History of the Ancient World

Michael Kulikowski takes readers into the political heart of imperial Rome, beginning with the reign of Hadrian, who visited the farthest reaches of his domain and created stable frontiers, and spanning to the decades after Constantine the Great, who overhauled the government, introduced a new state religion, and founded a second Rome.

The world that Alexander remade in his lifetime was transformed once again by his death in 323 BCE. Over time, trade and intellectual achievement resumed, but Cleopatra’s death in 30 BCE brought this Hellenistic moment to a close—or so the story goes. Angelos Chaniotis reveals a Hellenistic world that continued to Hadrian’s death in 138 CE.

By the third century BC, Rome was poised to build an empire throughout the Mediterranean basin. What transformed a once-modest settlement into the region’s preeminent power? In the story of Rome’s rise Kathryn Lomas identifies nascent political structures that unified the empire’s diverse populations and finds the beginnings of Italian peoplehood.

Starting with the Roman army’s first foray beyond its borders and ending with Hadrian’s death (138 CE), David Potter’s panorama of the early Empire recounts the wars, leaders and social transformations that lay the foundations of imperial success. As today’s parallels reveal, the Romans have much to teach us about power, governance and leadership.

Michael Kulikowski traces two hundred years of Roman history during which the Empire became ungovernable and succumbed to turbulence and change. A sweeping political narrative, The Tragedy of Empire tells the story of the Western Roman Empire’s downfall, even as the Eastern Empire remained politically strong and culturally vibrant.

Modern states have ever looked to antiquity for lessons, coveting Rome’s power and fearing its decline. So why did Rome collapse? Scientific study is providing novel answers. Placing texts and artifacts alongside evidence from ice cores and ancient DNA, Paul Stephenson shows the key roles of environmental disaster and pandemics in the fall of Rome.