This fast-paced history aims to convince us that the Roman empire never disappeared and is alive and well today. America's Capitol, the meeting place of the US congress, is modelled on the Capitol Hill of ancient Rome, and the eagle symbol of the United States is copied from the standards of the Roman legions. The word Tsar has the same origin as Caesar, and the numerous countries governed by a senate are following ancient Rome. Here is a narrative history told in a grippingly racy style, taking us from Romulus and Remus to the Emperor Constantine, while the final chapters describe how some of the most powerful people in today's world, including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, are heirs to the Roman empire's monopoly on power. The city's founding myth is told in Vergil's great epic poem the Aeneid, describing how the hero Aeneas made his way to Rome after the Trojan war, with many adventures along the way such as his passionate fling with Dido, queen of Carthage. In the early centuries, Rome's hereditary kings are overthrown to be replaced by the Roman Republic, giving us revolutionary heroes such as Coriolanus, celebrated in Shakespeare's tragedy, and the general Scipio Africanus who outwitted Hannibal and his war elephants. The Roman Republic was a slave-owning society and in 73 BC the rebellion of Spartacus lasted two years with 60,000 dead before the final defeat. The Catiline conspiracy foiled by the Roman orator Cicero showed that Rome was constantly under attack from within, and when Julius Caesar rose to power, facilitated by his conquest of Britain, his military triumphs were finally cut short by the treason of his colleagues including Brutus. Caesar's ally Mark Antony spent time with his friend's old lover Cleopatra before himself being defeated by Caesar's nephew Octavian, the famed Augustus. The Roman imperial period seemed to be doomed when Diocletian divided it into two under four rulers, and the emperor Constantine took advantage of the chaos to seize power, proclaiming tolerance for Christianity in the process. But the empire never really died as Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon, Mussolini and other world leaders, good and bad, consciously adopted the mantle of Caesar. 309pp.
Additional product information
