SPQR. History of Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a grand city even by modern standards, sprawling across a valley and home to over a million people. It was “a mixture of luxury and squalor, of freedom and exploitation. Rome was the fulcrum of an empire that stretched from Spain to Syria. How did all this come about from what was once a small village in central Italy?”

In S.P.Q.R., world-renowned classicist Mary Bird recounts the unprecedented rise of a civilization that, even two thousand years later, continues to shape many of our fundamental ideas about power, citizenship, responsibility, political violence, empire, luxury, and beauty.