THE VARIOUS EPOCHS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Excellent choices

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny

by Edward J. Watts (no photo)

Synopsis:

In Mortal Republic, prizewinning historian Edward J. Watts offers a new history of the fall of the Roman Republic that explains why Rome exchanged freedom for autocracy. For centuries, even as Rome grew into the Mediterranean's premier military and political power, its governing institutions, parliamentary rules, and political customs successfully fostered negotiation and compromise. By the 130s BC, however, Rome's leaders increasingly used these same tools to cynically pursue individual gain and obstruct their opponents. As the center decayed and dysfunction grew, arguments between politicians gave way to political violence in the streets. The stage was set for destructive civil wars--and ultimately the imperial reign of Augustus.

The death of Rome's Republic was not inevitable. In Mortal Republic, Watts shows it died because it was allowed to, from thousands of small wounds inflicted by Romans who assumed that it would last forever.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Thank you Vicki for the add. Happy New Year.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic

by P.A. Brunt (no photo)

Synopsis:

In this book P. A. Brunt is concerned with social conflicts throughout the history of the Roman Republic. While his main emphasis is on the discontents of the rural and urban poor, he also discusses the internal struggles within the propertied class, for at times it was among sections of the propertied class, denied the political power or social esteem to which they aspired, that the poor found support against the narrow ruling oligarchy. The author holds that the discontents of the poor were a major cause of the fall of the Republic, but he also suggests in an epilogue that they gained relatively little from the monarchic system they had helped to found.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Thank you Vicki for the add.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

Rome: A History in Seven Sackings

by Matthew Kneale

Synopsis:

No city on earth has preserved its past as has Rome. Visitors stand on bridges that were crossed by Julius Caesar and Cicero, walk around temples visited by Roman emperors, and step into churches that have hardly changed since popes celebrated mass in them sixteen centuries ago.

These architectural survivals are all the more remarkable considering the violent disasters that have struck the city. Afflicted by earthquakes, floods, fires and plagues, it has most of all been repeatedly ravaged by roving armies. Rome: A History in Seven Sackings examines the most important of these attacks and reveals, with fascinating insight, how they transformed the city - and not always for the worse.

From the Gauls to the Nazis, Kneale vividly recounts those threatening the city, while drawing an intense and vibrant portrait of the city and its inhabitants, both before and after being attacked. In these troubled times when our cities can seem fragile, Rome's history offers a picture that is both shocking and also reassuring. Like the Neapolitans from Norman Lewis's Naples 44, Romans have repeatedly shrugged off catastrophes and made their city anew.

A meticulously researched, magical and novel blend of travelogue, social and cultural history, Rome: A History in Seven Sackings is part celebration of the fierce courage, panache and vitality of the Roman people, and part passionate love letter to Rome. This is a popular history of the famous, incomparable city like no other.

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

The Edge of the Empire: A Journey to Britannia: From the Heart of Rome to Hadrian's Wall

by Bronwen Riley (no photo)

Synopsis:

AD 130. Rome is the dazzling heart of a vast empire and Hadrian its most complex and compelling ruler. Faraway Britannia is one of the Romans' most troublesome provinces: here the sun is seldom seen and "the atmosphere in the country is always gloomy."

What awaits the traveller to Britannia? How will you get there? What do you need to pack? What language will you speak? How does London compare to Rome? Are there any tourist attractions? And what dangers lurk behind Hadrian's new Wall?

Combining an extensive range of Greek and Latin sources with a sound understanding of archaeology, Bronwen Riley describes an epic journey from Rome to Hadrian’s Wall at the empire's northwestern frontier. In this strikingly original history of Roman Britain, she evokes the smells, sounds, colors, and sensations of life in the second century.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

I am so happy. Thank you for the add.

[Michele]

The Ancient Origins Of The Roman Empire With Mary Beard | Rome: Empire Without Limit

For centuries, the Roman Empire was one of the defining powers of the ancient world. But how did this all begin? What is the origin story of Rome and how did it become one of the most powerful empires the world has ever known? (about an hour long)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zqzu...

AND

Why Did The Roman Empire Collapse With Mary Beard | Empire Without Limit

The fall of the Roman Empire is still shrouded in controversy and mystery. Mary Beard delves into if this superpower of the Ancient World really collapsed and if so why and when. (also about an hour long)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j7vM...

[Michele]

The Rise of Rome: From the Iron Age to the Punic Wars

by Kathryn Lomas (no photo)

Synopsis:

By the third century BC, the once-modest settlement of Rome had conquered most of Italy and was poised to build an empire throughout the Mediterranean basin. What transformed a humble city into the preeminent power of the region? In The Rise of Rome, the historian and archaeologist Kathryn Lomas reconstructs the diplomatic ploys, political stratagems, and cultural exchanges whereby Rome established itself as a dominant player in a region already brimming with competitors. The Latin world, she argues, was not so much subjugated by Rome as unified by it. This new type of society that emerged from Rome’s conquest and unification of Italy would serve as a political model for centuries to come.

Archaic Italy was home to a vast range of ethnic communities, each with its own language and customs. Some such as the Etruscans, and later the Samnites, were major rivals of Rome. From the late Iron Age onward, these groups interacted in increasingly dynamic ways within Italy and beyond, expanding trade and influencing religion, dress, architecture, weaponry, and government throughout the region. Rome manipulated preexisting social and political structures in the conquered territories with great care, extending strategic invitations to citizenship and thereby allowing a degree of local independence while also fostering a sense of imperial belonging.

[Michele]

The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium

by Barry S. Strauss

Synopsis:

Following Caesar’s assassination and Mark Antony’s defeat of the conspirators who killed Caesar, two powerful men remained in Rome—Antony and Caesar’s chosen heir, young Octavian, the future Augustus. When Antony fell in love with the most powerful woman in the world, Egypt’s ruler Cleopatra, and thwarted Octavian’s ambition to rule the empire, another civil war broke out. In 31 BC one of the largest naval battles in the ancient world took place—more than 600 ships, almost 200,000 men, and one woman—the Battle of Actium. Octavian prevailed over Antony and Cleopatra, who subsequently killed themselves.

The Battle of Actium had great consequences for the empire. Had Antony and Cleopatra won, the empire’s capital might have moved from Rome to Alexandria, Cleopatra’s capital, and Latin might have become the empire’s second language after Greek, which was spoken throughout the eastern Mediterranean, including Egypt.

[Michele]

Rome's Lost Ninth Legion Mystery FINALLY Solved In 2025 It's very bad

For over 1,900 years, the fate of Rome’s legendary Ninth Legion Hispana remained one of history’s darkest unsolved mysteries. A battle-hardened force that once thundered across Europe simply vanished—no graves, no records, no survivors. But in 2025, an unprecedented discovery beneath the Scottish earth shattered centuries of speculation. What archaeologists found didn’t just answer the question of where the Ninth went—it exposed a cover-up so shocking, it shook the legacy of the Roman Empire itself. Was the lost Ninth legion truly lost, or had someone made it disappear on purpose?
If you want to skip the theories go to 5:45

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IckpY...