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The History of Ancient Rome

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The History of Ancient Rome

By: Garrett G. Fagan, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Garrett G. Fagan
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About this listen

Even today, the influence of Ancient Rome is indelible, with Europe and the world owing this extraordinary empire a huge cultural debt in almost every important category of human endeavor, including art, architecture, engineering, language, literature, law, and religion. At the peak of its power, Rome's span was vast. In the regional, restless, and shifting history of continental Europe, the Roman Empire stands as a towering monument to scale and stability, unified in politics and law, stretching from the sands of Syria to the moors of Scotland. And it stood for almost 700 years.

In this series of 48 spirited lectures, you'll see how a small village of shepherds and farmers rose to tower over the civilized world of its day and left a permanent mark on history. In telling Rome's riveting story, Professor Fagan draws on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, including recent historical and archaeological scholarship, to introduce the fascinating tale of Rome's rise and decline, including the famous events and personalities that have become so familiar:

  • Horatius at the bridge
  • Hannibal crossing the Alps during Rome's life-or-death war with Carthage
  • Caesar being assassinated before a statue of his archrival Pompey
  • The doomed lovers Antony and Cleopatra
  • The mad and venal emperors Nero and Caligula
  • The conversion of Constantine.

The course also addresses one of history's greatest questions: Why did the Roman Empire fall? And you'll learn why most modern scholars believe that the empire did not "fall" at all, but, rather, changed into something very different - the less urbanized, more rural, early medieval world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©1999 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1999 The Great Courses
Ancient

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Absolute masterpiece!

A must have for anyone who enjoys Ancient Roman history. Very well structure and detailed lectures that covers all the major topics while still presenting them in an engaging manner. The lecturers accent does take a while to get used to however.

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Good course with some issues.

In general terms, this is a good course but it bothered me that the lecturer kept saying he didn't have time to cover "x" subject in depth. To be honest, you don't expect that from an audiobook even if it is similar to a course in an university. Sometimes the lecturer made pauses that made me check whether the app had an issue. However, the course was a pretty good introduction to Roman history, covering a long time, from the foundation to the third century crisis.

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Very good indeed

A difficult subject to deliver in 22hrs. I enjoyed it and learnt lots. Thank you

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    5 out of 5 stars

Epic detail and content.

The narration, detail and content is amazing. Unfortunately, it is detracted from by the gaudy strangled-cat music into to each lesson and the appalling fake into and exit applause. Otherwise, this would rate a 6 out 5.
Don't doze off to this because you will be woken by the obscene screeching of murderous feline from hell.

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Extremely informative

A very enjoyable trip through the history of the Roman Empire. Informative and well presented. Only disappointment was, the lectures ended. Extremely interesting.

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Enjoyable, engaging and informative

The professor has a refreshing way of lecturing, clear outlines of how, who, why and what made Rome and Romans tick all derived from know evidence not pseudo archeology.
I'm now hooked on these courses.

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3 people found this helpful

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fantastic

very enjoyable to listen too. the narrator was entertaining and the content was great. i highly recommend this book

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I cant recommend this highly enough

For lovers of Ancient history or the casually interested this is the place to be. I have done a lot of courses on Rome, Prof. Fagan has exactly the right blend of accessibility, engagement and detail. I highly recommend all of his work with the Great Courses

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Exceptional.

Having studied Rome myself over 40 years, I was enthralled by this series of 48 lectures. Very highly recommended.

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Simply magnificent

Garrett fagan is an awesome source of historical information, entertaining, illuminating, articulate and always informative. For anyone with even the slightest interest in Rome I highly recommend journeying with Garrett upon the history of this stupendous culture.

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2 people found this helpful

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