Julius Caesar was, as this book maintains, quite simply the most famous Roman who ever lived whose influence endures to the present day. This introductory book seeks to explore the many facets of his complex character - his vanity and his vitality, his charisma and his cruelty. It seeks to set his astounding career and accomplishments against the background of late Republican Rome, so enabling the reader to understand not only Caesar himself but also the violent and destructive world in which he grew up. It traces in detail the sources of his phenomenal rise to power and the deep unpopularity...

Hadrian's Wall - one of the most prominent monuments of the Roman period in Britain - has a special place in the public imagination. It offers a tangible reminder of our ancient past and a concrete link with the Roman occupation. Visitors can stand amid the remains, knowing that they tread in the footsteps of the soldiers who garrisoned the province. Guides to the Wall have tended to concentrate on the archaeological record, on the Wall's construction and on military organisation. This book folds these aspects into a wider historical, social and economic perspective, providing the general...

This book provides separate discussions of each of Sophocles' seven plays: Ajax, Women of Trachis, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. It sets these between an essay that outlines modern approaches to Greek tragedy and a final chapter that spotlights a key moment in the reception of each work.Focusing on the tragedies' dramatic power and the challenges with which they confront an audience, Morwood refuses to confine them within a supposedly Sophoclean template. They are seven unique works, only alike in the fact that they are all major masterpieces....

This book offers an illuminating re-appraisal of the domestic space in classical Greece. Starting from the premise that we must cease to view the classical Greek house through the lens of contemporary Western notions of the household, Janett Morgan provides a fresh evaluation of what 'home' meant to different communities in the ancient Greek world. By employing textual analysis alongside archaeological scholarship her book seeks to explain some of the contradictions that previous, more simplistic approaches have left unanswered. Of value to students and academics alike, Morgan's work gives an...