Table of Content
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