From the Publisher: “Olivia Coolidge provides us with a panoramic view of Roman history through biographies of twelve of the most powerful, brilliant, influential, and well-placed men spanning 450 years of the Roman Empire: Cicero, Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Vergil, Horace, Nero, Seneca, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Diocletion, and Constantine.
“Her methodology is similar to that employed in Plutarch’s Lives, but is focused across a wider range of history with a better perspective of the ultimate impact their experiences will prove to have on the ascension and endurance of the Empire.
“The history of the Romans is to a large extent a history of the people. The heart of the Empire is Rome, a single city where every important person knows everyone else. It is also a city where character counts for much.” —Olivia Coolidge
What better way can the interplay of character and events be viewed than through the lives of those who shaped the Empire and ultimately Western European Civilization.”
