Besprechung
Review from previous edition 'a magnificent achievement.' Peter Jones,BBC History Magazine

Kurztext / Annotation
The story of the Roman empire, from the beginnings to the crisis of the Middle Ages: why it was so large, why it was so durable, and why it was different from any other empire before or since.

Langtext
The complete history of the Roman Empire - how it was created, how it was sustained in crisis, and how it shaped the world of its rulers and subjects, from the eighth century BCE to the dawn of the Middle Ages.

Rome in the archaic age was a minor satellite between the Etruscan and Greek world. This book traces the expansion of Roman influence first within Italy, then around the Mediterranean world and finally, at breakneck speed, deep into Europe, out to the Atlantic, along the edge of the Sahara and down the Red Sea. There had been other empires that had expanded rapidly; what made Rome remarkable was that it managed to sustain its position for so long. Rome's fall poses less of a mystery than its survival. Understanding this happened involves understanding the building blocks of imperial society - slavery, cities, the economy - and also the chaotic narrative of growth, civil war, stability, near disaster and then a managed downsizing. Rome: An Empire's Story tells the tale of the great ancient city in chapters that alternate with examination of key features of Roman society.

This second edition has been fully revised and updated to take account of all the major new developments in the field since the publication of the first edition. Many of the chapters have been expanded, there is an expanded section on late antiquity, a new thematic chapter looking back from Constantinople to Rome, and a greater focus on material culture throughout.

Greg Woolf is Director of the Institute of Classical Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Formerly Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews, he has held visiting appointments in France, Germany, Italy, and Brazil, and he has lectured widely around the world. He has published research on a wide range of topics in ancient history and Roman archaeology, including ancient literacy, European prehistory, the Roman economy, and ancient patronage. He maintains an interest in the comparative historical sociology of ancient empires. More recently he has been working on ancient science, in particularly ethnography, and on Roman religion, and he was awarded a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust, for a project on the origins of religious pluralism. His previous publications include Et tu Brute? The murder of Caesar and political assassination (2006) and The Life and Death of Ancient Cities (2020).