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"

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"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"

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"[An] engaging work that will captivate and inform from beginning to end.""--Booklist"

[英] 安東尼·艾福瑞特（Anthony Everitt）

曆史作傢，英國藝術協會秘書長，曾任英國諾丁漢特倫特大學客座教授。

童年時他曾讀到三本古典文學的名作：《伊利亞特》、《奧德賽》和《會飲篇》。希臘人和羅馬人的神話傳說、英雄功績，在孩子心中建立起瞭文明世界的初步印象，盡管存在悲劇與血腥，但自由的思想、道德的精神卻引人入勝。

此後他為一係列名垂青史的古代偉人撰寫傳記：奧古斯都、西塞羅、哈德良和亞曆山大。他也講述羅馬和希臘世界中文明的興盛、帝國的崛起。

如他所崇敬的羅馬史學傢前輩一樣，艾福瑞特不僅忠實地還原曆史，也著重描繪古代英雄的魅力與美德，以及他們的獨特性格，在一個恢宏的時代所注定帶來的命運

他現在居住在英國科爾切斯特附近，那裏曾是英國曆史上首座由羅馬人建立的小鎮。