Imperial Rome

The Roads to Rome is a journey into a past that remains intimately connected to our present. Traveling from Scotland to Cádiz to Istanbul and back to Rome, the listener meanders through nations and empires that have risen and fallen. We encounter spies, bandits, innkeepers, a Byzantine noblewoman on the run, aristocrats on their Grand Tour, Napoleon, John Keats, the Shelleys, Frederick Douglass, and Mussolini.

AD 272 - the Roman emperor Aurelian has defeated Queen Zenobia and crushed the Palmyran revolt. Faridun's Banner, hallowed battle standard of the Persian Empire, has fallen into Roman hands and is to be returned to the Persians as part of a historic peace treaty. But on the eve of the signing, the banner goes missing. Recalled to Syria, imperial agent Cassius Corbulo is charged with recovering the flag.

To this day, we feel the influence of imperial Rome. After all, imperial Rome was one of the first successful “melting pots” of cultures. The Romans took what worked and discarded what didn’t work, showing that it was possible to have a stable, centralized government over an extremely large area.

Having escaped the turmoil of his homeland, Septimius Severus finally arrives in the heart of the Roman Empire determined to build a new life. But Rome is unlike anything he imagined—a city where ambition is rewarded, loyalty is fleeting, and power belongs to those willing to pay its price. As Severus begins his rise through the imperial ranks under the watchful eye of Marcus Aurelius, he discovers that every opportunity demands a sacrifice. Old loyalties are tested, dangerous rivalries emerge, and the woman he loves finds herself caught in a struggle neither of them can control. To ...

The decadence of Imperial Rome comes to life in S.P. Somtow's Literary Titan Award-winning novel about one of ancient history's wildest characters. The historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Nero emasculated and married his slave Sporus, the spitting image of murdered Empress Poppaea. But history has more tidbits about Sporus, who went from "puer delicatus" to Empress to one Emperor and concubine to another, and ended up being sentenced to play the Earth-Goddess in the arena. World Fantasy Award winner S.P. Somtow weaves a vivid adventure about one of the most colorful personalities ...

"May Steven Saylor's Roman empire never fall. A modern master of historical fiction, Saylor convincingly transports us into the ancient world...enthralling!" —USA Today on Roma Continuing the saga begun in his New York Times bestselling novel Roma, Steven Saylor charts the destinies of the...

Finally available in one volume! The decadence of Imperial Rome comes to life in S.P. Somtow's Literary Titan Award-winning novel about one of ancient history's wildest characters. The historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Nero emasculated and married his slave Sporus, the spitting image of murdered Empress Poppaea. But history has more tidbits about Sporus, who went from "puer delicatus" to Empress to one Emperor and concubine to another, and ended up being sentenced to play the Earth-Goddess in the arena. from Literary Titan "If you like your historical fiction brutal and ...

The 50 years following the assassination of Severus Alexander on March 19, CE 235 has been generally regarded by academics as one of the lowest points in the history of the Roman Empire.

In AD 476, the last of Rome's emperors, known as "Augustulus", was deposed by a barbarian general, the son of one of Attila the Hun's henchmen. With the imperial vestments dispatched to Constantinople, the curtain fell on the Roman empire in Western Europe, its territories divided among successor kingdoms constructed around barbarian military manpower. But, if the Roman Empire was dead, Romans across much of the old empire still lived, holding on to their lands, their values, and their institutions.

Rome's first imperial family never once managed a peaceful succession — and ruled the world anyway. In August of AD 14, Augustus died in his bed and power passed to his heir without a riot, a battle, or almost an argument. Fifty-four years later the last man of his line hid in a freedman's villa outside Rome and drove a dagger into his own throat as the cavalry closed in. With Nero died every male descendant of the family that had ruled the Roman world for a century. In between sit four emperors — Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero — and a family system that produced, promoted, and ...

Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero - these are the names history associates with the early Roman Empire. Yet, not a single one of these emperors was the blood son of his predecessor. In this captivating history, a prominent scholar of the era documents the Julio-Claudian women whose bloodline, ambition, and ruthlessness made it possible for the emperors' line to continue. Eminent scholar Guy de la Bedoyere, author of Praetorian, asserts that the women behind the scenes - including Livia, Octavia, and the elder and younger Agrippina - were the true backbone of the dynasty.

After the Emperor’s unexpected death, ambitious men eye the Eastern Roman throne occupied by seven-year-old Theodosius II. His older sister Pulcheria faces a stark choice: She must find allies and take control of the Eastern court or doom the imperial children to a life of obscurity - or worse! Beloved by the people and respected by the Church, Pulcheria forges her own path to power.

A striking, nuanced biography of Nero—the controversial populist ruler and last of the Caesars—and a vivid portrait of ancient Rome “Exciting and provocative . . . Nero is a pleasure to read.”—Barry Strauss, author of The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian...

In this audiobook, you'll discover the downfall of the Roman Republic, the emergence of the illustrious Roman Empire, Caesar’s life and conquests, and more about this ancient civilization.

The Roman Empire did not fall to barbarians. It went bankrupt—liquidation of silver, trust, and fiscal authority. The ultimate financial audit of the Third Century Crisis: currency debasement, hyperinflation, and tax collapse destroyed Rome’s extraction machine. In AD 268, the silver denarius—the bedrock of Mediterranean commerce for three centuries—had become a copper token with a thin silver wash. Soldiers could not buy grain. Merchants could not set stable prices. Tax collectors found their coin worth less than collection costs. The empire built on its currency watched it ...

Tiberius inherited the Roman world at the height of its power, but ruling an empire built by Augustus was never going to be a simple act of succession. In Tiberius: The Emperor Who Inherited the World, Gordon J. MacKenzie explores the life of Rome’s second emperor in full, tracing his rise from reluctant heir to the most powerful man in the ancient world. Soldier, administrator, exile, step-son, and emperor, Tiberius was one of the most capable yet most misunderstood rulers in Roman history. This biography follows his early military brilliance, his uneasy relationship with Augustus, his ...

Founded by Augustus around 27 BC, the elite Praetorian Guard was tasked with the protection of the emperor and his family. As the centuries unfolded, however, Praetorian soldiers served not only as protectors and enforcers but also as powerful political players. Fiercely loyal to some emperors, they vied with others and ruthlessly toppled those who displeased them, including Caligula, Nero, Pertinax, and many more. Guy de la Bédoyère provides a compelling first full narrative history of the Praetorians.

Antoninus Pius is often overshadowed by the emperors who came before and after him. Hadrian was the restless architect of imperial consolidation. Marcus Aurelius became the philosopher-emperor tested by war and plague. Between them stood Antoninus Pius, a ruler whose greatest achievement was far harder than conquest. He kept Rome at its height. In ANTONINUS PIUS: The Emperor Who Preserved Rome, Gordon J. MacKenzie examines the reign of one of the most stable and disciplined emperors in Roman history. Rather than chasing military glory or remaking the empire through spectacle, Antoninus ...

What happens when you meet the man of your dreams, but it's the right place, wrong time? You walk away… What do you do when you keep running into him at the most random times, in the most random places? You let him in… What happens when you find out he makes his living in the shadows? You fall a little harder… Is it crazy to love him? Absolutely, but you do it anyway…

What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of politicians we deplore? In this book - against a background of today’s “sculpture wars” - Mary Beard tells the story of how for more than two millennia portraits of the rich, powerful, and famous in the Western world have been shaped by the image of Roman emperors, especially the “Twelve Caesars”, from the ruthless Julius Caesar to the fly-torturing Domitian.