Top ten books about the Roman empire

Greg Woolf is the Ronald J. Mellor Chair in Ancient History at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of The Life and Death of Ancient Cities, Tales of the Barbarians, and Et Tu, Brute?

His new book is the second edition of Rome: An Empire's Story. This edition has been completely revised to take into account a decade's research since the first edition was written and includes expanded treatment of material culture and of late antiquity.

[The Page 99 Test: Rome: An Empire's Story (1st edition)]

At the Guardian Woolf tagged ten of "the best volumes in a long and still expanding literature" about the Roman Empire. One title on the list:

The Roman Triumph by Mary Beard

Rome has so often been a model for later imitators that it is sometimes easy to forget how different it was from what followed. This is not the most famous of Beard’s many books on Rome, but it played an important part in exploring the combination of savagery and ceremonial that followed Roman victories. It also described the enormously creative efforts of Romans who reshaped their religion and their monumental city for each generation.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 99 Test: The Roman Triumph.

--Marshal Zeringue