Kategoria BISAC: History >> Ancient - Rome

Superfit, muscled, and macho, gladiators were hero-worshipped for their skills and courage as they fought to the death, yet despised for their humble status. For over six cruel centuries, tens of thousands died in the blood soaked arenas of Rome and its colonies, watched by enthralled crowds screaming for violence. Professor Fik Meijer has ingeniously pieced together their true stories from contemporary evidence, describing the gladiators' origins, daily life, training, and the odds of their survival pitted against their legions of fans' lust for blood and spectacle.

Professor Alfoldi describes the conflict in the reign of Emperer Valentinian I between the old world of pagan thought and custom and the new order created by the conversion to Christianity of Constantine the Great. Despite Valentinian's noble policy of tolerance, he regarded the practice of magic by leading Roman nobles, which the Senate and aristocracy of Rome considered acceptable maintenance of traditional rites, as disloyalty and dangerous to his person and to the state. In Valentinian's reign the struggle was manifested in the trials of practitioners of magic.

The history and culture of ancient Rome are described in detail, with such chapters as Roman History to 23 B.C., The Roman Constitution, The Senate, Roman Private Life, etc. Descriptions of the lifestyles and traditions of this period are accompanied by abundant illustrations and maps. Social classes and many important political and cultural figures are briefly characterized.

This work presents a brief narrative of the title subject, interweaving deft evaluations of the critical points of historical thought.

This work traces the emergence of Rome as the ruler of the western world. These are narrative essays in the history of our tradition from the time of the ancient Greeks and Hebrews to the present day.

Use this fascinating reference resource to find out what it meant to be a typical Ancient Roman. Using plenty of anecdotal material written by Romans themselves, this volume explores the ins and outs of daily living for ordinary people, from their homes, to the foods they ate, to the sports and games they enjoyed. The ancient civilization is brought to life, and students can easily make comparisons between the people of that culture and the people of our own, discovering the similarities and differences between the two.

Many different aspects of life in Ancient Rome are...

In the 250 years between 250 and 500 C.E., Rome found itself transformed from a mighty global empire into a limited collection of Germanic kingdoms. The aspiration exhibited in these kingdoms (as well as in Constantinople and later in the person of Charlemagne) to recreate and reclaim the glory of the Roman Empire persists to this day, and an examination of this time is critical to anyone interested in politics or history. James Ermatinger's multifaceted account allows the reader a unique opportunity to view through various lenses the many and complex elements that contributed to the...

Despite the fact that the majority of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire lived an agricultural existence and thus resided outside of urban centers, there is no denying the fact that the core of Roman civilization--its essential culture and politics--was based in cities. Even at the furthest boundaries of the Empire, Roman cities shared a remarkable and consistent similarity in terms of architecture, art, infrastructure, and organization which was modeled after the greatest city of all, Rome itself. In Gregory Aldrete's exhaustive account, readers will have the opportunity to peer into the...

Christians in ancient Rome were a persecuted minority, living in communities of worship and sometimes in fear. Despite this, their daily lives were largely similar to that of the Romans they lived among. This volume explores the private and public daily lives of Christians in the ancient Roman world--primarily in the city of Rome--from the death of Jesus to Emperor Constantine's legalization of Christianity in 354 C.E. From the New Testament's vivid descriptions of the earliest Christians, the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, to the archaeological evidence from ancient Rome itself...

Edward Gibbon's masterpiece, which narrates the history of the Roman Empire from the second century A.D. to its collapse in the west in the fifth century and in the east in the fifteenth century, is widely considered the greatest work of history ever written. This abridgment retains the full scope of the original, but in a breadth comparable to a novel. Casual readers now have access to the full sweep of...

In AD 9, a Roman traitor led an army of barbarians who trapped and then slaughtered three entire Roman legions: 20,000 men, half the Roman army in Europe. If not for this battle, the Roman Empire would surely have expanded to the Elbe River, and probably eastward into present-day Russia. But after this defeat, the shocked Romans ended all efforts to expand beyond the Rhine, which became the fixed border between Rome and Germania for the next 400 years, and which remains the cultural border between Latin western Europe and Germanic central and eastern Europe today.

This fascinating...