From its mythical foundation in 753 BC to its fall in the fifth century AD, the city of Rome had an impact on the world that would be hard to overestimate. Written for the general reader by leading international scholars, this new illustrated history examines Rome's sense of self and its place in the wider world. It vividly explores a broad range of topics, including religion, Rome's relationship with Greece, warfare and Empire, and science and culture. Professor of Ancient History at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, Greg Woolf's research interests include all aspects of the cultural history of the Roman Empire, from food and patronage to literacy and the Roman economy. Woolf is a contributor to both the Cambridge Ancient History and the APA Classical Atlas projects as well as General Editor of the forthcoming History of the Ancient Mediterranean World.

Greg Woolf has been Professor of Ancient History in the School of Classics of the University of St.Andrews,Scotland since 1998.He was educated at the University of Oxford and Cambridge and had Fellowships in both before moving to Scotland.He is the author of Becoming Roman - The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul(Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,1998)and edited Literacy and power in the Ancient World(Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,1994 with Alan Bowman)and Rome the Cosmopolis(Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,2003 with Catharine Edwards).He has published on a wide range of subjects including iron-age Prehistory,the Roman economy,Latin epigraphy and Roman religion.He is currently working on studies of Roman imperial culture and on religious creativity in the provinces.