This book is designed to describe the environmental, political, socioeconomic, and military life of the inhabitants that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea from the fourth through the second centuries BC. This story relates the complex dynamic interrelationships among the people and states of the Mediterranean basin. The book explores the greater Mediterranean world that stretched from India to Spain. It begins with a review of some of the geographical, environmental, and structural characteristics of the Mediterranean basin. The balance of the book then proceeds to trace the political, military, and economic development of this region. We review the rise of Macedon under Philip II through the conquests of Alexander the Great. In the eastern basin, the development and conflicts of the Hellenistic kingdoms of the Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and Antigonid dynasties are then traced. We then turn the page and discuss the rise of Carthage and Rome as republics in the western basin. Next, the conflict between these two powers is analyzed which leaves Rome supreme in the west. The next chapters narrate the struggle between Rome and the Hellenistic kingdoms for dominance in the east. The book concludes with Roman supremacy established throughout the Mediterranean by the end of the second century. From the apex conqueror of antiquity Alexander the Great, we conclude with the establishment of the apex empire that was Rome.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE KANSAS CITY STAR From Anthony Everitt, the bestselling author of acclaimed biographies of Cicero, Augustus, and Hadrian, comes a riveting, magisterial account of Rome and its remarkable ascent from an obscure agrarian backwater to the greatest empire the world has ever known. Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., Rome grew to become the ancient world’s preeminent power. Everitt fashions the story of Rome’s rise to glory into an erudite page-turner filled with lasting lessons for our time. He chronicles the clash between patricians and plebeians that defined the politics of the Republic. He shows how Rome’s shrewd strategy of offering citizenship to her defeated subjects was instrumental in expanding the reach of her burgeoning empire. And he outlines the corrosion of constitutional norms that accompanied Rome’s imperial expansion, as old habits of political compromise gave way, leading to violence and civil war. In the end, unimaginable wealth and power corrupted the traditional virtues of the Republic, and Rome was left triumphant everywhere except within its own borders. Everitt paints indelible portraits of the great Romans—and non-Romans—who left their mark on the world out of which the mighty empire grew: Cincinnatus, Rome’s George Washington, the very model of the patrician warrior/aristocrat; the brilliant general Scipio Africanus, who turned back a challenge from the Carthaginian legend Hannibal; and Alexander the Great, the invincible Macedonian conqueror who became a role model for generations of would-be Roman rulers. Here also are the intellectual and philosophical leaders whose observations on the art of government and “the good life” have inspired every Western power from antiquity to the present: Cato the Elder, the famously incorruptible statesman who spoke out against the decadence of his times, and Cicero, the consummate orator whose championing of republican institutions put him on a collision course with Julius Caesar and whose writings on justice and liberty continue to inform our political discourse today. Rome’s decline and fall have long fascinated historians, but the story of how the empire was won is every bit as compelling. With The Rise of Rome, one of our most revered chroniclers of the ancient world tells that tale in a way that will galvanize, inform, and enlighten modern readers. Praise for The Rise of Rome “Fascinating history and a great read.”—Chicago Sun-Times “An engrossing history of a relentlessly pugnacious city’s 500-year rise to empire.”—Kirkus Reviews “Rome’s history abounds with remarkable figures. . . . Everitt writes for the informed and the uninformed general reader alike, in a brisk, conversational style, with a modern attitude of skepticism and realism.”—The Dallas Morning News “[A] lively and readable account . . . Roman history has an uncanny ability to resonate with contemporary events.”—Maclean’s “Elegant, swift and faultless as an introduction to his subject.”—The Spectator “[An] engaging work that will captivate and inform from beginning to end.”—Booklist

"A major contribution to the study of Roman imperialism and ancient international relations."—John Rich, University of Nottingham

Presents a history of the Roman Republic within the wider Mediterranean world, focusing on 330 to 30 BCE Broad in scope, this book uniquely considers the history of the Roman Republic in tandem with the rich histories of the Hellenistic kingdoms and city-states that endured after the death of Alexander the Great. It provides students with a full picture of life in the ancient Mediterranean world and its multitude of interconnections—not only between Rome and the Greek East, but also among other major players, such as Carthage, Judaea, and the Celts. Taking a mostly chronological approach, it incorporates cultural change alongside political developments so that readers get a well-balanced introduction to the era. The Roman Republic and the Hellenistic Mediterranean: From Alexander to Caesar offers great insight into a momentous era with chapters on Alexanders in Asia and Italy; Mediterranean Cosmopolitanism; The Path of Pyrrhus; The Three Corners of Sicily; The Expanding Roman Horizon; Hercules and the Muses; The Corinth-Carthage Coincidence; The Movements of the Gracchi; The New Men of Rome and Africa; The Conspiracies of Cicero and Catiline; The World According to Pompey; Roman Alexanders; and more. It also looks at the phenomenon of excessive violence, particularly in the cases of Marius, Sulla, and Mithridates. The final chapter covers the demise of Cleopatra and examines how the seeds planted by Octavian, Octavia, and Antony sprouted into full Hellenistic trappings of power for the centuries that followed. Situates the development of Rome, after the death of Alexander the Great, in the context of significant contemporaneous regimes in Asia Minor, the Levant, and Egypt Provides students with insight into how various societies respond to contact and how that contact can shape and create larger communities Highlights the interconnectedness of Mediterranean cultures Strikes a balance between political, geopolitical, and cultural inquiries Considers how modes of international diplomacy affect civilizations Includes helpful pedagogical features, such as sources in translation, illustrations, and further readings Roman Republic and the Hellenistic Mediterranean is an excellent book for undergraduate courses on the Roman Republic, the Hellenistic World, and the ancient Mediterranean.

By the third century BC, the once-modest settlement of Rome had conquered most of Italy and was poised to build an empire throughout the Mediterranean basin. What transformed a humble city into the preeminent power of the region? In The Rise of Rome, the historian and archaeologist Kathryn Lomas reconstructs the diplomatic ploys, political stratagems, and cultural exchanges whereby Rome established itself as a dominant player in a region already brimming with competitors. The Latin world, she argues, was not so much subjugated by Rome as unified by it. This new type of society that emerged from Rome’s conquest and unification of Italy would serve as a political model for centuries to come. Archaic Italy was home to a vast range of ethnic communities, each with its own language and customs. Some such as the Etruscans, and later the Samnites, were major rivals of Rome. From the late Iron Age onward, these groups interacted in increasingly dynamic ways within Italy and beyond, expanding trade and influencing religion, dress, architecture, weaponry, and government throughout the region. Rome manipulated preexisting social and political structures in the conquered territories with great care, extending strategic invitations to citizenship and thereby allowing a degree of local independence while also fostering a sense of imperial belonging. In the story of Rome’s rise, Lomas identifies nascent political structures that unified the empire’s diverse populations, and finds the beginnings of Italian peoplehood.

The world that Alexander remade in his lifetime was transformed once more by his death in 323 BCE. His successors reorganized Persian lands to create a new empire stretching from the eastern Mediterranean as far as present-day Afghanistan, while in Greece and Macedonia a fragile balance of power repeatedly dissolved into war. Then, from the late third century BCE to the end of the first, Rome’s military and diplomatic might successively dismantled these post-Alexandrian political structures, one by one. During the Hellenistic period (c. 323–30 BCE), small polities struggled to retain the illusion of their identity and independence, in the face of violent antagonism among large states. With time, trade growth resumed and centers of intellectual and artistic achievement sprang up across a vast network, from Italy to Afghanistan and Russia to Ethiopia. But the death of Cleopatra in 30 BCE brought this Hellenistic moment to a close—or so the story goes. In Angelos Chaniotis’s view, however, the Hellenistic world continued to Hadrian’s death in 138 CE. Not only did Hellenistic social structures survive the coming of Rome, Chaniotis shows, but social, economic, and cultural trends that were set in motion between the deaths of Alexander and Cleopatra intensified during this extended period. Age of Conquests provides a compelling narrative of the main events that shaped ancient civilization during five crucial centuries. Many of these developments—globalization, the rise of megacities, technological progress, religious diversity, and rational governance—have parallels in our world today.

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