Plutarch introduces the reader to the major figures of classical Rome. He portrays virtues to be emulated and vices to be avoided, but his purpose is also to educate and warn those in his own day who wielded power.

This is a rich history of the Roman Empire told in a style that makes the book not only a resource for teachers but also a reader for sixth grade and older. Generously illustrated with paintings by masters and maps depicting the era of Roman rule, the stories of the founding, the seven kings, the imperialism, the caesars, and the decline of Rome ring through these pages of the long-reigning Roman Empire. Master storytelling author, Dorothy Harrer, longtime Waldorf teacher, describes with enlivening detail the rise and fall of this remarkable chapter in the history of Western Civilization. For Roman scholars right down to an enthusiastic twelve year old, this is a book not to miss!

“Plutarch regularly shows that great leaders transcend their own purely material interests and petty, personal vanities. Noble ideals actually do matter, in government as in life.” —Michael Dirda, Washington Post Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, Antony: the names still resonate across thousands of years. Major figures in the civil wars that brutally ended the Roman republic, their lives pose a question that haunts us still: how to safeguard a republic from the flaws of its leaders. This reader’s edition of Plutarch delivers a fresh translation of notable clarity, explanatory notes, and ample historical context in the Preface and Introduction.

Despite the fact that the majority of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire lived an agricultural existence and thus resided outside of urban centers, there is no denying the fact that the core of Roman civilization—its essential culture and politics—was based in cities. Even at the furthest boundaries of the Empire, Roman cities shared a remarkable and consistent similarity in terms of architecture, art, infrastructure, and organization which was modeled after the greatest city of all, Rome itself. In Gregory Aldrete's exhaustive account, readers will have the opportunity to peer into the inner workings of daily life in ancient Rome, to witness the full range of glory, cruelty, sophistication, and deprivation that characterized Roman cities, and will perhaps even gain new insight into the nature and history of urban existence in America today. Included are accounts of Rome's history, infrastructure, government, and inhabitants, as well as chapters on life and death, the dangers and pleasures of urban living, entertainment, religion, the emperors, and the economy. Additional sections explore two other important Roman cities: Ostia, an industrial port town, and Pompeii, the doomed playground of the rich. This volume is ideal for high school and college students, as well as for anyone interested in examining the realities of life in ancient Rome. A chronology of the time period, maps, illustrations, a bibliography, and an index are also included.

Information over Roman life including archaeology, ancient Rome, Roman civilization, architecture, customs, education, food, games, theater, books, religion, and the ceremonial rites of the dead.

The companion volume to Plutarch's Greek Lives published in Oxford World's Classics in 1998, Roman Lives is a newly translated selection from Plutarch's rich, elegant and learned Lives, valued throughout the ages for their historical value and their charm. The lives included are those of Marcus Cato, Aemilius Paullus, The Gracchi, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Julius Caesar and Anthony. Closely annotated with bibliographies, maps and an index, this is the ideal edition for all students of classical history.

'Perpetua shouted out with joy as the sword pierced her, for she wanted to taste some of the pain and she even guided the hesitant hand of the trainee gladiator towards her own throat' Lives of Roman Christian Women is a unique collection of letters and documents from the third to the fifth centuries, celebrating Christian women from across the Roman Empire. During a crucial period in which Christianity transformed from a persecuted faith to the official religion of the Empire, these writings reveal the women who chose to dedicate their lives to Christ, by embracing martyrdom or by adopting a life of poverty and prayer, renouncing not only wealth but also their duties as wives and mothers.