At the beginning of the fourteenth century anarchy in Italy led to the capital of the Christian world being moved from Rome for the first and only time in history. It was a critical moment, and it resulted in seven successive popes remaining “in exile” for the next seventy years. The city chosen to replace Rome was Avignon. And depending on where you stood at the time they were seventy years of heaven, or of hell—opinions invariably ran to extremes, as did the behaviour of the popes themse...

The Roman occupation of Provence lasted six centuries, beginning more than one hundred years before the birth of Christ, and surviving until well after most of Europe had become Christian. Today the region remains richer in Roman monuments than anywhere in the world. They are everywhere you look, from vast amphitheatres and triumphal arches to paved road and aqueducts which bestride the countryside. Two thousand years later, the Roman genius for engineering still astonishes.Provence owes i...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERIn a chronicle that captures nearly two thousand years of inspiration and intrigue, John Julius Norwich recounts in riveting detail the histories of the most significant popes and what they meant politically, culturally, and socially to Rome and to the world. Norwich presents such popes as Innocent I, who in the fifth century successfully negotiated with Alaric the Goth, an invader civil authorities could not defeat; Leo I, who two...

**INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERBest Books of 2023: New Yorker, The Economist, SmithsonianMost Anticipated Books of Fall: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, TODAY, Literary Hub, and Publishers Weekly"A vivid way to re-examine what we know, and don’t, about life at the top.... Emperor of Rome is a masterly group portrait, an invitation to think skeptically but not contemptuously of a familiar c...

* National Bestseller *“A well-researched and well-told epic history. The Dark Queens brings these courageous, flawed, and ruthless rulers and their distant times back to life.”--Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden FiguresThe remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule.

The tenth century dawned in violence and disorder. Charlemagne's empire was in ruins, most of Spain had been claimed by Moorish invaders, and even the papacy in Rome was embroiled in petty, provincial conflicts. To many historians, it was a prime example of the ignorance and uncertainty of the Dark Ages. Yet according to historian Paul Collins, the story of the tenth century is the story of our culture's birth, of the emergence of our civilization into the light of day.The Birt...

A history of gladiators-with an added bite!It’s hard for modern readers to truly grasp the spectacle that was arena sports in ancient Rome, which pitted man against man and man against beast in mortal combat. Our modern games of football and hockey, or even boxing and MMA, truly pale in comparison. The Gladiators is a comprehensive survey of these ancient sports, focusing on gladiatorial combat and the beast hunts (venationes). While many books ha...

In the 10th century, being head of the Catholic Church didnt stop Pope John XII from allegedly committing incest with his sisters, calling on pagan gods and goddesses, being an alcoholic and putting his mistress in charge of his brothel. Of course, being pope didnt make popes popular either: in 896AD, Pope Formosus died, but that was no obstacle to Lambert of Spoleto, who bore something of a grudge, in exhuming the pontiff and putting him on trial. Formosus was found guilty of being unwort...

Five of the first eleven emperors of Rome were assassinated and another two killed themselves rather than face the fury of their subjects. Nero sang while Rome burned. Caligula proclaimed himself a god. If not mad enough already, he also gave one of his horses a place on the senate. Rome rejoiced when many emperors died, only to find that they hated the next one just as much. From the death of Julius Caesar in 44BC to the fall of Rome in 476AD, Dark History of the Roman Emperors p...

"Splendidly recreate[s] the bustling life of this Roman town, as well as the eruption . . . a first-rate and compelling history of an ancient city." — Publishers WeeklyThe ash of Mt. Vesuvius preserves a living record of the complex and exhilarating society it instantly obliterated two thousand years ago. In this highly readable, lavishly illustrated book, Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence marshal cutting-edge archaeological reconstruction...

The latest edition of "the most comprehensive single-volume history of the popes," updated to cover the election of Pope Francis ( Sunday Telegraph).This engrossing book, from a professor of the history of Christianity at Cambridge, encompasses the extraordinary story of the papacy, from its beginnings to the present day, as empires rose and fell around it. This new edition covers the unprecedented resignation of Benedict XVI, and the historic election of ...

Hold the glory—and infamy—of ancient Rome in the palm of your hand with this “brilliant combination of history and storytelling” (Conn Iggulden, author of the Emperor series) as it explores history’s greatest superpower, as told through humanity’s most universal object: the coin.When Gareth Harney was first given a Roman coin as a child, he became entranced by its beauty, and its unique ability to connect us with the past. He soon learned that the Romans saw coins ...