The Romans For Dummies

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