Check CLICnet for availability
Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 537-562) and index.
• The history of Rome — Cicero’s finest hour — In the beginning — The kings of Rome — Rome’s great leap forward — A wider world — New politics — From empire to emperors — The home front — The transformations of Augustus — Fourteen emperors — The haves and have-nots — Rome outside Rome — The first Roman millennium.
• Ancient Rome was an imposing city even by modern standards, a sprawling imperial metropolis of more than a million inhabitants, a mixture of luxury and filth, liberty and exploitation, civic pride and murderous civil war that served as the seat of power for an empire that spanned from Spain to Syria. Yet how did all this emerge from what was once an insignificant village in central Italy? In S.P.Q.R., world-renowned classicist Mary Beard narrates the unprecedented rise of a civilization that even two thousand years later still shapes many of our most fundamental assumptions about power, citizenship, responsibility, political violence, empire, luxury, and beauty. From the foundational myth of Romulus and Remus to 212 ce–nearly a thousand years later–when the emperor Caracalla gave Roman citizenship to every free inhabitant of the empire, S.P.Q.R. (the abbreviation of The Senate and People of Rome ) examines not just how we think of ancient Rome but challenges the comfortable historical perspectives that have existed for centuries by exploring how the Romans thought of themselves: how they challenged the idea of imperial rule, how they responded to terrorism and revolution, and how they invented a new idea of citizenship and nation. Opening the book in 63 bce with the famous clash between the populist aristocrat Catiline and Cicero, the renowned politician and orator, Beard animates this terrorist conspiracy, which was aimed at the very heart of the Republic, demonstrating how this singular event would presage the struggle between democracy and autocracy that would come to define much of Rome’s subsequent history. Illustrating how a classical democracy yielded to a self-confident and self-critical empire, S.P.Q.R. reintroduces us, though in a wholly different way, to famous and familiar characters–Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Augustus, and Nero, among others–while expanding the historical aperture to include those overlooked in traditional histories: the women, the slaves and ex-slaves, conspirato

Subjects:

• Rome — History — Kings, 753-510 B.C.
• Rome — History — Republic, 510-30 B.C.
• Rome — History — Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

Requested by Adamo, P.

Check CLICnet for availability
Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Preface — Abbreviations — Map of the Roman empire — Introduction — Part 1: Imperial Resurrection: — 1: Crisis of AD 260 — 2: Renewal of the Roman Empire — Part 2: Diocletian: — 3: New emperor — 4: Emperors and subjects — 5: New look — 6: Persia and the Caesars — Part 3: Constantine And Diocletian: — 7: Court of Diocletian — 8: Imperial edicts and moral crusades — 9: Minervina — 10: Succession — Part 4: Fathers And Sons: — 11: New regime — 12: Maxentius and Fausta — 13: End of Maximian — Part 5: Road To Rome: — 14: Gathering storm — 15: Battle of the Milvian Bridge — 16: Freedom of worship — 17: Conversion of Constantine — Part 6: War And Peace: — 18: Reworking past and future — 19: Governing the empire — 20: Maximus and Bassus — 21: Donatist controversy — Part 7: Triumph And Tragedy: — 22: Defeat of Licinius — 23: Eastern empire — 24: Constantine speaks to the bishops — 25: Arian controversy — 26: Nicaea — 27: Constantinople and Rome — Part 8: Ruler Of The World: — 28: Constantine’s government — 29: Constantinople — 30: Ordered society — 31: Christians, pagans, and Jews — 32: Neighbors — 33: End times — Epilogue — Appendix: Finding Constantine — Timeline — Dramatis personae — Notes — Bibliography — Index.
• Overview: This year Christians worldwide will celebrate the 1700th anniversary of Constantine’s conversion and victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. No Roman emperor had a greater impact on the modern world than did Constantine. The reason is not simply that he converted to Christianity but that he did so in a way that brought his subjects along after him. Indeed, this major new biography argues that Constantine’s conversion is but one feature of a unique administrative style that enabled him to take control of an empire beset by internal rebellions and external threats by Persians and Goths. The vast record of Constantine’s administration reveals a government careful in its exercise of power but capable of ruthless, even savage actions. Constantine executed (or drove to suicide) his father-in-law, two brothers-in-law, his eldest son, and his once beloved wife. An unparalleled general throughout his life, even on his deathbed he was planning a major assault on the Sassanian Empire in Persia. Alongside the visionary who believed that his success came from the direct intervention of his God resided an aggressive warrior, a sometimes cruel partner, and an immensely shrewd ruler. These characteristics combined together in a long and remarkable career, which restored the Roman Empire to its former glory. Beginning with his first biographer Eusebius, Constantine’s image has been subject to distortion. More recent revisions include John Carroll’s view of him as the intellectual ancestor of the Holocaust (Constantine’s Sword) and Dan Brown’s presentation of him as the man who oversaw the reshaping of Christian history (The Da Vinci Code). In Constantine the Emperor, David Potter confronts each of these skewed and partial accounts to provide the most comprehensive, authoritative, and readable account of Constantine’s extraordinary life.

Subjects:

• Constantine I, Emperor of Rome, -337.
• Emperors — Rome — Biography.
• Rome — History — Constantine I, the Great, 306-337.
• Religion and state — Rome — History.

Requested by Adamo, P

Check CLICnet for availability
Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
• From Velitrae to Caesar’s heir — Power struggles and civil war — The experiment of the principate — The challenge of pax Augusta — Augustus at home: friends and family — Cultural vitality — The Augustan empire: unity and diversity — The final days and an assessment.
• In this lively and concise biography Karl Galinsky examines Augustus’ life from childhood to deification.

Subjects:

• Augustus, Emperor of Rome, 63 B.C.-14 A.D.
• Emperors — Rome — Biography.
• Rome — History — Augustus, 30 B.C.-14 A.D.
• Rome — Politics and government — 30 B.C.-68 A.D.

Requested by Adamo, P.

Check CLICnet for availability
Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-308) and index.
• Part I. Return to Rome — Riding with Caesar — The best men — Decision in a villa — Caesar’s last triumph — Part II. Blood on the stones — The birth of a plot — Wanted: assassins — Caesar leaves home — Murder — A republic in the balance — A funeral to remember — Part III. The road back — The struggle for Italy — Vengeance — Augustus.
• Thanks to William Shakespeare, the death of Julius Caesar is the most famous assassination in history. But what actually happened on March 15, 44 BC is even more gripping than the play. Strauss shows Caesar’s assassination was a carefully planned paramilitary operation, put together by disaffected officers and designed with precision. The assassins rallied support among the common people, but they underestimated Caesar’s soldiers, who flooded Rome. The assassins were vanquished their beloved Republic became the Roman Empire.

Subjects:

• Caesar, Julius — Assassination.
• Caesar, Julius. fast (OCoLC)fst00031693

Requested by Doonan, T.

Check CLICnet for availability
Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [423]-426) and index.
• Legend. A new Troy — Kings and tyrants — Expulsion — So what really happened — Story. The land and it’s people — Free at last — General strike — The fall of Rome — Under the yoke — History. The adventurer — All at sea — Hannibal at the gates — The bird without a tail — Change and decay — The gorgeous East — Blood brothers — Triumph and disaster — Afterword.
• Rome’s decline and fall have long fascinated historians, but the story of how the empire was won is every bit as compelling. Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E., Rome grew to become the ancient world’s preeminent power. Historian Anthony Everitt fashions the story of Rome’s rise to glory into an erudite page-turner filled with lessons for our time. He paints indelible portraits of the great Romans–and non-Romans–who left their mark on the Roman world. 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.–From publisher description.

Subjects:

• Rome — History — Empire, 30 B.C.-284 A.D.
• Rome — History — Empire, 284-476.
• HISTORY / Ancient / Rome.

Requested by Adamo, P.

Check CLICnet for availability
Part of the series The Middle Ages series;Middle Ages series.
Notes:

• Translated variously from Latin, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, or Greek.
• Includes bibliographical references and index.
• [Pt.] 1. The countryside and its dependencies — 1. Land leasing and legal status in southern Italy : three texts (964-86) — 2. Land, money, and grain : two customary leases in the Diocese of Florence (1073, 1115) — 3. A bequest of town and countryside properties in Eboli (1152) — 4. Sharecropping in the Sienese contado : three texts (1232, 1257, 1293) — 5. Bonvesin della Riva on Milan and its contado (1288) — 6. Giovanni Villani on food shortages and famine in central Italy (1329-30, 1347-48) — 7. A rebellion in Firenzuola (1402) — [Pt.] 2. Spheres and structures of power : ecclesial and secular — 8. The bishopric of Florence and the foundation of San Miniato al Monte (1013) — 9. Proprietary religious houses in the Diocese of Salerno (1047-92) — 10. The commune and Bishop of Florence forbid the alienation of ecclesiastical property (1159) — 11. Episcopal lordship : scenes from the life of Ubaldo da Gubbio (ca. 1160) — 12. Federigo Visconti’s pastoral visitation to Sardinia (1263) — 13. Origins of the commune of Cremora : three texts (996-1097) — 14. Mechanisms of communal government : five texts (1143-84) — 15. Empire and cities in the late twelfth century : the Peace of Constance and its aftermath : two texts (1183, 1216) — 16. Twelfth-century administration of Corleone : two texts (1182, 1178-83) — 17. Giovanni Villani on the ascent of the popolo in Florence (1250, 1293) — 18. The standard bearer of Lucca appeals to local patriotism (1397) — [Pt.] 3. The commercial revolution — 19. A Genoese apprenticeship contract (1221) — 20. Guild regulations for the oil vendors and grocers of Florence (1318) — 21. The Venetian mint after the Black Death : three texts (1353) — 22. State-run shipping in Venice (1398) — 23. International networks in the Mediterranean (1400) — 24. Transportation of commodities (1401) — 25. Two cargo manifests (1400, 1399) — 26. A run on a bank (1400) — 27. Debt remission (1400) — 28. Trade and diplomacy (1400) — 29. Protectionist legislation (1400) — 30. Usury

Subjects:

• Italy — History — 476-1268 — Sources.
• Italy — History — 1268-1492 — Sources.

Requested by Adamo, P

Check CLICnet for availability
Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [407]-415) and index.
• Prologue: departure — Part I. Opportunity: Merchant Crusaders, 1000-1204 — Lords of Dalmatia — The blind Doge — Thirty-four thousand marks — A dog returning to its vomit — At the walls — Four emperors — The works of hell — Part II. Ascent: Princes of the Sea, 1204-1500 — A quarter and half a quarter — Demand and supply — In the jaws of our enemies — The flag of Saint Titus — Bridling Saint Mark — Fight to the finish — Stato da Mar — Like water in a fountain — City of Neptune: the view from 1500 — Part III. Eclipse: The Rising Moon, 1400-1503 — The glass ball — The shield of Christendom — If Negroponte is lost — Pyramid of fire — Hands on the throat of Venice — Epilogue: return.
• Draws on firsthand accounts of pitched sea battles, skillful negotiations, and diplomatic maneuvers to offer a complete history of Venice’s centuries-long reign as a naval power and maritime trading empire.

Subjects:

• Venice (Italy) — History — 697-1508.
• Venice (Italy) — Economic conditions — To 1797.
• Venice (Italy) — Commerce — History.
• Mediterranean Region — Commerce — History.
• Merchants — Italy — Venice — History.
• Venice (Italy) — History. sears
• Venice (Italy) — Economic conditions. sears
• Venice (Italy) — Commerce — History. sears
• Mediterranean Region — Commerce — History. sears
• Merchants — Venice (Italy) — History. sears

Requested by Doonan, T

Check CLICnet for availability
Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 334-337) and index.
• By profiling some of the most celebrated personalities of European history, including Marco Polo, Galileo, Titian, Petrarch, Vivaldi and Casanova, this vibrant history of the Republic of Venice reveals how it became the first great economic, cultural and naval power of the modern Western world.
• The Republic of Venice was the first great economic, cultural, and naval power of the modern Western world. After winning the struggle for ascendency in the late 13th century, the Republic enjoyed centuries of unprecedented glory and built a trading empire which at its apogee reached as far afield as China, Syria and West Africa. This golden period only drew to an end with the Republic’s eventual surrender to Napoleon. The Venetians illuminates the character of the Republic during these illustrious years by shining a light on some of the most celebrated personalities of European history–Petrarch, Marco Polo, Galileo, Titian, Vivaldi, Casanova. Frequently, though, these emblems of the city found themselves at odds with the Venetian authorities who prized stability above all else, and were notoriously suspicious of any cult of personality. Was this very tension perhaps the engine for the Republic’s unprecedented rise? Rich with biographies of some of the most exalted characters who have ever lived, The Venetians is a refreshing and authoritative new look at the history of the most evocative of city states. Provided by publisher.
• Part 1: Expansion. ‘Il milione’ Survivors and losers The saviours of Venice — Part 2: The Imperial Age. Innocents and empire-builders ‘We are Venetians, then Christians’ Father and son Colleoni The Venetian queen of Cyprus The end of the queen ‘Lost in a day what had taken eight hundred years to gain’ Discoveries of the mind The loss of Cyprus — Part 3: The long decline. The Battle of Lepanto Women of Venice The Jews of Venice Deepening decline An intellectual revolution ‘The seat of music’ — Part 4: Dissolution and fall. The last days The very end.

Subjects:

• Venice (Italy) — History.
• Venice (Italy) — Biography.

Requested by Doonan, T

Check CLICnet for availability
Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-309) and index.
• Introduction — 1. Freedom — 2. Rebuilding — 3. Control — 4. Persuasion — 5. Inscription — 6. Restoration — Conclusion — Appendix A: Pliny’s letter to Minicianus (Ep. 4.11) — Appendix B: Republican Denarii restored by Trajan.
• This study examines the fault lines exposed in Roman culture by attempts to reconcile the monarchical Principate with Republican traditions –Provided by publisher.
• The Roman Principate was defined by its embrace of a central paradox: the ruling order strenuously advertised continuity with the past, even as the emperor’s monarchical power represented a fundamental breach with the traditions of the free Republic it had replaced. Drawing on the evidence of coins, public monuments, and literary texts ranging from Tacitus and Pliny the Younger to Frontinus and Silius Italicus, this study traces a series of six crucial moments in which the memory of the Republic intruded upon Roman public discourse in the period from the fall of Nero to the height of Trajan’s power. During these years, remembering the Republic was anything but a remote and antiquarian undertaking. It was instead a vital cultural process, through which emperors and their subjects attempted to navigate many of the fault lines that ran through Roman Imperial culture –Provided by publisher.
• Introduction — 1. Freedom — 2. Rebuilding — 3. Control — 4. Persuasion — 5. Inscription — 6. Restoration — Conclusion — Appendix A: Pliny’s letter to Minicianus (Ep. 4.11) — Appendix B: Republican Denarii restored by Trajan.
• This study examines the fault lines exposed in Roman culture by attempts to reconcile the monarchical Principate with Republican traditions –Provided by publisher.
• The Roman Principate was defined by its embrace of a central paradox – the ruling order strenuously advertised continuity with the past, even as the emperor’s monarchical power represented a fundamental breach with the traditions of the free Republic it had replaced. Drawing on the evidence of coins, public monuments, and literary texts ranging from Tacitus and Pliny the Younger to Frontinus and Silius Italicus, this study traces a series of six crucial moments in which the memory of the Republic intruded upon Roman public discourse in the period from the fall of Nero to the height of Trajan’s power. During these years, remembering the Republic was anything but a remote and antiquarian undertaking. It was instead a vital cultural process, through which emperors and their subjects attempted to navigate many of the fault lines that ran through Roman Imperial culture –Provided by publisher.

Subjects:

• Political culture — Rome.
• Rome — History — Flavians, 69-96.
• Rome — History — Antonines, 96-192.
• Republicanism — Rome.

Requested by Adamo, P.

Check CLICnet for availability
Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-366) and index
• Julius Caesar: Too great for mortal man — Augustus: All clap your hands — Tiberius: Ever dark and mysterious — Gaius Caligula: Equally furious against men and against the gods — Claudius: Remarkable freak of fortune — Nero: An angler in the lake of darkness — Galba: Equal to empire had he never been emperor — Otho: If I was worthy to be Roman emperor… — Vitellius: A series of carousals and revels — Vespasian: The fox changes his fur, but not his nature — Titus: The delight and darling of the human race — Domitian: But the third? .

Subjects:

• Emperors — Rome — Biography.
• Rome — History — Julio-Claudians, 30 B.C.-68 A.D.
• Rome — History — Flavians, 69-96.

Requested by Adamo, P