The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire [Mass Market Paperback]

Eric D. Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Complete Idiot's Guide | Publication Date: August 1, 2001

Did you ever stop and notice how much your daily life is influenced by the contributions of the Romans? Satire, tax shelters, the interstate highway system, the sports stadium, the health club, and the real biggie and the reason you have the ground under your feet: Manifest Destiny.

The CIG to the Roman Empire you get:
-- Why Rome wasn't built in a day: Fascinating blow-by-blow description of how the Romans conquered the world.
-- Accurate depictions of life in ancient Rome -- What was it like to be a gladiator? A plebe? A slave? A woman?
-- An in-depth look at Roman society, politics, and architecture -- and why its timeless influence still effects us even today.
-- A close-up view of the famous (and infamous) leaders of the Roman Empire: Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and -- of course -- Caesar.
-- A look at Roman influence around the world -- from Egypt to the UK to Romania to Syria.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

CIG to the Roman Empire

It's easy to romanticize or demonize ancient cultures, but the more you know, the more complicated things become. While the Romans were insightful, ambitious, pragmatic, and influential people, they could also be cruel, rigid, bloodthirsty, stifling, overly garish and yet a bit drab. But no other civilization has left such an imprint on the laws, lives, borders, religion, literature, politics, art, architecture, and popular imagination of the West. The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to the Roman Empire discusses the framework of ideals, infrastructure, politics, military tactics, economics, communications, and education that girded together the West.

About the Author

Eric Nelson is an Assistant Professor of Classics at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, where he has been writing, speaking, and teaching about the impact and relevance of the ancient world to a variety of audiences for the past 11 years.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Alpha (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028641515
• ISBN-13: 978-0028641515
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An informative, highly entertaining overview of Ancient Rome, August 18, 2001

By 

Michael Watson (Shreveport, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire (Mass Market Paperback)

One can find any number of books on ancient Rome. Many of them deal only with one particular period, or with very specific aspects of ancient Rome. But Rome endured, in one form or another, for a quite staggering length of time. So much happened during that period that I've always found it hard to get a handle on Roman history--to place the isolated events and the strange-sounding names in some sort of context. Nelson's book provides a broad overview of the entire pageant of Roman history and culture from 800 B.C.E. through the fall of Constantinople in 1453 C.E. This book is *precisely* what I'd been seeking for the last couple of years. Besides being informative, it's quite a fun read. One gets a sense of the Romans not as mere historical archetypes, but as people, facing problems similar to those we face today--sometimes with exasperation, often with humor. I especially liked Juvenal's description of the joys of a traffic jam, circa 234 C.E.!

The history and culture of Rome are long and complex. This delightful book is a great roadmap for the interested reader.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Introduction to the Roman way of life, January 9, 2004

By 

Tuvan Uner (Virginia,United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a great place to start for anyone who's curious about expanding their knowledge of the Romans. It starts off with the Beginnings of the Roman Republic and goes through the eventual sucession of Emperors and their heirs. Also talks about the sexcapades and offers personal insights of each highlighted Emperor. The book concludes with the decline and fall of the empire and the Barbarian Invasions. My only complaint that fails to make it a 5 star selection is the lack of depth of each period of the Empire. But then again it is an idiots guide and a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about one of the greatest and most influential empires in world history.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, except for the typos, August 3, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire (Mass Market Paperback)

I just finished this book, and found it a very good read, though the effect is somewhat undone by many typos, such as unneeded or misplaced commas, misspelled or misused words ("straights" when "straits" is meant), and the occasional outright error (a couple of references to the non-existent "Year 0"). Once the reader deciphers these mistakes, though, he or she finds a generally well thought out and organized book, that covers both political and social aspects of Roman history from the founding of the city to the fall, followed by a brief section on Byzantium and the West in the middle ages. The author translates Roman writings in sidebars using colloquial English or even slang. I liked this informal approach, though others might not. He has a penchant for puns, such as Commodus wanting to rename Rome after himself, i.e. "Commodeville". I also was brought up with a start when he said at points in Roman history women had more freedoms than at any time until the last century--by which I realized he meant the 20th! The book contains several maps and photographs. Without the typos, I would have rated the book five stars.