Volume I of John Bonner’s classic retelling of the history of Rome has lost none of its attention-grabbing interest since it was first published, and provides the perfect introduction to younger readers of the story of the greatness and the glory that was Rome.
This first volume starts with the semi-mythological origins of Rome, as passed down from that nation’s earliest days. Apart from the legend of the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus, readers are treated to the equally fascinating stories of Numa, Tullus Hostilius, Tarquin the Elder, Servius Tullius, Tarquin the Proud, the Lay of the Lake Regillus, the Lay of the Fabii, the Legend of Valerius the Crow, the Legend of Decius, and many more.
It then moves on to deal with the dramatic events which accompanied the founding of the Roman Republic, including the war with Pyrrhus; the Punic Wars with Carthage; the epic adventures of Hannibal and the conqueror of Carthage, Scipio the African; Cato the Censor; the civil wars of the Gracchi; the war in Numidia and the fate of its king, Jugurtha; the achievements of the “third founder of Rome,” Gaius Marius; the winner of the first civil war, Sulla; the rebellion in Iberia led by General Sertorius; the great slave uprising led by Spartacus; Mithridates, King of Pontus and the Mithridatic Wars in the Middle East; and finally, the tragic story of Marcus Tullius Cicero and his attempts to avert the destruction of the Republic and its conversion into an autocracy and an Empire.