Ancient Rome: A Captivating Introduction to the Roman Republic, the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Empire

By: Captivating History

Narrated by: Timothy Burke

Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

If you want to discover captivating stories of people and events of ancient Rome then keep reading....

The Roman civilization is probably the single most important civilization in the history of the planet. Its expansion defined Europe. Its constitution shaped societies from Russia in the east to the United States and Latin America in the west. Not even its conquerors were immune to the superior Roman culture.

In this new captivating history book, you’ll learn all you need to know about Roman institutions and politics. But our focus will be on the captivating stories and curious personalities of the Roman emperors, politicians, and generals - from Romulus, Caesar, Augustus, Trajan, and Hadrian to Constantine, Justinian, and Belisarius.

Equally important (and perhaps even more interesting) are the stories of influential women - mothers, wives, and lovers, from Cleopatra and Agrippina to Theodora and Zoe with the coal-black eyes - whose schemes often redirected the course of history.

Here are some of the topics covered in Ancient Rome: A Captivating Introduction to the Roman Republic, the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Empire:

• The Seven Kings of Seven Hills: The Foundation of Rome and Its First Rulers
• The Early Republic
• The Punic Wars and Mediterranean Dominance: The Middle Republic
• Decay, Corruption, and Civil Wars: The Late Republic
• Gaius Julius Caesar, Crossing the Rubicon, and Death That Shook the City
• The Rise of First Roman Emperor
• Early Roman Empire: Princeps Augustus and Julio-Claudian Dynasty
• The Flavian Dynasty
• The Nerva-Antonine Dynasty
• Late Empire
• The Empire of Constantine
• Constantinian Dynasty
• Decline and Fall of the Western Roman Empire
• The Byzantine Millennium
• And much, much more!

Listen to this audiobook now to learn more about ancient Rome!

©2018 Captivating History (P)2018 Captivating History

Its wonderful to read.

Being a survey book I could see no other reason to read it. I was pleasantly surprised. I found the book to read like a novel. Overall the author nails the mood of the time period and inserts the facts needed for an introduction to what Ancient Rome was, where it came from, how it evolved, and the seeds of its undoing. I also enjoyed the period pieces that the author chose to write about, because to fit every major event in Rome's history.

I was pleasantly surprised.

I think you will enjoy this book, if you are like me and a relative novice on Roman history, give it a try.

I found this book an excellent starting point.

The book concentrates on approximately 7 turning points in Roman history and the personalities who mattered the most. I think the chapter I enjoyed the most was the one on the Jewish rebellion. With this as a background I think I'm ready to tackle works of Josephus.

Good book for me on the Roman Empire.

Good book for my first on Roman Empire history. We are going to Italy this fall and I wanted some appreciation of the Roman Empire. I have done a lot of reading on Greek history but not so much on the history of the Romans. I think I will try and buy the next series about the specific topic.

Like a documantry, good one.

I was some ways into this book when I began to think that this thing read like one of those not too serious documentaries on the History channel. Of course that's in fact what it is. I bought the book mainly because I enjoy Captivating History's writing and figured she would not endorse and write the introduction for something of questionable quality. Indeed, this is a very successful gloss of the high (read dramatic) points of Roman history.

My favorite book.

My favorite overview of Roman history is neither a book nor documentary. Check out the Great Courses lectures on Roman history - either buy them or they are often available from your library. The lectures are interesting and the professor engaging. Best of all you can listen to them on your commute or next long trip.

A book of high quality data.

Overall I found this book to be an excellent starting point for anyone wishing to learn about Ancient Rome, its culture, politics, military, and what Rome's accomplishments have meant to western civilization.

Engaging and very well-written.

I took a class on Ancient Rome over the summer, and I purchased this book because I found my textbook extremely dry and disorganized. I wanted something a little more engaging that would help me glean more from the course materials. I am a History major and absolutely love reading history books (that's pretty much all I read these days). This book provided nice snapshots of Ancient Roman history that really sucked me in and made the events of the time seem real.

Interesting history of the Roman rulers.

Interesting read that follows the Roman empire from its inception until falling apart. The focus is on the long list of rulers over many centuries and was enlightening. It reads as easily as a novel. I would prefer to have more insights into how they ruled their far flung empire. There are many parallels to current events. I would have liked additional insights into the culture and the massive engineering projects across the empire, however that is probably a different book(s). This one focuses on the rulers.

Love history, love ROME.

If you are curious about Roman history, you can't go too wrong with this book, just know that it's sort of like reading a history of America skipping about to just the cool bits. "George Washington becomes president, now off to Abraham Lincoln!" as thought nothing happened in between or to anyone who was not at the top of the heap.