Chronicle Of The Roman Emperors [Hardcover]

What I found most useful about the book was its chronological grouping of emperors (no more having to look in four different places for four "emperors" who reigned simultaneously -- until one defeated the other or they all fell).

A second useful feature is its thumbnail summary of each "emperor's" birth, death, and regnal periods, his family, and his titles. The titles are often a good guide to the character of the emperors, with stay-at-Rome sybarites with titles such as "Gothicus" and "Germanicus" revealed as vainglorious, while warrior emperors with the same titles are revealed as true veterans prepared to fight for the imperial purple. One helpful feature is an explanation of the significance of the titles. The actual word designating an emperor, for instance, was NOT "Imperator," which was a military honor which could be won by any very succesful general, but "Augustus," with "Caesar" gradually acquiring the meaning of "heir apparent," with many a war fought over who should have which title. (As an interesting historical aside, you may want to note that while "Augustus" eventually became a personal name, "Caesar" became an imperial title in later kingdoms: both "Tsar" and "Kaisar" are actually derived from the name of the last dictator of the Republic, Gaius Julius Caesar, adoptive father of Octavian, who became the first "Augustus" and is usually designated by that title as if it were his proper name.)

The third good feature of the Chronicle is the same as in other books of the series: a plethora of gorgeous photography of things from major architectural wonders to small handcrafts.

The one great inconvenience of the book is the editorial choice of where to place those photos: they too often appear smack in the middle of an imperial biography, or separate the biographies of emperors whose lives should be studied together because of the interlocked details presented by Scarre. This placement was an irritant to me when I tried to just read through the book for pleasure -- the pictures presented jarring interuptions mid-story.

Still and all, one can hardly do better than this for a broad survey of Imperial Rome.

This book begins with a brief summary of the city of Rome: how it grew from a monarchy to a Republic and how Octavian secured absolute power from the Senate and became Augustus, marking the beginning of Imperial Rome, which was to be the Western empire's final phase. The book has three sections: The First Emporers (from Augustus to Domitian); The High Point of Empire (Nerva to Alexander Severus); Crisis and Renewal (Maximinus Thrax to Constantine & Licinius); The Last Emporers (Constantine II to Romulus Augustulus). The book also has a continous timeline that runs through sections of the book for an at-a-glance history.

It's important to note that this is not a history of the Roman Empire; it's a history of the Roman Emporers. Events not directly (or somewhat) tied to an emporer are not covered. You won't learn about the daily life of a Roman, for example. Still, through the lineage of emporers a history of the empire in general can be extracted. Who fought who, who tried to overthrow who, descriptions of how emporer's wives or mothers influenced (and sometimes took over) government, the conversion from traditional pagan Rome to a Christian Rome (it wasn't ALL Constantine), etc. The fall of Rome is not covered in great detail (the final section is the shortest and the detail becomes almost minimal), but the basic idea that the empire was overrun by various peoples emerges.

The pictures, maps, and graphs throughout the book are incredible and complement the text very well. There are maps of conquests, borders of the empire at specific times, coins, maps of the city of Rome, pictures of busts and mosaics of emporers, architectural reconstructions, pictures of buildings in their current state, etc.

Though this book will not make you an expert on the Roman Empire, it provides a great outline from which to learn more. Once it's read, keep it handy for reference. There are many lessons that can be learned from the lives and mistakes of the men (and women) who ruled Rome.