The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Peter Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors Rome called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling an Empire that had dominated t[...]
Written by a leading authority on Roman military history, this fascinating volume spans over a thousand years as it offers a memorable picture of one of the world's most noted fighting forces, paying special attention to the life of the common soldier.
Southern here illuminates the Roman army's [...]
In a culture where the supernatural possessed an immediacy now strange to us, magic was of great importance both in the literary and mythic tradition and in ritual practice. Recently, ancient magic has hit a high in popularity, both as an area of scholarly inquiry and as one of general, popular inte[...]
Ten years after its original publication, Roman Homosexuality remains the definitive statement of this interesting but often misunderstood aspect of Roman culture. Learned yet accessible, the book has reached both students and general readers with an interest in ancient sexuality. This second editio[...]
The ancient Romans have left us far more information about themselves than has any other Western society until much more recent times. But what we know about them is sometimes bizarre, and hardly fits the conventional view of the Romans as a pragmatic people with a ruthlessly efficient army and a ve[...]
Though the wonders of ancient Roman culture continue to attract interest across the disciplines, it is difficult to find a lively, accessible collection of the full range of the era's literature in English. The Oxford Anthology of Literature in the Roman World provides a general introduction to the[...]
Marriage, a fundamental institution in human societies, takes varying forms. This book explores the practicalities, the cultural assumptions, and the affective possibilities of marriage during the later Republic and the Principate (c. 100 BC - AD 235). It takes a fresh view of the interaction of l[...]
In the first comprehensive study of Roman ancestor masks in English, Harriet Flower explains the reasons behind the use of wax masks in the commemoration of politically prominent family members by the elite society of Rome. Broadening her approach from the purely art historical, Flower traces the fu[...]
Modern treatments of Rome have projected in highly emotive terms the perceived problems, or the aspirations, of the present: "race-mixture" has been blamed for the collapse of the Roman empire; more recently, Rome and Roman society have been depicted as "multicultural." Moving beyond these and beyon[...]
This detailed examination of the way in which the Roman army operated during a war and how it fought a battle breaks away from existing studies, which mostly concentrate on the army in peacetime, and attempts to understand the army as an institution whose ultimate purpose was to wage war. Adrian Gol[...]
Roman families were infinitely diverse, but the basis of Roman civil law was the familia, a strictly-defined group consisting of a head, paterfamilias, and his descendants in the male line. Recent work on the Roman family mainly ignores the familia, in favour of examining such matters as emotional r[...]
Despite the importance of warfare in the collapse of the Roman Empire, there is no modern, comprehensive study available. This book discusses the practice of warfare in Europe, from both Roman and barbarian perspectives, during the late fourth and early fifth centuries. It analyses the military pr[...]
The Stage 7 Biff, Chip and Kipper Stories provide humorous storylines to engage and motivate children. The popular characters and familiar settings are brought to life by Roderick Hunt and Alex Brychta. The stories are unchanged from the previous edition but the cover notes have been updated to supp[...]
From the faces of emperors to mythological sarcophagi, from imperial propaganda to domestic wall-painting and the earliest Christian images, this New Survey offers an up-to-date, illustrated overview of the history of Roman art. Explaining the material in an accessible and even-handed way, the autho[...]