesiastical life as the means of achieving security even though he had no real religious sensitivities." Della Casa's book was used by young men of the sixteenth century as a guide on how to make it up the ranks of society. In Church History Barbara McClung Hallman noted that Galateo "became the handbook for gentility in most of Europe."

The Bibliography of Giovanni Della Casa: Books, Readers and Critics, 1537-1975 is a thoroughly researched bibliography of all of Della Casa's works and correspondences, as well as a list of critical studies. "The European-wide reputation of Della Casa," wrote D'Amico, "clearly emerges through this bibliography." Galateo was translated into several different languages. Bonner Mitchell, a reviewer for the Catholic Historical Review, found that Santosuosso showed "much interest in social and economic history as well as in intellectual, and in interpreting Della Casa's rather elusive character and the social significance of his writings, he makes selective and imaginative use of current theories in psychology, sociology, and other social sciences."

Santosuosso compiled a study of war tactics in his Soldiers, Citizens, and the Symbols of War: From Classical Greece to Republican Rome, 500-167 B.C. J. P. Adams praised this work in Choice for its bibliography, which he found "extensive, up-to-date, and well chosen." In this book, Santosuosso examines the impact of warfare on the culture of ancient Rome and Greece, how the concepts of warfare changed between the fifth and second centuries B.C., and why these Greece and Rome triumphed over their eastern neighbors in Persia. Another topic that Santosuosso develops is that of the role of the warrior as it relates to the average private citizen of the time. He also shows how the symbols of war were used as propaganda to promote the values of Western societies.

A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Storming the Heavens: Soldiers, Emperors, and Civilians in the Roman Empire a "fascinating sequel" to Soldiers, Citizens, and the Symbols of War, noting that in Storming the Heavens, "Santosuosso traces the rise and fall of the Roman Empire via the rise and fall of the Roman army." Santosuosso reveals that as the Roman Empire expanded, the military forces on the outer edges of the empire often felt less allegiance to Rome and in some cases actually turned against the capital city in an attempt to overthrow the current leaders and claim power for themselves. The Publishers Weekly reviewer praised Santosuosso's "crackling prose and lively narrative." Lawrence Okamura, writing for the Journal of Military History, stated, "Reading Santosuosso's book is like attending a well-prepared, animated, but judicious lecture. The author writes clear, robust prose; his narrative, mixing action and analysis, moves swiftly, free of ponderous jargon."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Catholic Historical Review, January, 1981, Bonner Mitchell, reviews of Vita Di Giovanni Della Casa and The Bibliography of Giovanni Della Casa, p. 132.

Choice, May, 1998, J. P. Adams, review of Soldiers, Citizens, and the Symbols of War: From Classical Greece to Republican Rome, 500-167 B.C., p. 1584.

Church History, September, 1984, Barbara McClung Hallman, review of The Bibliography of Giovanni Della Casa, p. 438.

Journal of Military History, April, 2002, Lawrence Okamura, review of Storming the Heavens: Soldiers, Emperors, and Civilians in the Roman Empire, pp. 542-543.

Journal of Modern History, September, 1980, John F. D'Amico, reviews of Vita di Giovanni Della Casa and The Bibliography of Giovanni Della Casa, pp. 536-538.

Publishers Weekly, July 30, 2001, review of Storming the Heavens, pp. 75-76.*