If you're spending all your waking time thinking about the Roman Empire (as many of us are), why not read about it too?
With fact and fiction, there's always more ways to think about the empire that spanned the world.
The Barbarian Douglas Jackson
Treacheries, betrayals and bloody battles during the desperate twilight years of Rome's once all-powerful empire - this is the action-packed, thrillingly authentic new Roman historical novel from a writer acclaimed as one of the genre's very best.
Rome: The Art of War Manda Scott
The stunning Roman novel featuring Sebastos Pantera, set during the year of the Four Emperors. ROME ON A KNIFE EDGE. A TRAITOR IN THE MIDST.
Rome: AD69. The Year of the Four Emperors. Three Emperors have ruled in Rome this year and a fourth, Vespasian, has been named in the East.
Pompeii Robert Harris
During a sweltering week in late August, as Rome's richest citizens relax in their villas around Pompeii and Herculaneum, there are ominous warnings that something is going wrong.
Through the eyes of four characters – a young engineer, an adolescent girl, a corrupt millionaire and an elderly scientist – Robert Harris brilliantly recreates a luxurious world on the brink of destruction.
Warrior of Rome VI: The Amber Road Harry Sidebottom
AD 264 – The Roman Empire is torn in two.The western provinces – Gaul, Spain and Britain – have been seized by the pretender Postumus. To the east, on the plains of northern Italy, the armies of the emperor Gallienus muster.War is coming.Everyone must choose a side.
Rome Stories
From Livy to Henry James, from Cellini to Moravia, this collection of classic tales of the Eternal City draws on a wide range of brilliant writers from across the ages. A gorgeously jacketed hardcover anthology
Ancient Rome
A definitive history of ancient Rome that tells the story of its dramatic rise and fall in rich visual detail
Immerse yourself in the history of ancient Rome - from its origins as a small settlement on the Palatine Hill to its peak as an empire reigning over 90 million people, and its tumultuous decline.
Rome and Jerusalem Martin Goodman
By one of the world’s leading scholars of the ancient Roman and Jewish worlds, this is the first book to bring together these two ancient civilisations
In AD 70, after a war that had flared sporadically for four years, three Roman legions under the future Emperors Vespasian and his son Titus surrounded, laid siege to, and eventually devastated the city of Jerusalem, destroying completely the magnificent Temple which had been built by Herod only eighty years earlier.
Rome and Italy Titus Livy
Books VI-X of Livy's monumental work trace Rome's fortunes from its near collapse after defeat by the Gauls in 386 bc to its emergence, in a matter of decades, as the premier power in Italy, having conquered the city-state of Samnium in 293 bc.
Rome and the Mediterranean Titus Livy
Books XXXI to XLV cover the years from 201 b.c. to 167 b.c., when Rome emerged as ruler of the Mediterranean.
The War with Hannibal Livy, Titus Livy
In The War with Hannibal, Livy (59 BC-AD 17) chronicles the events of the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage, until the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. He vividly recreates the immense armies of Hannibal, complete with elephants, crossing the Alps; the panic as they approached the gates of Rome; and the decimation of the Roman army at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.
Ancient Worlds Michael Scott
Ancient history for our globalised age: an epic odyssey over 900 years, taking us from the Mediterranean to India and China, taking in the birth of modern politics in Greece and Rome, the building of great empires by war and conquest, and the rise of the world’s great religions.
This article originially appeared on penguin.co.nz and has been adapted for the Australian website.