This is a great reference, almost an encyclopedia, so you should not read if from cover to cover, but pick and choose what you wish to learn about. Well, I did read it from cover to cover because I love history, love Rome, love Roman history, and so on.
The book is nine chapters, each focused on certain subjects of ancient Rome. The first chapter is titled Republic and Empire. It has a timeline of important events, lists of prominent people, along with a list of Emperors. It also deals with social structure, government and taxes.
The second chapter deals with the military. The chapter deals with the organization and numbering of the Legions, the Roman Navy, when they had one, and many types of auxiliaries. It gets into the terms of service, training and basic tactics. The navy, for example, never used slaves as rowers.
The third chapter is about the geography of the Roman world. It deals with the growth of the Roman Republic, and Empire, and gives details about the provinces.
The fourth chapter is about towns and the countryside. This is a big one, dealing with town planning, types of towns, surveying, building methods and farming.
The fifth chapter is about travel and trade, giving information on roads, bridges, ships, maps, trade, pirates and more.
The sixth chapter gets into the Latin language, authors, types of writing and so forth. Lots of names, tons of names, mostly of authors' whose work no longer exists.
The seventh chapter is about religion, with lists of the Gods, Holidays and how is all worked within society. This part is an important chapter and really helps you understand a lot about how Romans thought of the world and their place in it.
The eighth chapter gives us information about the Roman economy and trade. We learn a lot about coins, weights, pottery, food processing, stone work and more. Another large chapter, with lots of cross referencing to the other chapters.
The last chapter is one of the more interesting. After giving us all that information they talk about daily life. How did families work, what did they eat, how did slaves fit into daily life, and how did they deal with death? The earlier chapters really help fill this chapter out, as by now, if you started from chapter one, you know a LOT of this answers already.
The book has a ton of illustrations and each chapter ends with a list of books that are linked to the subject, suggested reading in other words. A must for any library or collection on Rome.
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