"An excellent glossy catalogue of entertaining information about a civilization of antiquity. Family life, household effects, cosmetics, sports, children's dress and games--all these and more are on display in eye-filling spreads. Either read chronologically or browsed through, each page offers up a sterling visual feast guaranteed to spur discussion and provoke thinking about the early Romans."--Kirkus.

    A note on how to interpret the information given in an apparatus criticus is also included.

    His work was received with widespread acclaim by the scholarly community and the reading public. In 1902 Mommsen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and acclaimed as 'the greatest living master of the art of historical writing'. Mommsen rejected traditional Enlightenment accounts, which glorified ancient Rome; instead, guided by a new and rigorous criticism of sources, Mommsen began the demythologisation of Roman history. In a vivacious and engaging style, Mommsen drew bold parallels between the nineteenth century and classical Rome. Information about this Folio Society edition (taken from the Editorial Note):Theodor Mommsen’s Römische Geschichte was first published in three volumes between 1854 and 1856, and was subsequently revised several times. The text of the present volume is derived from William Purdie Dickson’s translation, first published in four volumes by Richard Bentley in London in 1868, of the fourth German edition.The text printed in the ensuing pages preserves slightly less than half of the 1868 edition’s three-quarters of a million words. In abridging a work of such magnitude, strict guiding principles tend to be honoured as much in their breach as in their observance. With that caveat in mind, therefore, the intention in this edition has been to provide, within a single volume, a continuous narrative of the history of Rome, from the origins of the city down to the Civil War that resulted in the sole rule of Julius Caesar (c.753—46BC). At the same time, it is hoped that the selection represents the essential character of Mommsen’s historical vision, and can be read with both pleasure and profit by a non-specialist audience.In pursuit of these goals, the relative amount of space devoted to each of the main periods of Roman history has been preserved, and Mommsen’s own book divisions and titles retained. Similarly, the original chapter titles and breaks—and indeed even the paragraphing—has been followed as closely as possible. Wirth some obvious exceptions, marginal precedence has been given to social and constitutional developments, and to political events and conflicts in Rome and Italy, over foreign policy and the detailed narration of overseas wars. Consequently, the significant amount of background information that Mommsen provided concerning the foreign nations with which Rome came into violent contact—Etruscans, Celts, Carthaginians and the peoples of the Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean among them—has been almost entirely excised. And the summaries on literature and the arts that were tacked on to the end of each book have also had to be omitted. Within these broad parameters, however, every effort has been made to ensure that the full spectrum of Mommsen's themes, methodology, and style is portrayed.So that the text retains its readability, all cuts have been made silently, without the distraction of frequent ellipses. Where it has proved impossible to provide a continuous narrative in Mommsen’s own words, then editorial linking passages, printed in smaller type than the rest of the text, have been supplied. These confine themselves to the bare essentials and take a deliberately conservative line in order to sit more comfortably with the main narrative. the new maps and extensive chronology are also intended to compensate for information otherwise excised. A handful of editorial footnotes and other brief interpolations have been added where essential for sense. All such additions to the original text, as well as any other localised rewordings necessitated by the cuts, are contained within square brackets. Most of Mommsen’s analogies to subsequent historical events, which are one of the many delights of his work, require no explanation for an educated readership.Any attempt to update Mommsen’s scholarship would be presumptuous, if not completely foolhardy, and so all points of fact and interpretation have been allowed to stand without comment. thus, for example, Mommsen’s belief that Caesar was probably born in 102BC—rather than 100 BC, as is now generally accepted—has not been amended. Nor has it been deemed necessary to bring into line with current accepted norms either the spelling of proper nouns or Disckon’s faithful equivalents of Mommsen’s deliberately idiosyncratic and anachronistic rendition of Latin terms. Of these, the most noticeable is undoubtedly the word ‘burgess’ instead of ‘citizen’. While proving that few things date faster than modernity, they also provide an important reminder that Mommsen wrote his history with the pressing political and national issues facing both pre-unification Germany and the rest of the mid-nineteenth0century Europe directly in mind.

     The Giants of The Polo Grounds is the definitive work on baseball’s New York Giants and their tenure in New York City. An “Editor’s Choice” of The New York Times when it was first published more than 20 years ago, the book was also a Spitball Magazine nominee for the Best Baseball Book of the year. Author Noel Hynd, a former contributor to Sports Illustrated, has now created a new edition that maintains all the previous text, but expands the work to more than 600 pages from the original 375. Included this time are more stories about McGraw, Ott, Durocher and Mays and their opponents, plus more on the men and women from other sports and various fields of entertainment who also were ‘giants’ of the Polo Grounds: from boxers Jack Dempsey and Sugar Ray Robinson to entertainers Annie Oakley and Tallulah Bankhead to football’s Red Grange and soccer’s Béla Guttmann. The Giants of The Polo Grounds is the story of a famous team, a renowned ball park, an invincible spirit and America’s most vibrant city from the 1880’s to the 1950’s. The new edition is packed with remarkable anecdotes about Broadway, New York politics, good guys and bad guys who made the Giants' era in New York unique and memorable. The new edition, practically the equivalent of two volumes, also features more than 100 photos and illustrations, most of them new, some rarely seen. Critical Praise for The Giants of The Polo Grounds “A compelling and comprehensive history of an extraordinary ball club.” -New York Times “Grandly digressive! The owners, stars like Mathewson and Mays, various eccentric players are all here in this vivid history by Sports Illustrated contributor Hynd.” - Publishers’ Weekly “Fans of all ages will treasure the crazy quilt text for its stylish recall of the game’s summer roots.” -Kirkus Library Journal “Just plain enjoyable as baseball is supposed to be.” - The Pennsylvania Gazette Think of it as a grand slam into the center field bleachers in the bottom of the 9th!