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Shop nowThe Rise of Rome
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Learn moreEmerging 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 book 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 listeners.
Anthony Everitt, former Visiting Professor in the visual and performing arts at Nottingham Trent University, has written extensively on European culture and is the author of Cicero, Augustus, and Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome. He has served as secretary general of the Arts Council of Great Britain. Anthony lives near Colchester, England's first recorded town, founded by the Romans.
Clive Chafer is a professional actor, director, producer, and theater instructor. Originally from England, he has performed on stage in the United States at many theaters, including California Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Magic Theater, Utah Shakespearean Festival, and American Players Theater (Wisconsin). In 1993, he founded TheatreFIRST, the San Francisco Bay Area's only internationally oriented theater. He has taught theater at the University of San Francisco and the University of Portsmouth in the UK. His audiobook credits include The Last Lion, part three of William Manchester's epic biography of Winston Churchill (for which he won an AudioFile Earphones Award), Colin Cotterill's series of crime novels set in 1970s Laos and featuring the wonderful character of Siri Paiboun, the country's only coroner, and Cornelius Ryan's seminal WWII accounts The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far. He gained his Master of Fine Arts in staging Shakespeare from Exeter University in 2000 and graduated from the Drama Studio London in 1983. He has been a member of Equity and SAG-AFTRA for over twenty-five years. He recently moved back to his native England, and continues to narrate, act, and teach theater there.