Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Deep dive into Roman history

Ever want to learn more about Ancient Rome and how it impacts life today? About Julias Caesar and why he was assassinated? Or how Cleopatra connects with Rome? Below is a selection of books from our collection to help answer some of these answers and more!


"The assassination of Julius Caesar is one of the most notorious murders in history. Two thousand years after it occurred, many compelling questions remain about his death: Was Brutus the hero and Caesar the villain? Did Caesar bring death on himself by planning to make himself king of Rome? Was Mark Antony aware of the plot, and let it go forward? Using historical evidence to sort out these other puzzling issues, historian and award-winning author Stephen Dando-Collins takes you to the world of Ancient Rome and recaptures the drama of Caesar's demise and the chaotic aftermath." -- from publisher



"The Roman Empire has long held price of place in the collective memory of scholars, politicians, and the general public in the western world. In Money, Culture, and Well-Being in Rome's Economic Development, Hoyer offers a new approach to explain Rome's remarkable development... Engaging with social scientific and economic theory, Hoyer highlights key issues in economic history, placing the Roman Empire in its rightful place as a special -- but not wholly unique -- example of a successful pre-industrial state." -- from publisher 


"With commanding skill, Martin tells the remarkable and dramatic story of how a tiny, poor, and threatened settlement grew to become, during its height, the dominant power in the Mediterranean world for five hundred years. Encompassing the period from Rome's founding in the 8th century BC through Justinian's rule in the 6th century AC, he offers a distinctive perspective on the Romans and their civilization by employing fundamental Roman values as a lens through which to view both their rise and spectacular fall." -- from publisher


"The story of the world's best-remembered celebrity couple, set against the political backdrop of their time. In 30 BCE, the 39-year-old queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, took her own life rather than be paraded in chains through Rome by her conqueror, the future first emperor Augustus. A few days earlier, her lover of eleven years, Mark Antony, had himself committed suicide. Historian Diana Preston explores the lives and times of a couple whose names -- two millennia alter -- still invoke passion and intrigue." -- from publisher

"This book explores new perspectives to understand this Roman 'object boom' and its impact on Roman history. In particular, the book's international contributors question the traditional dominance of 'representation' in Roman archaeology, whereby objects have come to stand for social phenomena such as status, facets of group identity, or notions like Romanisation and economic growth... Materialising Roman History is essential reading for anyone studying material culture from the Roman world." -- from publisher

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