The Romans

“A sweeping historical survey that spans two millennia…Those intrigued by the ebb and flow of political power…will find in this book a cornucopia…Mr. Watts treats us…to many intriguing sketches and to the ageless theme, in Shakespeare’s words, of ‘sad stories of the death of kings.’”—The Wall Street Journal

“A fine addition.”—Kirkus

“At last, a history of the Roman state as it has always been crying out to be told, and never has been! Not even Edward Gibbon, more than two hundred years ago, covered the full two-thousand-year span, as Edward J. Watts does here. And at last we learn the truth: that Rome’s ‘decline and fall’ was brought about not by barbarian invaders from the east in the 5th and 6th centuries but by crusading Europeans from the Christian west in 1204. Watts tells this story with verve and aplomb, and a wealth of finely observed detail drawn from Roman historians’ own accounts of their past.”—Roderick Beaton, author of The Greeks

“Here is the Roman story across two millennia, from the mists of the Iron Age to the medieval crusades. Sweeping and masterful, The Romans balances the themes of continuity and change, grand forces and individual characters. I’m often asked what one book on ancient Rome I would recommend—and now I have a new answer.”—Kyle Harper, author of The Fate of Rome

“Ed Watts tells the remarkable story of how Roman traditions of openness and flexibility allowed it to adjust and readjust to ever-changing circumstances over two millennia. Clearly written and well-informed, The Romans puts readers into direct contact with the voices of the Roman people over time, and will become a classic in its own right.”—David Potter, author of Constantine the Emperor

“Ed Watts’s wonderfully readable and totally radical history asks us to see Rome as two millennia of Romans saw it—a highly flexible reference point, an argument for radical inclusion, and a set of enduring, if constantly reshaped, principles.”—Kimberly D. Bowes, University of Pennsylvania

“Lucid and accessible, The Romans is simply a splendid book that only Edward Watts could have written. He shows that Rome’s march did not lead exclusively toward the Western Middle Ages. Rather, the book’s magisterial sweep reveals Rome’s immense resilience was thanks to its continuing embrace of foreigners, immigrants, the enslaved, and the poor, to whom it offered advancement and a future, and to its nimble administrative and economic structures. A fantastic, timely book.”—Susanna Elm, University of California, Berkeley