The title doesn’t lie — the book covers about 1,000 years of Roman history (from founding to end) and is only 352 pages (or in my audio book case, about 8 1/2 hours of listening). I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, as I find most of it muddied, tedious with extraneous detail, and overly biased, BUT I found this one to be very well-organized, clear, engaging, and with plenty of reference to the (sometimes competing) sources. It also started with a quip from Monty Python which put me in the right mood!
The book was well-structured, beginning with the stories of Rome’s founding (Romulus and Remus) and traipsing through a set of chronicles garnered from pivotal points in Rome’s history including the “real” stories behind popularized versions of characters like Spartacus, Caesar, Nero, Boudicca, and Attila the Hun. Progressing through the history at a reasonable pace allows the reader to watch the evolution of culture and values, political systems, definitions of personhood, and the technical accomplishments for which the Romans are justly famous. It was a bloody and brutal story from start to finish, to be honest, but it helps put our current issues and ideas of civilization into perspective. I found listening to it (while out on walks) to be useful as I enjoyed breaks from the (mostly unpleasant) “action.” After reading, I find myself marveling at how civilized we actually are in comparison, and also how fragile civilization always is.
Thank you to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book was published on November 11th, 2025.
Books to look forward to ... 