Ancient Rome: A History

Ancient Rome: A History by D. Brendan Nagle covers the history of Rome from its legendary founding in 753 B.C. to A.D. 732, when the Frankish successors of Rome turned back the conquering Arabs at the Battle of Poitiers. Well illustrated with figures, photos, and original maps, the text is organized into seven parts, each covering a major issue or period of Roman history: * The founding of the city and the rise of Rome as a power in the Mediterranean * The fall of the Republic * The refounding of Rome under Augustus * The consolidation of the Principate * Factors and institutions that held the Empire together * Rome on the defense in the Third Century A.D. * The world of Late Antiquity The events and chronologies are subordinated to a series of master narrative questions which are developed in the introductions to the major sections of the text. * Why did Rome succeed in creating an empire based on the city-state when every other Mediterranean city-state that attempted to do so failed? * Why did the government of the Republic collapse after its stunning military success allowed it to conquer most of the Mediterranean and a good portion of Europe? * Even more astonishingly, how did the Republic, phoenix-like, revive and recreate itself? * And finally, in the fourth century A.D., how did Rome redesign itself under pressure from a resurgent Persia, the numerous warrior bands, and migrating peoples of the West? Special attention is given to the early growth of Rome in Italy; the art and architectural program of Augustus; and the factors that sustained the Roman Empire; the world of Late Antiquity, the rise of Abrahamic religions; and the revolutionary role of monotheism in the culture of the classical world.