But it was the Romans who built the greatest empire the world has ever seen. Already a bestseller in Japan, China and Korea, acclaimed Japanese historian Nanami SHIONO’s fifteen-volume series-now available for the first time in English-takes readers on a thousand-year odyssey beginning with the city’s mythical founding by a humble shepherd raised by a she-wolf.*CONTENTS*A Note to Readers of the English EditionPrefaceIntroductionChapter One: The Birth of RomeChapter Two: Republican RomeChronologyReferencesAbout the Series and Author

    The story opens with the last target of conquest: an island nation known then as the Isles of Wa, and what we know today as the country of Japan. It will be the final challenge of a remarkable career, but facing him and his battle-hardened Legions are a race of people as fiercely dedicated to the profession of arms, and fanatically devoted to their emperor as any foe Caesar and his Romans have ever faced. The Wa have never tasted defeat, repelling every attempted invasion of their sacred islands. In these warriors, has Caesar and his unstoppable force of an army finally met their match in the immovable object, in the form of the men of Wa, or will Caesar once again be triumphant? Caesar Triumphant is an alternative history, by the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Marching With Caesar series, R.W. Peake, featuring Titus Pullus, Legionary of Rome.

    F. C. Fuller, a pioneer of mechanized warfare in Great Britain, was one of this century's most renowned military strategists and historians. In this magisterial work he spans military history from the Greeks to the end of World War II, describing tactics, battle lines, the day-to-day struggles while always relating affairs on the field to the larger questions of social, political, and economic change in Western civilization. A masterpiece of scholarship and biting prose, these volumes are available for the first time in a handsome trade paperback edition. This first volume includes the rise of imperialism, the major battles, and the political and social changes from Greece, Rome, the Carolingian Empire, Byzantium, the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, to the rise of the Spanish and Ottoman Empires and the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

    A classic survey of Roman history, art, economic life, and religion through Constantine's rise to power.

    The Mithridiatic wars stretched over half a century and two continents, and have a fascinating cast of pirates, rebels, turncoats and poisoners (though an unfortunate lack of heroes with untarnished motives). There are pitched battles, epic sieges, double-crosses and world-class political conniving, assassinations and general treachery. Through it all, the story is built about the dominant character of Mithridates, connoisseur of poisons, arch-schemer and strategist; resilient in defeat, savage and vindictive in victory. Almost by definition, this book will break new ground, in that nothing has been written on Mithridates for the general public for almost half a century, though scholarly journals have been adding a steady trickle of new evidence, which is drawn upon here.Few enough leaders went to war with Rome and lived long to tell the tale, but in the first half of the first century BC, Mithridates did so three times. At the high point of his career his armies swept the Romans out of Asia Minor and Greece, reversing a century of Roman expansion in the region. Even once fortune had turned against him he would not submit. Upto the day he died, a fugitive drive to suicide by the treachery of his own son, he was still planning an overland invasion of Roman itself.

    He compares the army's organization and strategic doctrine with those of its chief opponents and explores in detail the reality of battle: tactics, weaponry, leadership, and, most of all, the important issue of morale.

    At the battle of Mons Graupius the Roman army led by Governor Agricola destroys the Caledonian confederation that has formed to oppose the Roman invasion.In the aftermath of the battle a Caledonian boy reveals a secret that has the potential to change Roman strategy in the north forever.Marcus, an auxiliary Roman cavalry soldier is ordered to investigate andpromptly disappears into the remote trackless wastes of the north.In Rome his estranged father and retired Legionary, Corbulo sets out to find his only son and bring him home. So starts an adventure that will take Corbulo to the remotest parts of Caledonia and plunge him into the low intensity conflict that is raging between the scattered Caledonian war bands and the Roman forts and garrisons of Agricola's occupying army. Corbulo will need all his wits, courage and experience to fend off hostile and proud Barbarian warriors, a gang of murderous mercenaries and the lure of a dazzling prize."

    It was the battle that countless armies tried to imitate, most notably in World Wars I & II, the battle that obsessed military minds. Yet no general ever matched Hannibal's unexpected, innovative & brutal military victory--the costliest day of combat for any army in history. Robert L. O'Connell, an admired military historian, now tells the whole story of Cannae, giving a stirring account of this apocalyptic battle of the 2nd Punic War, its causes & consequences. O'Connell shows how a restive Rome amassed a giant army to punish Carthage's commander, who'd dealt them deadly blows at Trebia & Lake Trasimene, & how Hannibal outwitted enemies that outnumbered him. He describes Hannibal's strategy of blinding his opponents with sun & dust, enveloping them in a deadly embrace & sealing their escape, before launching a massive knife fight that would kill 48,000 men in close contact. The Ghosts of Cannae then conveys how this disastrous pivot point in Rome's history ultimately led to the republic's resurgence & the creation of its empire. Piecing together decayed shreds of ancient reportage, the author paints powerful portraits of the leading players: Hannibal, resolutely sane & uncannily strategic; Varro, Rome's co-consul scapegoated for the loss; & Scipio Africanus, the surviving, self-promoting Roman military tribune who would one day pay back Hannibal at Zama in N. Africa. Finally, O'Connell reveals how Cannae's legend has inspired & haunted military leaders ever since, & the lessons it teaches. Superbly researched, written with erudite wit, The Ghosts of Cannae is the definitive account of a battle whose history still resonates.

    The title of his most famous work, Ab Urbe Condita ("From the Founding of the City"), expresses the scope and magnitude of Livy's undertaking. He wrote in a mixture of annual chronology and narrative. Livy claims that lack of historical data prior to the sacking of Rome in 387 BC by the Gauls made his task more difficult. He wrote the majority of his works during the reign of Augustus. However, he is often identified with an attachment to the Roman Republic and a desire for its restoration. His writing style was poetic and archaic in contrast to Caesar's and Cicero's styles. Also, he often wrote from the Romans' opponent's point of view in order to accent the Romans' virtues in their conquest of Italy and the Mediterranean.

    A hundred years before it occurred, Rome was an immense power defended by an invincible army. A hundred years later, the power and the army had vanished. The Fall of the Roman Empire succinctly describes the invasions from outside, and the weaknesses that arose within, that finally reduced the Empire to total paralysis. Grant pinpoints thirteen defects that, in his view, combined to reduce the Empire to its final state of ruin. Each defect consists of a specific disunity that splits the Empire apart, thereby crippling Rome's capacity to handle outside aggressors. The social and political differences within the Empire became so irreconcilably violent that the entire structure of society was threatened and eventually destroyed.Hailed by Alan Massie, as "the greatest popularizer of this century." Michael Grant presents in The Fall of the Roman Empire a dynamic, and incisive discussion of one of history's most impressive empires and its dramatic demise.

    48 pages ofillustrations, 16 in color. Maps.

    The Western Roman Empire has been overrun by German tribes. Too weak to expel them, the Imperial government has been forced to grant federate status to the invaders. Aetius, the last of the great Roman generals, becomes the virtual ruler of the West over the heads of a weak and vicious emperor and his ambitious mother. In a series of brilliant campaigns, he takes on the German tribes and forces them to settle peacefully. Meanwhile, his old friend Attila, leader of the Huns, launches a devastating attack on the Eastern Empire, before turning on the West. He is confronted by Aetius, now his bitter enemy. In the epic battle that ensues, the stakes for Attila and Aetius could not be higher as the fates of empires of both Romans and Huns hang in the balance. This arresting novel deals with the rivalry between two great men whose friendship turns to enmity. Attila becomes corrupted by power, while Aetius is ennobled by it. Ross Laidlaw's masterful portrayal of these two figures is based on his extensive knowledge of the period and is written in a narrative style that vividly evokes the brutality, decadence and desperation of this fascinating time in European history.

    Tracing the development of tactics, equipment and training through detailed text, illustrations, diagrams, and photographs, this book will give the reader an accessible yet detailed insight into the military force that enabled Rome to become the greatest empire the world has ever seen, to defeat its enemies, subdue its neighbors and control vast territories.This book describes the organization of the forces, equipment and weaponry, uniforms, and development in tactics and warfare of the Roman Army. Each of the four historical sections will focus on the changes in the army, but will also look at the talented men who transformed and led the army, such as Scipio Africanus, Caesar and Marcus Aurelius, and the momentous battles fought, including Cannae, Pharsalus, and Adrianople.

    This is the brilliant short story that featured in the back of the special edition ebook of CONN IGGULDEN’S bestselling novel EMPEROR: BLOOD OF GODS.As the effects of age creep up on Augustus Caesar, he is left with the whispers of his wife Livia in one ear and the echoes of his youthful dreams in the other, as he tries to come to the rescue of his beloved grandson, Marcus.

    At thirteen years he led his army victoriously against the might of the Emperor of Rome. He was a god-like young man: strong, beautiful, charming and beloved of his soldiers. Once established as Emperor though, his family sought to influence him, but he rejected them, and they, like the Senate, became his deadly enemies. Through the story of this unusual and outrageous man we see the background of third century AD Roman Empire--the power of family and dynastic ties, and the struggle between autocratic ruler and his advisers.