More than forty years after its first publication this masterful survey remains the standard textbook on the central period of Roman history.

    Its success should have been a formality. For seventy years, victory—rapid, spectacular victory—had seemed the birthright of the Persian Empire. In the space of a single generation, they had swept across the Near East, shattering ancient kingdoms, storming famous cities, putting together an empire which stretched from India to the shores of the Aegean. As a result of those conquests, Xerxes ruled as the most powerful man on the planet. Yet somehow, astonishingly, against the largest expeditionary force ever assembled, the Greeks of the mainland managed to hold out. The Persians were turned back. Greece remained free. Had the Greeks been defeated in the epochal naval battle at Salamis, not only would the West have lost its first struggle for independence and survival, but it is unlikely that there would ever have been such an entity as the West at all.Tom Holland’s brilliant new book describes the very first “clash of Empires” between East and West. As he did in the critically praised Rubicon, he has found extraordinary parallels between the ancient world and our own. There is no other popular history that takes in the entire sweep of the Persian Wars, and no other classical historian, academic or popular, who combines scholarly rigor with novelistic depth with a worldly irony in quite the fashion that Tom Holland does.

    This selection from Cassius Dio's Roman History gives the fullest description of that long struggle and ultimate triumph - detailing the brutal battles and political feuds that led to the collapse of Rome's 400-year-old republic, and Augustus' subsequent reign as emperor. Included are accounts of military campaigns from Ethiopia to Yugoslavia, and of long conflict with Antony and Cleopatra. With skill and artistry, Dio brings to life many speeches from the era - among them Augustus' damning indictment of Antony's passion for the Egyptian queen - and provides a fascinating account of the debate between the great general Agrippa and Maecenas on the virtues of republicanism and monarchy.

    Sixty years later, after further violent rebellions and the city’s final destruction, Hadrian built the new city of Aelia Capitolina where Jerusalem had once stood. Jews were barred from entering its territory. They were taxed simply for being Jewish. They were forbidden to worship their god. They were wholly reviled.What brought about this conflict between the Romans and the subjects they had previously treated with tolerance? Martin Goodman—equally renowned in Jewish and in Roman studies—examines this conflict, its causes, and its consequences with unprecedented authority and thoroughness. He delineates the incompatibility between the cultural, political, and religious beliefs and practices of the two peoples. He explains how Rome’s interests were served by a policy of brutality against the Jews. He makes clear how the original Christians first distanced themselves from their origins, and then became increasingly hostile toward Jews as Christian influence spread within the empire. The book thus also offers an exceptional account of the origins of anti-Semitism, the history of which reverberates still.An indispensable book.

    Charting topics as diverse as Minoan civilization, the Persian Wars, the Golden Age of Athens, and the conquests of Alexander the Great, the atlas traces the development of this creative and restless people and assesses their impact not only on the ancient world but also on our own attitudes and environment today.

     Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., Rome grew to become the ancient world’s preeminent power. Everitt fashions the story of Rome’s rise to glory into an erudite page-turner filled with lasting lessons for our time. He chronicles the clash between patricians and plebeians that defined the politics of the Republic. He shows how Rome’s shrewd strategy of offering citizenship to her defeated subjects was instrumental in expanding the reach of her burgeoning empire. And he outlines the corrosion of constitutional norms that accompanied Rome’s imperial expansion, as old habits of political compromise gave way, leading to violence and civil war. In the end, unimaginable wealth and power corrupted the traditional virtues of the Republic, and Rome was left triumphant everywhere except within its own borders. Everitt paints indelible portraits of the great Romans—and non-Romans—who left their mark on the world out of which the mighty empire grew: Cincinnatus, Rome’s George Washington, the very model of the patrician warrior/aristocrat; the brilliant general Scipio Africanus, who turned back a challenge from the Carthaginian legend Hannibal; and Alexander the Great, the invincible Macedonian conqueror who became a role model for generations of would-be Roman rulers. Here also are the intellectual and philosophical leaders whose observations on the art of government and “the good life” have inspired every Western power from antiquity to the present: Cato the Elder, the famously incorruptible statesman who spoke out against the decadence of his times, and Cicero, the consummate orator whose championing of republican institutions put him on a collision course with Julius Caesar and whose writings on justice and liberty continue to inform our political discourse today. Rome’s decline and fall have long fascinated historians, but the story of how the empire was won is every bit as compelling. With The Rise of Rome, one of our most revered chroniclers of the ancient world tells that tale in a way that will galvanize, inform, and enlighten modern readers.

    At stake was freedom, democracy, and the fate of Thebes, at this time the leading power of the Greek world. The tale begins in 379 BC, with a group of Theban patriots sneaking into occupied Thebes. Disguised in women’s clothing, they cut down the agents of Sparta, the state that had cowed much of Greece with its military might. To counter the Spartans, this group of patriots would form the Sacred Band, a corps whose history plays out against a backdrop of Theban democracy, of desperate power struggles between leading city-states, and the new prominence of eros, sexual love, in Greek public life. After four decades without a defeat, the Sacred Band was annihilated by the forces of Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander in the Battle of Chaeronea—extinguishing Greek liberty for two thousand years. Buried on the battlefield where they fell, they were rediscovered in 1880—some skeletons still in pairs, with arms linked together. From violent combat in city streets to massive clashes on open ground, from ruthless tyrants to bold women who held their era in thrall, The Sacred Band recounts “in fluent, accessible prose” (The Wall Street Journal) the twists and turns of a crucial historical moment: the end of the treasured freedom of ancient Greece.

    Boatwright, Daniel J. Gargola, and Richard J.A. Talbert.This shorter version lucidly unfolds Rome's remarkable evolution through monarchy, republic, and then an empire that, at its height, stretched from Scotland to Iraq and the Nile Valley. Concise narrative integrates the political, military, social, and cultural landmarks of over 1,500 years--from the early struggles against Etruscans, Samnites, and Gauls to the sack of Rome by Alaric and his Visigoths. The book gives readers a basic yet engaging introduction to Roman history and society. It is an ideal text for courses on Ancient civilization, Roman civilization, or Roman history.FEATURES* Fourteen boxes featuring excerpts from writings by Romans themselves* Extensive variety of photos and illustrations, all with detailed captions; twenty-four custom-drawn maps of the city of Rome, Italy, the Mediterranean, and the wider Roman world* Narrative enlivened by such fascinating individuals as Hannibal, Mithridates, Pompey, Caesar, Cleopatra, Augustus, Livia, Nero, Trajan, Shapur, and Constantine* Selective, up-to-date recommendations for further reading; timeline of key events; glossary of Latin terms

    Even in antiquity, they were said to be cruel, oversexed, mad or just plain silly. Yet for all their foibles & flaws, they proved to be survivors, far outlasting classical Greece itself. In Egypt, the Olympians claimed to have given birth to pharaohs; in Rome, they led respectable citizens into orgiastic rituals of drink & sex. Under Christianity & Islam they survived as demons, allegories & planets. In the Renaissance, they reemerged as ambassadors of a new, secular belief in humanity. Their geographic range, too, has been astounding. In their exile, the gods of Olympus have traveled east to the walls of cave temples in China, west to colonize the Americas. They snuck into Italian cathedrals, haunted Nietzsche & visited Borges' restless dreams. In an original history, Graziosi offers the 1st account to trace the wanderings of these protean deities thru the millennia. Drawing on a wide range of literary & archeological sources, The Gods of Olympus opens a window on the ancient world & its lasting influence.Preface: Simonides Was WiseIntroduction: A Family PortraitPart I. Birth: Archaic Greece Part II. Dialogue: Classical AthensPart III. Travel: Hellenistic EgyptPart IV. Translation: the Roman EmpirePart V. Disguise: Christianity &IslamPart VI. Born again: the RenaissanceEpilogue: A Marble HeadAppendix: The Twelve GodsList of IllustrationsNotes & Further ReadingAcknowledgmentsIndex

    and A.D. 800, from the rise of Mycenaean civilization to the fall of Ravenna and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. John Warry tells of an age of great military commanders such as Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Julius Caesar - men whose feats of generalship still provide material for discussion and admiration in the military academies of the world.The text is complemented by a running chronology, 16 maps, 50 newly researched battle plans and tactical diagrams, and 125 photographs, 65 of them in color.

    This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction by Betty Radice.A prominent lawyer and administrator, Pliny was also a prolific letter-writer, who numbered among his correspondents such eminent figures as Tacitus, Suetonius and the Emperor Trajan, as well as a wide circle of friends and family. His lively and very personal letters address an astonishing range of topics, from a deeply moving account of his uncle's death in the eruption that engulfed Pompeii, to observations on the early Christians - 'a desperate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths' - from descriptions of everyday life in Rome, with its scandals and court cases, to Pliny's life in the country.Betty Radice's definitive edition was the forst complete modern translation of Pliny's letters. In her introduction she examines the shrewd, tolerant and occasionally pompous man who emerges from these letters.Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (c. 61-113), better known as Pliny the Younger, and nephew of Pliny the Elder, was born in Como, Italy. Beginning his career at the bar when he was eighteen, Pliny managed to emerge unscathed from Domitian's 'reign of terror', even being appointed an official at the treasury. In 103 he was awarded a priesthood in recognition of his distinguished public service, and was prominent in several major prosecutions. His nine books of personal letters were selected by Pliny himself and published during his lifetime, while his official correspondence with Trajan was published as a tenth book after his death and contains a celebrated exchange of letters on the early Christians.If you enjoyed The Letters of the Younger Pliny, you might like Tacitus' The Annals of Imperial Rome, also available in Penguin Classics.

    Carefully designed to hold students' interest, the course begins in Book I with a fictional narrative about an Attic farmer's family placed in a precise historical context (432-431 B.C.). This narrative, interwoven with tales from mythology and the Persian Wars, gradually gives way in Book II to adapted passages from Thucydides, Plato, and Herodotus and ultimately to excerpts of the original Greek of Bacchylides, Thucydides, and Aristophanes' Acharnians. Essays on relevant aspects of ancient Greek culture and history are also provided.New to the Second Edition: * Short passages from Classical and New Testament Greek in virtually every chapter * The opening lines of the Iliad and the Odyssey toward the end of Book II * New vocabulary and more complete explanations of grammar, including material on accents * Many new exercises and additional opportunities for students to practice completing charts of verb forms and paradigms of nouns and adjectives * Updated Teacher's Handbooks for Books I and II containing translations of all stories, readings, and exercises; detailed suggestions for classroom presentation; abundant English derivatives; and additional linguistic information * Offered for the first time, Student Workbooks for Books I and II that include self-correcting exercises, cumulative vocabulary lists, periodic grammatical reviews, and additional readings

    The bewitched Lucius passes from owner to owner - encountering a desperate gang of robbers and being forced to perform lewd 'human' tricks on stage - until the Goddess Isis finally breaks the spell and initiates Lucius into her cult. It has long been disputed whether Apuleius meant this last-minute conversion seriously or as a final comic surprise and the challenge of interpretation continues to keep readers fascinated. Apuleius' enchanting story has inspired generations of writers such as Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Keats with its dazzling combination of allegory, satire, bawdiness and sheer exuberance, and The Golden Ass remains the most continuously and accessibly amusing book to have survived from Classical antiquity.

    150 and c. 750, came to differ from "Classical civilization."These centuries, as the author demonstrates, were the era in which the most deeply rooted of ancient institutions disappeared for all time. By 476 the Roman empire had vanished from western Europe; by 655 the Persian empire had vanished from the Near East.Peter Brown, Professor of History at Princeton University, examines these changes and men's reactions to them, but his account shows that the period was also one of outstanding new beginnings and defines the far-reaching impact both of Christianity on Europe and of Islam on the Near East. The result is a lucid answer to a crucial question in world history; how the exceptionally homogeneous Mediterranean world of c. 200 became divided into the three mutually estranged societies of the Middle Ages: Catholic Western Europe, Byzantium and Islam. We still live with the results of these contrasts.

    All the historical and archaelogical evidence has been seamlessly pieced together to reconstruct the architectural wonders of these mighty civilizations. Re creating public buildings, religious temples, shops, and houses, Connolly reveals every aspect of life in glorious detail, from religion and food to drama, games, and the baths. In addition to the great monuments and moments of classical Greece and Rome, readers learn about a typical day in the life of an Athenian and a Roman. They read about and see the houses people inhabited; attend 5 day festivals and go to the theater; fight great battles and witness the birth of Rome's navy; visit temples and spend a day at the chariot races. The spectacular artwork and vivid descriptions provide a window into the fascinating history of these two extraordinary cities and civilizations. The Ancient City is the crowning achievement of Peter Connolly's distinguished career.