Rome City

Why does Rome continue to exert a hold on our imagination? City of the Seven Hills, spiritual home of Catholic Christianity, city of the artistic imagination, enduring symbol of our common European heritage - Rome has inspired, charmed, and tempted empire-builders, dreamers, writers, and travelers across the 27 centuries of its existence. Ferdinand Addis tells its rich story in a grand narrative style for a new generation of listeners.

Any travel guide to Rome will urge visitors to go the Colosseum, but none answers a simple question: Why is it called the Colosseum? The History of Rome in 12 Buildings: A Travel Companion to the Hidden Secrets of the Eternal City is compelling, concise, and fun, and takes you behind the iconic buildings to reveal the hidden stories of the people that forged the Roman Empire.

Italy is more than a destination — it’s a conversation between centuries. A place where time doesn’t pass, it accumulates. Original Masterpiece: The History of Italy Through Its Cities, Its Stories, Its Soul is a sweeping, immersive journey through the living past of Italy — told not through cold dates or dry facts, but through the heartbeat of its cities, the voices of its people, and the beauty etched into its stones. This is a history book for those who want to feel the past. Each chapter travels through a different Italian city and era, inviting readers to walk the narrow alleys...

A city on the brink of disaster. A slave girl with a deadly secret.Disguised as a young man, Ariella escapes life as a Jewish slave in Rome, only to be sold into a traveling gladiator troupe. Waiting for her moment to gain fame and then freedom, she keeps her identity secret. But when she arrives to fight in Pompeii, a Roman politician-turned-winemaker shows too much curiosity, and Ariella must harden her heart against Cato’s interest. And then there’s Jeremiah, the aged barracks slave who whispers of a new sect of Jews called Christians, who offer a different way of life. All the while...

One of the most remarkable historical works of the 19th century came from the pen of French historian Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges, a native of Paris. This amazing analysis of family and religious life among the ancient Greeks and Romans is the key to understanding ancient Mediterranean civilizations. The story begins in the misty period of the Bronze Age as the Indo-Europeans began to filter down into the Italian and Greek peninsulas. They brought with them a patriarchy that was based on ancestor worship and the veneration of hearth gods.

Elegant, secretive Sabina may be empress of Rome, but she still stands poised on a knife's edge. She must keep the peace between two deadly enemies: her husband, Hadrian, Rome's brilliant and sinister emperor; and battered warrior Vix, who is her first love. But Sabina is guardian of a deadly secret: Vix's beautiful son, Antinous, has become the emperor's latest obsession.

Written between A.D. 413 and 426, The City of God is one of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian thought, a book which is vital to the understanding of modern Western society. Augustine originally intended it to be an apology for Christianity against the accusation that the Church was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire, which had occurred just three years earlier. Indeed, Augustine produced a great amount of evidence to prove that paganism was responsible for this event. However, by the time the work was finished, the book had taken on a larger theme.

In The Buried City, Gabriel Zuchtriegel takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of Pompeii and reveals new archaeological finds that are being unearthed at the site’s biggest dig in a generation. As director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, Zuchtriegel presents a uniquely intimate perspective on this city that was tragically destroyed and frozen in time by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Among the ruins, we find unmade beds, dishes left drying, and bodies of victims encased in ash, but Zuchtriegel shows that we’ve only begun to understand this fascinating place.

In this sixth installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies stages a rescue in Rome in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Charlie Thorne. Cairo, the newest member of the City Spies, takes the...

It took little more than a single generation for the centuries-old Roman Empire to fall. In those critical decades, while Christians and pagans, legions and barbarians, generals and politicians squabbled over dwindling scraps of power, two men—former comrades on the battlefield—rose to prominence on opposite sides of the great game of empire. Roman general Flavius Stilicho, the man behind the Roman throne, dedicated himself to restoring imperial glory, only to find himself struggling for his life against political foes.

Did the ancient Greeks and Romans have conspiracy theories? Did they come close to an industrial revolution? Did they drink beer? In a series of fast-paced essays, Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities, and Earthquake Machines answers 40 questions that ancient historian Garrett Ryan has been asked in the classroom and through his popular YouTube channel ToldinStone. As in Dr. Ryan's previous book—Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants—the emphasis is on the fascinating details of daily life in the classical world.

As modern empires rise and fall, ancient Rome becomes ever more significant. We yearn for Rome's power but fear Rome's ruin—will we turn out like the Romans, we wonder, or can we escape their fate? That question has obsessed centuries of historians and leaders, who have explored diverse political, religious, and economic forces to explain Roman decline. In New Rome, Paul Stephenson looks beyond traditional texts and well-known artifacts to offer a novel, scientifically minded interpretation of antiquity's end.

In Five Cities that Ruled the World, theologian Douglas Wilson fuses together, in compelling detail, the critical moments birthed in history’s most influential cities —Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and New York. Wilson issues a challenge to our collective understanding of history with...

In this expert guide to the ancient city, Dr Philip Matyszak takes us on a tour of ancient Rome's most fascinating and important sites and locations, revealing the secrets of the beating heart of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire.

In this seventh installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies work to prevent a dangerous criminal from escaping prison in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Charlie Thorne. The City Spies are...

In the depths of the desert on the empire's Eastern Frontier, the Roman army lays siege to the city of Nicopolis. Estranged from his beloved Enica to keep her safe, centurion Flavius Ferox has secured his freedom after being framed once again. His next quest: to uncover traitors within the Roman ranks. As the siege builds, widespread corruption seethes and soldiers are murdered in cold blood. Meanwhile, Ferox's investigation brings him closer and closer to the imperial court, and uncovers connections to Hadrian himself...

A mysterious forger. A plot to empty the world’s museums. Can this champion of culture stop it before all our history is fake? A forensic audit at the Vatican Museum reveals looting on a grand scale. A corrupt antiquities dealer has been plundering Europe's institutions—replacing priceless originals with copies. Darwin Lacroix, the Pope’s new Director of Special Archaeological Investigations, is repulsed by self-serving curators, profit-hungry auction houses, and secretive government Freeports. But he cannot stem the loss of artistic heritage. Until a sale goes wrong. When a ...

How did the preaching of a peasant carpenter from Galilee spark a movement that would grow to include over two billion followers? Who listened to this "good news," and who ignored it? Where did Christianity spread, and how? Based on quantitative data and the latest scholarship, preeminent scholar and journalist Rodney Stark presents new and startling information about the rise of the early church, overturning many prevailing views of how Christianity grew through time to become the largest religion in the world.

Destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 CE, the ruins of Pompeii offer the best evidence we have of life in the Roman Empire. But the eruptions are only part of the story. In The Fires of Vesuvius, acclaimed historian Mary Beard makes sense of the remains. She explores what kind of town it was - more like Calcutta or the Costa del Sol? - and what it can tell us about "ordinary" life there. From sex to politics, food to religion, slavery to literacy, Beard offers us the big picture even as she takes us close enough to the past to smell the bad breath....

The horror is real. Darwin and team face off against a cult hellbent on resurrecting the world's deadliest disease. When thieves steal holy relics from the Vatican Museums, he suspects the antiquities cartel he shut down is still operating. But something doesn’t add up. As Darwin chases evidence of the saint’s bones from Rome to Kyrgyzstan and Warsaw, he meets an investigative reporter who links them to a series of devasting attacks on remote Siberian villages. Has someone genetically engineered a bioweapon? With time running out and no government willing to investigate Russia, Darwin ...