Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I: Romans – The Big Boys of the Ancient World 7
Chapter 1: The Romans: Shaping Their World and Ours 9
Chapter 2: It’s the Cash That Counts: Roman Social Classes 29
Chapter 3: Stairway to the Stars: The Greasy Path to Power 47
Chapter 4: Rural Bliss – Roman Dreamland 61
Chapter 5: When We Were Soldiers 71
Part II: Living the Good Life 87
Chapter 6: The Urban Jungle 89
Chapter 7: Making the Roman Machine Work 103
Chapter 8: Entertainments: Epic and Domestic 121
Chapter 9: Divine Intervention 143
Part III: The Rise of Rome 165
Chapter 10: Kings? No, Maybe Not – Republicans 167
Chapter 11: This Town Isn’t Big Enough for All of Us – Seizing Italy 185
Chapter 12: Carthage and the First Two Punic Wars 199
Chapter 13: While We’re at It – Let’s Conquer Everywhere Else, Too 215
Part IV: When Romans Ruled the World 225
Chapter 14: Reform and Civil War 227
Chapter 15: Daggers Drawn – The Fall of the Republic 255
Chapter 16: Augustus and the Caesars – Plots, Perverts, and Paranoia 271
Chapter 17: The Five Good Emperors 303
Part V: Throwing the Empire Away 317
Chapter 18: More Civil War, Auctioning the Empire, and Paranoid Lunatics 319
Chapter 19: The Age of the Thug – The Third Century’s Soldier Emperors 331
Chapter 20: East Is East and West Is West: Diocletian and Constantine 347
Chapter 21: The Barbarians Are Coming! The End of Rome 369
Part VI: The Part of Tens 389
Chapter 22: Ten Turning Points in Roman History 391
Chapter 23: Ten Interesting and Occasionally Good Romans 395
Chapter 24: Ten (Mostly) Bad Romans 401
Chapter 25: Ten of Rome’s Greatest Enemies 407
Chapter 26: Ten (or So) Great Roman Places to Visit 413
Index 419
