"Shows Marius the man, warts and all . . . an excellent biography . . . a very good breakdown of Roman politics, and a civics course in ancient Rome."— A Wargamers Needful ThingsGaius Marius was one of the most remarkable and significant figures of the late Roman Republic. At a time when power tended to be restricted to a clique of influential families, he rose from relatively humble origins to attain the top office of consul. He even went on to hold the post an un...

A riveting biography of the legendary founder and first king of Rome.According to legend, Romulus was born to a Vestal Virgin and left for dead as an infant near the Tiber River. His life nearly ended as quickly as it began, but fate had other plans. A humble shepherd rescued the child and helped raise him into manhood. As Romulus grew older, he fearlessly engaged in a series of perilous adventures that ultimately culminated in Rome's founding, and he became its fab...

This is the only modern biography of Marcus Furius Camillus currently available in English. Camillus served as a censor, was elected to six consular tribuneships, appointed dictator five times, and enjoyed four triumphs. He toppled mighty Veii, ejected the Senones from Rome following its sacking, and helped orchestrate a grand compromise between the patricians and plebeians. The Romans even considered him Rome's second founder – a proud appellation for any Roman – and revered him for being...

This military history of Ancient Rome analyses the empire's revitalized push against rising enemies to the East.In the century since Rome's defeat of the Seleucid Empire in the 180s BC, the East was dominated by the rise of new empires: Parthia, Armenia, and Pontus, each vying to recreate the glories of the Persian Empire. By the 80s BC, the Pontic Empire of Mithridates had grown so bold that it invaded and annexed the whole of Rome's eastern empire and occupied Gre...

"An unusual history of an unusual soldier of Rome who rose to Emperor . . . an engaging history of a fascinating subject—Very Highly Recommended." — FiretrenchThis is the only fully illustrated military life of the Emperor Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (253-268). Considered the most blatantly military man of all of the soldier emperors of the third century, Gallienus is the emperor in Harry Sidebottom's bestselling Warrior of Rome novels....

A biography of the notorious tribal leader whose empire challenged the Romans.Most know the name Attila the Hun—but few are familiar with the full history behind this historical figure. Rising to the Hunnic kingship around 434, he dominated European history for the next two decades. Attila bullied and manipulated both halves of the Roman Empire, forcing successive emperors to make tribute payments or face invasion.Here, Ian Hughes recounts Attila's rise to ...

This biography of the Roman Emperor Caracalla challenges his tyrannical reputation with a revealing narrative of his social reforms and military campaigns.Caracalla has one of the worst reputations of any Roman Emperor. Many ancient historians were very hostile, and the 18th century English historian Edward Gibbon even dubbed him the common enemy of mankind. Yet his reign was considered by at least one Roman author to be the apogee of the Roman Empire. He was guilt...

"A very good read . . . and a reminder that the Romans were hardly the only imperialist warmongers of the ancient world." — StrategyPageCarthage was the western Mediterranean's first superpower, long before Rome, and her military history was powerful, eventful, and checkered even before her "Punic Wars" against Rome. Although characterized in the surviving sources and modern studies as a predominantly mercantile state, Carthage fought many wars, both aggre...

The author of 24 Hours in Ancient Athens "tells the powerful story of how Greek history survived the meteor of Alexander and his brief world empire" ( Firetrench).When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, he left an empire that stretched from the shores of the Adriatic to the mountains of Afghanistan. This empire did not survive Alexander's death, and rapidly broke into several successor states. These states, subst...

"C apture[s] the essence of the struggle within Rome for reform and power and dominance . . . a page turner of a book . . . that offers fresh insight." — FiretrenchFollowing the First Civil War the Roman Republic was able to rebuild itself and restore stability. Yet the problems which had plagued the previous seventy years of the Republic, of political reform being met with violence and bloodshed, had not been resolved and once again resum...

This in-depth chronicle examines the series of political upheavals that led to division, violence, and civil war in the ancient Roman Republic.The last century of the Roman Republic saw the consensus of the ruling elite shattered by a series of high-profile politicians who proposed political or social reform programs, many of which culminated in acts of bloodshed on the streets of Rome itself. This began in 133 BC with the military recruitment reforms of Tiberius Gr...

The author of Sparta: Rise of a Warrior Nation continues his revealing history of the Ancient Greek city-state in this chronicle of its decline and defeat.Universally admired in 479 BC, the Spartans became masters of the Greek world by 402 BC, only for their state to collapse in the next generation. What went wrong? Was the fall of Sparta inevitable? In Sparta: Fall of a Warrior Nation, Philip Matyszak examines the political blunders and failures ...