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The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction covers the history of the empire from Augustus (the first Emperor) to Marcus Aurelius, describing how the empire was formed, how it was run, its religions and its social structure. It examines how local cultures were ‘romanized’ and how people in faraway lands came to believe in the emperor as a god. This VSI also examines how the Roman Empire has been considered and depicted in more recent times, from the writings of Edward Gibbon, to the differing attitudes of the Victorians and recent Hollywood blockbuster films.Less

‘The Roman Republic’ describes the rise of the Roman Republic from its humble beginnings and explores its legacy in the modern world. How do the social and cultural aspects of the Republic resonate in modern-day literature and film? How do the literary and historical sources help us to better understand the Republic's dramatic rise and fall? Examining the political structure of the Republic and reflecting on the values and beliefs held by Romans of the time, it traces the legacy of the Republic through the Empire and the early Christian church to the Renaissance and the eighteenth-century revolutions in the USA and France.Less