Product Description: Gaius Marius (158/157-86 BC) has a major transformational impact on the history of the late Roman Republic. Although none of his ancestors had been a member of the Senate, he managed to reach the consulship on seven occasions, and was responsible for a series of major military victories, notably against King Jugurtha in North Africa and the Teutons and the Cimbrians in Southern Gaul and Northern Italy...read more

Product Description: I am conscious of a certain audacity in thus attempting to give a further life of Cicero which I feel I may probably fail in justifying by any new information; and on this account the enterprise, though it has been long considered, has been postponed, so that it may be left for those who come after me to burn or publish, as they may think proper; or, should it appear during my life, I may have become callous, through age, to criticism...read more

Plutarch's Lives have been popular reading from antiquity to the present day, combining engaging biographical detail with a strong underlying moral purpose. The Lives of Demosthenes and Cicero are an unusual pair in that they are about unmilitary men who, while superb technically as orators, were both in the end political failures, crushed by the military power which dominated their world. In these two Lives, Plutarch is not so much interested in Demosthenes' and Cicero's rhetorical technique as in their ability to persuade an audience to vote for the right course of action, even if that action was prima facie unpopular. In Plutarch's own time, when the empire of the Caesars had been established for over a century, liberty was of necessity limited, but still an issue, for both Greeks and Romans. His home, Chaeroneia, was a provincial town in Greece, but he travelled regularly to Italy where he met Romans from the elite that ruled the empire. He wrote both for his fellow imperial subjects who still sought to enjoy what freedom they could obtain from the ruling power, and for the Romans who exercised that power but were always subject to the ultimate authority of the emperor. Along with the translations and commentaries, Lintott provides a detailed introduction which discusses the background and context of these two Lives, essential information about the author and the periods in which these two orators lived, and the philosophy which underlies Plutarch's presentation of the two personalities.

Product Description: The forced suicide of Seneca, former adviser to Nero, is one of the most tortured--and most revisited--death scenes from classical antiquity. After fruitlessly opening his veins and drinking hemlock, Seneca finally succumbed to death in a stifling steam bath, while his wife Paulina, who had attempted suicide as well, was bandaged up and revived by Nero's men...read more

The life of one of the towering figures of Roman history, Mark Antony, politician, soldier, ally to Julius Caesar, lover of Cleopatra. History has not been kind to Mark Antony, but then he was probably his own worst enemy, fatally flawed, too fond of wine and women, extravagant, impetuous, reckless, always in debt, and attached to all the wrong people. There is some truth in this list of Antony's failings, but the propaganda machine of his enemy, Octavian, ensured that these facets of Antony's character were the only ones to survive. There is no mention of the fact that Caesar, who could not afford to promote incompetent assistants, found in Antony a very able lieutenant. Nor is it acknowledged that immediately after the assassination of Caesar in 44 BC, it was Antony and not Octavian who held the state together, when it could so easily have slipped into chaos. In modern eyes, influenced by Shakespeare, Antony is perhaps the ultimate tragic hero, who gave up everything for the love of a woman, Cleopatra VII, ruler of Egypt. Octavian presented Antony as a weakling, completely dominated by Cleopatra, and therefore a threat to Rome by dint of his association with the unbridled ambitions of the Egyptian Queen to rule the world. While Antony attended to the eastern half of the Roman world, shoring up Octavian whenever he needed troops, ships, and money, Octavian eventually planned to bring him down, embarking on a smear campaign to convince the Roman people that Antony should be eliminated. The result was civil war and the defeat of Antony in the naval battle of Actium. In Alexandria, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide in 30 BC. Octavian buried them side by side, and took total control of Rome and Egypt.

Product Description: The doomed love affair that united Ancient Rome & Egypt. The immortal lovers of novels, plays and films, Antony and Cleopatra were reviled by contemporary Romans, but history has transformed them into tragic heroes. Somewhere between their vilification by Augustus and the judgement of a later age there were two vibrant people whose destinies were entwined after the assassination of Julius Caesar in March 44 BC...read more

Product Description: As the greatest Roman orator of his time, Cicero delivered over one hundred speeches in the law courts, in the senate and before the people of Rome. He was also a philosopher, a patriot and a private man. While his published speeches preserve scandalous accounts of the murder, corruption and violence that plagued Rome in the first century BC, his surviving letters give an exceptional glimpse into Cicero's own personality and his reactions to events as they unravelled around him – events, he thought, which threatened to destabilize the system of government he loved and establish a tyranny over Rome...read more

Product Description: Lucullus is one of the great figures of the late Roman republic. But his achievements have been overshadowed by a reputation for luxurious living. This book explodes the legend and restores Lucullus to his true positon of soldier, politician and aesthete.

Product Description: The tragic love affair of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is a staple of popular ancient history, immortalised by Shakespeare and Hollywood and mercilessly parodied in Carry on Cleo. In this dual biography Patricia Southern attempts to rescue both from the stereotypes, portraying their alliance as a mutually advantageous one, and both of them as capable political operators...read more

Product Description: 1st edition 1st printing as new hardcover book fine condition dw owners name inside , In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Product Description: Learn why Cicero is considered one of the most important individuals in all of Western culture!Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a poet, philosopher, writer, scholar, barrister, statesman, patriot, and the linguist who helped make Latin into a universal language...read more

Product Description: Learn why Cicero is considered one of the most important individuals in all of Western culture!Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a poet, philosopher, writer, scholar, barrister, statesman, patriot, and the linguist who helped make Latin into a universal language...read more

Product Description: Originally published in 1897. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume...read more

Product Description: This book is a reprint of the University of Oklahoma Press edition of 1991. Eminent scholar and translator, Herbert W. Benario, provides a faithful, readable translation of these works, introductory essays, chapter summaries, and notes...read more