Killing for the Republic
Citizen-Soldiers and the Roman Way of War
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Killing for the Republic
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Narrated by:
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Tom Parks
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By:
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Steele Brand
About this listen
The year 146 BC marked the brutal end to the Roman Republic's 118-year struggle for the western Mediterranean. Breaching the walls of their great enemy, Carthage, Roman troops slaughtered countless citizens, enslaved those who survived, and leveled the 700-year-old city. That same year in the east, Rome destroyed Corinth and subdued Greece. Over little more than a century, Rome's triumphant armies of citizen-soldiers had shocked the world by conquering all of its neighbors.
How did armies made up of citizen-soldiers manage to pull off such a major triumph? And what made the republic so powerful? In Killing for the Republic, Steele Brand explains how Rome transformed average farmers into ambitious killers capable of conquering the entire Mediterranean. Rome instilled something violent and vicious in its soldiers, making them more effective than other empire builders. Unlike the Assyrians, Persians, and Macedonians, it fought with part-timers. Examining the relationship between the republican spirit and the citizen-soldier, Brand argues that Roman republican values and institutions prepared common men for the rigors and horrors of war.
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Published to coincide with Marathon's 2500th anniversary, a riveting history of the historic battle. The Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. is not only understood as the most decisive event in the struggle between the Greeks and the Persians, but can also be seen as perhaps the most significant moment in our collective history. 10,000 Athenian citizens faced a Persian military force of more than 25,000.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Effectively evokes the world of ancient greece
- By Aaron on 11-02-10
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Philip and Alexander
- Kings and Conquerors
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Neil Dickson
- Length: 20 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 459
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 396
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Story5 out of 5 stars 395
This definitive biography of one of history's most influential father-son duos tells the story of two rulers who gripped the world - and their rise and fall from power.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Horrible narrator
- By Anonymous User on 01-05-21
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The Roman Republic: A Captivating Guide to the Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic, SPQR and Roman Politicians Such as Julius Caesar and Cicero
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 2 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 20
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 19
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Story4 out of 5 stars 19
When we think of ancient Rome, the first notion that comes to mind is the one of the empire, followed by the image of a mighty emperor, his legions, colossal buildings, and the Gladiators (or the rhetoric and poetry, depending on your preferences). Some may recall the image of a “unified” Europe under a single sovereign - the emperor of Rome. However, Rome did not become remarkable at this considerably late phase. In fact, many historians see the history of Rome under the Emperors as a long, gradual decline. It was during the republic that Rome gained an empire.
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1 out of 5 stars
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SERIOUSLY bad, 3rd grade reading level.
- By Anonymous User on 02-26-19
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Carnage and Culture
- Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power
- By: Victor Davis Hanson
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 311
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 279
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Story5 out of 5 stars 278
Examining nine landmark battles from ancient to modern times - from Salamis, where outnumbered Greeks devastated the slave army of Xerxes, to Cortes' conquest of Mexico to the Tet offensive - Victor Davis Hanson explains why the armies of the West have been the most lethal and effective of any fighting forces in the world. Looking beyond popular explanations such as geography or superior technology, Hanson argues that it is in fact Western culture and values which have consistently produced superior arms and soldiers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow! This truly is a great book. A rarity!
- By Anonymous User on 11-12-19
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God's Shadow
- Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Alan Mikhail
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 227
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 190
Long neglected in world history, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. Yet, despite its towering influence and centrality to the rise of our modern world, the Ottoman Empire's history has for centuries been distorted, misrepresented, and even suppressed in the West. Now Alan Mikhail presents a vitally needed recasting of Ottoman history, retelling the story of the Ottoman conquest of the world through the dramatic biography of Sultan Selim I (1470-1520).
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1 out of 5 stars
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Entertaining narrative, but poor scholarship
- By Anonymous User on 09-15-20
By: Alan Mikhail
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The Cause
- The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 408
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 350
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 350
George Washington claimed that anyone who attempted to provide an accurate account of the war for independence would be accused of writing fiction. At the time, no one called it the “American Revolution”: Former colonists still regarded themselves as Virginians or Pennsylvanians, not Americans, while John Adams insisted that the British were the real revolutionaries, for attempting to impose radical change without their colonists’ consent. With The Cause, Ellis takes a fresh look at the events between 1773 and 1783.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Modest history primer, wished for more substance
- By Anonymous User on 10-21-21
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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The Mongol Invasions
- A Captivating Guide to the Mongol Invasions and Conquests along with the Life of Genghis Khan
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
The Mongols were known to be both merciful as well as tolerant. Moreover, their conquests weren’t aimed against civilized life; in fact, they helped connect numerous cultures and facilitated the spread of ideas and knowledge across the continent. Diving deep inside their culture and society, we’ll cast off their barbaric image. By the end of this guide of the Mongol conquests, you will get a better understanding of not only the history of the Mongols but of all of humankind as well.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Overview of Mongol History
- By Anonymous User on 07-06-20
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A History of the Roman Republic
- By: Cyril Edward Robinson
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
The story of the Roman Republic is the greatest epic in human history. Seen in the long perspective of time, it seems too fantastic to be real. From her modest beginnings as a convenient fording place on the Tiber to her eventual destiny as the mistress of the Mediterranean, Rome offers a strange tale of fate, sacrifice, and indomitable willpower. The stern realities of war shaped Rome's policies from the very beginning.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent overview
- By Anonymous User on 05-14-15
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Black Spartacus
- The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture
- By: Sudhir Hazareesingh
- Narrated by: Ben Arogundade
- Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
Among the defining figures of the Age of Revolution, Toussaint Louverture is the most enigmatic. Though the Haitian revolutionary’s image has multiplied across the globe—appearing on banknotes and in bronze, on T-shirts and in film—the only definitive portrait executed in his lifetime has been lost. Well versed in the work of everyone from Machiavelli to Rousseau, he was nonetheless dismissed by Thomas Jefferson as a “cannibal.” A Caribbean acolyte of the European Enlightenment, Toussaint nurtured a class of black Catholic clergymen who became one of the pillars of his rule.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Liberator of Haiti and a lamp to the world
- By Anonymous User on 11-08-20
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The Sacred Band
- Three Hundred Theban Lovers Fighting to Save Greek Freedom
- By: James Romm
- Narrated by: Vivienne Leheny
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
From classicist James Romm comes a thrilling deep dive into the last decades of ancient Greek freedom leading up to Alexander the Great’s destruction of Thebes - and the saga of the greatest military corps of the age, the Theban Sacred Band, a unit composed of 150 pairs of male lovers.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Stop now and don’t buy this book.
- By Anonymous User on 06-08-21
By: James Romm
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A Short History of Russia
- How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin
- By: Mark Galeotti
- Narrated by: Mark Galeotti
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 194
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 167
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 164
Russia is a country with no natural borders, no single ethnic group, no true central identity. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it has been subject to invasion by outsiders, from Vikings to Mongols, from Napoleon’s French to Hitler’s Germans. In order to forge an identity, it has mythologized its past to unite its people and to signal strength to outsiders. In A Short History of Russia, Mark Galeotti explores the history of this fascinating, glorious, desperate, and exasperating country.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful short history
- By Anonymous User on 01-19-21
By: Mark Galeotti
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War: How Conflict Shaped Us
- By: Margaret MacMillan
- Narrated by: Deepti Gupta
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 232
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 189
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Story4 out of 5 stars 187
Margaret MacMillan looks at the ways in which war has influenced human society and how, in turn, changes in political organization, technology, or ideologies have affected how and why we fight. War: How Conflict Shaped Us explores such much-debated and controversial questions as: When did war first start? Does human nature doom us to fight one another? Why has war been described as the most organized of all human activities? Why are warriors almost always men? Is war ever within our control?
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2 out of 5 stars
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Horrible choice of narrator derails this book
- By Anonymous User on 02-25-21
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The Grand Strategy of Classical Sparta
- The Persian Challenge
- By: Paul A. Rahe
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 217
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 203
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 199
More than 2,500 years ago, a confederation of small Greek city-states defeated the invading armies of Persia, the most powerful empire in the world. In this meticulously researched study, historian Paul Rahe argues that Sparta was responsible for the initial establishment of the Hellenic defensive coalition and was, in fact, the most essential player in its ultimate victory.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Investigation Undermined by Bad Editing
- By Anonymous User on 02-12-16
By: Paul A. Rahe
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History's Greatest Generals
- 10 Commanders Who Conquered Empires, Revolutionized Warfare, and Changed History Forever
- By: Michael Rank
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 49
Whether it is Hannibal of Carthage marching elephants across the Alps and attacking the heart of Rome, Khalid ibn al-Walid boasting an undefeated military career and destroying the Persian Empire while subduing the Byzantines, or Russian General Alexander Suvurov and his elevation of the bayonet to a work of art that could cut down any European army, great military leaders have exerted tremendous influence on society. This book will look at the lives of the 10 greatest military commanders in history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Book
- By Anonymous User on 01-27-14
By: Michael Rank
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Gladius: The World of the Roman Soldier
- By: Guy de la Bédoyère
- Narrated by: Piers Hampton
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
In Gladius, Guy de la Bedoyere takes us straight to the heart of what it meant to be a part of the Roman army. Rather than a history of the army itself, or a guide to military organization and fighting methods, this book is a ground-level recreation of what it was like to be a soldier in the army that made the empire. Surveying numerous aspects of life in the Roman army between 264 BCE and 337 CE, Gladius draws not only on the words of famed Roman historians, but also those of the soldiers themselves.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Nothing new here
- By Anonymous User on 08-06-22
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Ancient Rome
- The Rise and Fall of An Empire
- By: Simon Baker
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 261
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 225
This is the story of the greatest empire the world has ever known. Simon Baker charts the rise and fall of the world's first superpower, focusing on six momentous turning points that shaped Roman history. Welcome to Rome as you've never seen it before - awesome and splendid, gritty and squalid. From the conquest of the Mediterranean beginning in the third century BC to the destruction of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian invaders some seven centuries later, we discover the most critical episodes in Roman history.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Clear and dramatic
- By Anonymous User on 08-01-17
By: Simon Baker
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For fans of Victor Davis Hanson, Donald Kagan, and Barry Strauss comes a rich, sweeping account of the most imitated---and vicious---battle in history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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