What enabled the unprecedented rise of Rome from a small town in central Italy to the center of a world power? And how did Rome manage to hold this empire together for so long? Michael Sommer vividly and up-to-date tells the exciting story of the Roman Republic from its beginnings to the transition into the Empire, and from Augustus to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. For the third edition, this highly acclaimed standard work has been brought up to date with the latest research. Brilliantly written.