In this concise biography, Professor Werner Eck, one of the world's leading experts on the Roman empire, tells the extraordinary story of Augustus, Rome's first emperor.A concise and gripping account of Augustus and his age.Written by one of the world's foremost experts on the Roman Empire.Examines the transformation of Rome from a republic to a monarchy.Covers domestic and foreign policy, constitutional developments, and cultural achievements.Compares Augustus' own account of his life to other historical narratives and archaeological records.Includes a new translation of Augustus' Res Gestae with a short introduction and a substantial bibliography to aid further study.

    Set in busy York, in the late years of the reign of Hadrian, the story follows the life of the heroine Senovara.

    Nothing else approaches its vast scale: a land wall running 73 miles from east to west and a sea wall stretching at least 26 miles down the Cumbrian coast. Many of its forts are as large as Britain's most formidable medieval castles, and the wide ditch dug to the south of the Wall, the vallum, is larger than any surviving prehistoric earthwork. Built in a ten-year period by more than 30,000 soldiers and labourers at the behest of an extraordinary emperor, the Wall consisted of more than 24 million stones, giving it a mass greater than all the Egyptian pyramids put together. At least a million people visit Hadrian's Wall each year and it has been designated a World Heritage Site. In this new book, based on literary and historical sources as well as the latest archaeological research, Alistair Moffat considers who built the Wall, how it was built, why it was built, and how it affected the native peoples who lived in its mighty shadow. The result is a unique and fascinating insight into one of the Wonders of the Ancient World.

    Yet although no other individual has attracted so much speculation across the centuries, Alexander himself remains an enigma. Curtius' History offers a great deal of information unobtainable from other sources of the time. A compelling narrative of a turbulent era, the work recounts events on a heroic scale, detailing court intrigue, stirring speeches and brutal battles--among them, those of Macedonia's great war with Persia, which was to culminate in Alexander's final triumph over King Darius and the defeat of an ancient and mighty empire. It also provides by far the most plausible and haunting portrait of Alexander we possess: a brilliantly realized image of a man ruined by constant good fortune in his youth.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

    Born of a relatively well-off noble family, he lives on a palatial estate in Campania, dines with senators and generals, and, like all of his ancestors before him, owns countless slaves. Having spent most of his life managing his servants—many of them prisoners from Rome’s military conquests—he decided to write a kind of owner’s manual for his friends and countrymen. The result, The Roman Guide to Slave Management, is a sly, subversive guide to the realities of servitude in ancient Rome. Cambridge scholar Jerry Toner uses Falx, his fictional but true-to-life creation, to describe where and how to Romans bought slaves, how they could tell an obedient worker from a troublemaker, and even how the ruling class reacted to the inevitable slave revolts. Toner also adds commentary throughout, analyzing the callous words and casual brutality of Falx and his compatriots and putting it all in context for the modern reader. Written with a deep knowledge of ancient culture—and the depths of its cruelty—this is the Roman Empire as you’ve never seen it before.

    His is a truly household name, but what do we really know about the man himself, his position in history and the world in which he lived? This riveting biography reveals the man behind the myth.In the years 434-454AD the fate of Europe hung upon the actions of one man, Attila, king of the Huns. The decaying Roman empire still stood astride the Western World, from its twin capitals of Rome and Constantinople, but it was threatened by a new force, the much-feared Barbarian hordes. It was Attila who united the Barbarian tribes into a single, amazingly-effective army. He launched two violent attacks against the eastern and western halves of the Roman empire, attacks which earned him his reputation for mindless devastation, and brought an end to Rome's pre-eminence in Europe.Attila was coarse, capricious, arrogant, ruthless and brilliant. An illiterate and predatory tribal chief, he had no interest in administration, but was a wily politician, who, from his base in the grasslands of Hungary, used secretaries and ambassadors to bring him intelligence on his enemies. He was a leader whose unique qualities made him supreme among tribal leaders, but whose weaknesses ensured the collapse of his empire after his death.

    As politician and diplomat, writer and lover, but above all as a military genius, Julius Caesar is one of the perennially fascinating figures in history -- Boswell called him "the greatest man of any age." Christian Meier's authoritative and accessible biography is the definitive modern account of Caesar's life and career, setting Caesar's life story against the rich political and social background of the Late Roman Republic.

    While the fall of the Roman Empire and the exploits of Julius Caesar might be common knowledge, we don't seem to remember too much about the lives of common people in Ancient Rome and Greece. For instance, why didn't they wear pants? How did they shave? How likely were they to survive surgery? And, what were their parties really like? Most books on the Roman Empire deal with famous figures or events, but Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants focuses on things that seldom appear in history books: myths and magic, barbers and birth control, fine wine and the daily grind. This book, based on questions Roman historian Garrett Ryan, PhD gets most often on Quora and the popular Reddit forum, AskHistorians, reveals the nitty gritty details on how Romans and Greeks lived in a series of short and engaging essays, organized into six categories: Daily Life, Society, Beliefs, Sports and Leisure, and Legacies. Whatever your level of ancient acumen, discover how the Ancient Romans did things when in Ancient Rome with answers to these questions and more! Why didn't the Greeks or Romans wear pants? Did they wear underwear? How did they shave? Did they practice surgery? What were the greatest delicacies? What kinds of pets did they have? How tall were they? How dangerous were their cities? Did they believe in ghosts, or aliens? What did their exercise regimen look like? How did they capture animals for the Colosseum? What happened to the City of Rome after the Roman Empire collapsed? Can any modern families trace their ancestry back to the Ancient Greeks or Romans?

    But what do those myths represent, and why are they so enduringly fascinating? Why do they seem to be such a potent way of talking about our selves, our origins, and our desires? This imaginative and stimulating Very Short Introduction goes beyond a simple retelling of the stories to explore the rich history and diverse interpretations of classical mythology. It is a wide-ranging account, examining how classical myths are used and understood in both high art and popular culture, taking the reader from the temples of Crete to skyscrapers in New York, and finding classical myths in a variety of unexpected places: from Arabic poetry and Hollywood films, to psychoanalysis, the Bible, and New Age spiritualism.#167

    The author takes the reader on each of Caesar's campaigns in ancient France, Britain, and Germany, describing his battles on land and sea, including the invasion of England, the bridge across the Rhine, and sieges of numerous Celtic strongholds.

    It covers 3,000 years of history from the city’s quasi-mythical origins, through the Etruscan kings, the opulent glory of classical Rome, the decadence and decay of the Middle Ages and the beauty and corruption of the Renaissance, to its time at the heart of Mussolini’s fascist Italy. Exploring the city’s streets and buildings, peopled with popes, gladiators, emperors, noblemen and peasants, this volume details the turbulent and dramatic history of Rome in all its depravity and grandeur.

    With the very real possibility that Rome might become a republic once more, the ambitions of a few are about to bring untold corruption, chaos and bloodshed. Aulus Caecina Severus, hero of the campaign against Boudica, is caught up in a conspiracy to overthrow Caesar's dynasty, where he will commit treason, raise a rebellion, and face torture and intrigue. But is it really all for the good of Rome? The boundary between service and self-preservation is far from clear, and keeping to the dangerous path he's chosen requires all Severus' skills: as a cunning soldier and, increasingly, a deft politician. As the Year of the Four Emperors unfolds, the mighty Roman empire will be plunged into anarchy and civil war… The Last Caesar , the first in the Aulus Severus Adventures, is perfect for fans of Conn Iggulden, Simon Scarrow and Ben Kane

    He is also a satirical and epigrammatic writer who savagely consoles with laughter. Carmina captures in English both the mordant, scathing wit and also the concise tenderness, the famous love for reluctant Lesbia who is made present in these new versions. A range of English metres and rhymes evoke the epigrammatic power of the many modes and moods of this most engaging, erotic and influential of the Latin poets. He left a mark on Horace, Virgil, Ovid and on the lyric and epigrammatic traditions of all the languages of Europe. Of Len Krisak's Horace translations, Frederic Raphael said, ‘[He] enables us both to enjoy a fresh voice and to hear (and see), very distinctly, what lies behind and within his unintimidated rescripts’. Again in Carmina he works his precise magic.

    According to ancient sources, she achieved her success by plotting against her brother, the emperor Caligula, murdering her husband, the emperor Claudius, and controlling her son, the emperor Nero, by sleeping with him. Modern scholars tend to accept this verdict. But in his dynamic biography—the first on Agrippina in English—Anthony Barrett paints a startling new picture of this influential woman.Drawing on the latest archaeological, numismatic, and historical evidence, Barrett argues that Agrippina has been misjudged. Although she was ambitious, says Barrett, she made her way through ability and determination rather than by sexual allure, and her political contributions to her time seem to have been positive. After Agrippina's marriage to Claudius there was a marked decline in the number of judicial executions and there was close cooperation between the Senate and the emperor; the settlement of Cologne, founded under her aegis, was a model of social harmony; and the first five years of Nero's reign, while she was still alive, were the most enlightened of his rule. According to Barrett, Agrippina's one real failing was her relationship with her son, the monster of her own making who had her murdered in horrific and violent circumstances. Agrippina's impact was so lasting, however, that for some 150 years after her death no woman in the imperial family dared assume an assertive political role.

    Inheriting his father?s empire at the age of twenty, Alexander resolved to expand it, and by the time of his death at thirty- two, his empire covered most of the known world?from Greece to India?encompassing two million square miles. Comprising selections from the writings of Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius Rufus, this definitive biography of the greatest conqueror in history features an introduction on Alexander?s enduring legacy by acclaimed British television personality Michael Wood.