Part VI

The Part of Tens

In this part . . .

T he idea behind this part is to provide you with meaty but digestibly-sized chunks of facts about the key events, people, and places that made Roman history happen the way it did. I’ll freely admit it’s a purely personal selection, and if someone else had written this book, he or she might have chosen a different list, but hopefully not that different!

What you’ll find here is a list of ten crucial moments in Roman history when everything changed – for better or worse; ten Romans who were good or interesting people; ten award-winning villains; as well as ten anti-Romans whose opposition to Roman power made them legendary in their own time and afterwards. And finally, because I know you’ll be itching to go out and see the Roman world for yourself, I’ve listed my top ten (actually, I’ve sneaked an extra one in, so make that eleven) places to start looking.