Review from previous edition 'a magnificent achievement.'
Peter Jones,BBC History Magazine
'A fine foundation for further learning about the Roman Empire.'
Booklist
'[A] passionately told exploration of the history of Rome.'
Publishers Weekly
'This is a marvellous book. Woolf provides a sweeping history of Rome's rise and fall, and asks the big questions of why and how this happened. Better yet, he offers no simple or simplistic answers, but instead well considered discussion of the evidence and how we try to understand it.'
Adrian Goldsworthy, author of How Rome Fell
'Greg Woolf's new history will be a boon for the student and general reader alike.'
The Scotsman
'Makes for exceptionally interesting and provocative reading.'
Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
'Could [this] be the best single-volume introduction to the history of ancient Rome? It is conceptual yet avoids the pitfalls of overgeneralizing, a difficult balance to strike. It also has a superb (useful rather than exhaustive) bibliography. A good measure of books such as this is whether they induce you to read or order other books on the same topic and this one did. A sure thing to make my "Best Books of 2012" list.'
Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
'Greg Woolf's dazzling account of ancient Rome's story will entrance the general reader ... [and] will equally impress historians ... the best general history of ancient Rome available in English.'
Ronald Mellor, Times Higher Education Supplement
'A remarkable work of synthesis that describes the rise, flourishing and decline of the Roman Empire.'
David Gress, Wall Street Journal
'It's a swift and easy read, filled with the kind of rich details designed to illustrate the major trends of Roman history for a general audience.'
Weekly Standard