Frank Carlson Library

I am entering on the history of a period rich in disasters, frightful in its wars, torn by civil strife, and even in peace full of horrors. In the Histories, Tacitus brings to life the events of one of the most tumultuous periods of the Roman empire. After the suicide of the Emperor Nero in AD69, Rome entered into a period of extreme civil unrest. Four emperors, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, successively ruled the empire as each one rose...

Once a rather bookish young man with a limp and a stammer, a man who spent most of his time trying to stay away from the danger and risk of the line of ascension, Claudius seemed an unlikely candidate for Emperor. Yet, on the death of Caligula, Claudius finds himself next in line for the throne, and must stay alive as well as keep control. Drawing on the histories of Plutarch, Suetonius, and Tacitus, noted historian and classicist Robert Graves tells...

Nicolas Calva has Caesar's magic bulla, the Malice of Mars, and he has hidden the dangerous Jupiter Stone, but he still has to find a way to defeat The Mistress, a dragon who contains the soul of the vestalis Atroxia, and who hates Rome, and save his mother and friends, and maybe even the Empire itself--and he is troubled by his sneaking sympathy for Atroxia, who was unjustly condemned.

New York Times Bestseller: A magnificent novel of ancient Rome and the tragic life of Cicero, who tried in vain to save the republic he loved from tyranny. In this riveting tale, the Roman Empire in its final glory is seen through the eyes of philosopher, orator, and political theorist Marcus Tullius Cicero. From his birth in 106 BC in the hill town of Arpinum, Cicero, the educated son of a wealthy member of the equestrian order, is destined for greatness....

"Discourses on Livy", which was first published posthumously in 1531, is Niccolo Machiavelli's analysis of the first ten books of Livy's monumental work of Roman History, which details the expansion of Rome through the end of the Third Samnite War in 293 BC. Machiavelli believed that by examining the exemplary greatness in Roman history, practical lessons could be applied to the politics of the present day. The Italian renaissance was causing people...

Forced out of archaeology after a dig that resulted in a colleague's death, lawyer Jonathan Marcus is sent to Rome to testify against an official whom he subsequently aids during a high-stakes search for a priceless historical artifact.

In Rome during the time of Vespasian, time travelers Dawkins and Hypatia Faraday join up with Pliny the Elder who is researching dragons for his natural history encyclopedia, which seems like a harmless activity until a real fire-breathing dragon attacks them.

"Emilia arrives in Rome reeling from heartbreak and reckoning with her past. What was supposed to be a romantic trip has, with the sudden end of a relationship, become a solitary one instead. As she wanders, music, art, food, and the beauty of Rome's wide piazzas and narrow streets color Emilia's dreamy, but weighty experience of the city. She considers the many facets of her life, drifting in and out of memory, following her train of thought wherever...

This richly illustrated book chronicles the rise and fall of the ancient Greek and Roman empires, accompanied by full-color images of artifacts, artwork, maps and more. From palace-based societies in Minoan Crete to the Germanic invasion of Rome, this beautiful jacketed hardback tells the story of these classical civilizations, covering their political development, the rise of the city-state and the growth of their empires. Also included are insights...

Gibbon offers, an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell, a task made difficult by a lack of comprehensive written sources, though he was not the only historian to tackle the subject. Most of his ideas are directly, taken from what few relevant records were available: those of the Roman moralists of the 4th and 5th centuries.