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A portrait of the Roman politician describes the life and times of the ancient statesman, based on the witty and candid letters that Cicero wrote to his friend Atticus in which he described the events and personalities that shaped the final days of Republican Rome.

Written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus in 121 AD while he was the personal secretary to emperor Hadrian, "The Twelve Caesars" is a series of twelve biographies of Roman rulers beginning with Julius Caesar and ending with Domitian. The tales of Rome's emperors are deeply personal and informative, while also entertaining and often filled with drama. Suetonius included invaluable descriptions of the rulers' public and private lives, physical appearances,...

"In Roman Year, André Aciman captures the period when his family first set foot in Rome after being expelled from Egypt. All vestiges of their status vanished when they fled, and the author, his brother, and his deaf mother moved into an apartment in Rome's Via Clelia. Aciman's time in Rome did not last long before he and his family moved across the ocean, but by the time they did, he was leaving a city he loved. In this memoir, Aciman captures a...

"An outstanding new edition of Plutarch, the inventor of biography, focused on five lives that remade the Roman world. Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, Antony: the names still resonate across thousands of years. Major figures in the civil wars that brutally ended the Roman republic, they haunt us with questions of character and authority: how to safeguard a republic from the flaws of its leaders. Plutarch's rich, vivid profiles show character shaping...

A sweeping account of the social and political world of the Roman emperors by "the world's most famous classicist" (Guardian). In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now she shines her spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire, from Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Emperor of Rome is not your usual chronological account of Roman rulers,...

"Bestselling classical historian Barry Strauss tells the story of three and a half centuries of the Roman Empire through the lives of ten of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine. Barry Strauss's Ten Caesars is the story of the Roman Empire from rise to reinvention, from Augustus, who founded the empire, to Constantine, who made it Christian and moved the capital east to Constantinople. During these centuries Rome gained in splendor...

Since the Renaissance, Julius Caesar has been idolized as a superman. While there is no doubt that Caesar was extraordinary, Fuller points out that this was more for his reckless ambition, matchless daring, and ruthless tyranny than for his skills as a military commander. Caesar continually had to extricate himself from the results of mistaken judgment; his unpremeditated Gallic conquest was just one of many examples. In telling Caesar's history,...

Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of Caesar's life from birth through assassination, historian Goldsworthy covers not only Caesar's accomplishments as charismatic orator, conquering general, and powerful dictator, but also lesser-known chapters during which he was high priest of an exotic cult, captive of pirates, seducer not only of Cleopatra but also of the wives of his two main political rivals, and a rebel condemned by his own country. Goldsworthy...

"In her own time, she was recognized as a woman of unparalleled power. Beautiful and intelligent, she was portrayed as alternately a ruthless murderer and helpless victim, the most loving mother and the most powerful woman of the Roman empire, using sex, motherhood, manipulation, and violence to get her way, and single-minded in her pursuit of power for herself and her son, Nero. This book follows Agrippina as a daughter, born in Cologne, to the expected...

Introduces the brainy and brawny real-life characters who fought over ancient Rome, giving each an overall rating for their cunning, courage, ruthlessness, and survival skills.