Ancient Rome Audiobook By Thomas R. Martin cover art

Ancient Rome

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Ancient Rome

By: Thomas R. Martin
Narrated by: John Lescault
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With commanding skill, Thomas R. Martin tells the remarkable and dramatic story of how a tiny, poor, and threatened settlement grew to become, during its height, the dominant power in the Mediterranean world for 500 years. Encompassing the period from Rome's founding in the eighth century BC through Justinian's rule in the sixth century AD, he offers a distinctive perspective on the Romans and their civilization by employing fundamental Roman values as a lens through which to view both their rise and spectacular fall.

Interweaving social, political, religious, and cultural history, Martin interprets the successes and failures of the Romans in war, political organization, quest for personal status, and in the integration of religious beliefs and practices with government. He focuses on the central role of social and moral values in determining individual conduct as well as decisions of state, from monarchy to republic to empire. Striving to reconstruct ancient history from the ground up, he includes frequent references to ancient texts and authors, encouraging readers to return to the primary sources.

Comprehensive, concise, and accessible, this masterful account provides a unique window into Rome and its changing fortune.

©2018 Thomas R. Martin (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Ancient Rome Ancient History Middle Ages Italy
Comprehensive Overview • Excellent Historical Context • Excellent Inflections • Clear Explanations • Great Narrator
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Just enough detail without getting bogged down in minutiae. Well paced and very insightful. Great

Great book

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Fine overview and summary of Roman history. The author is well informed and balanced.

Great

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Tough subject to cover in a single volume. Martin emphasises the interaction Rome has with surrounding peoples (subjugation, language, laws, infrastructure, religion, etc).

Highlights leaders that had impact (positive and negative) instead of a catalog. Good introduction to the subject

Good survey

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Good overview, but it was a bit dry. Not much depth in characters, battles, or storylines. If you want to get a good summary, as well as some interesting insights, of Rome’s history up to Justinian then this is a great read.

Solid

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A bit persuasive. but a good overall source. Nice progression of time. I liked how it went along the theme of Tacitus, those who fail to know their history will always remain a child.

Solid.

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A great short textbook on Rome. Its not too long and I highly recommend it.

Great textbook

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I really liked this clear history of Ancient Rome and its clear explanations of what happened during the course of the Western Roman Republic and Empire. I liked how it made clear how the decline of the Republic's power in the century before Julius Caesar made it possible for him to destroy it. And then what the major emperor's after that did to enhance or diminish Rome's power.

Although the book goes into a lot of detail, I feel that it gave me a better understanding of the overall context and sweep of Rome's history, which is often lacking. The one piece that I'm still confused on is the end... other than a lot of barbarian tribes and some overspending by the Emperor, I still don't see why it all fell apart.

The narrator was superb. With ancient history, it's way too easy for it to become dry and stilted but this narrator had excellent inflections and kept my interest throughout. Not sure whether he would fit with a sci-fi fictional tale (for example), but for history, this is the narrator I want to hear!

The only correction I'd have for the narration would be that the ending -ae should be pronounced 'aye'. But maybe he just didn't have Mr. Radford of Plymouth College for his Latin teacher. :-)

Informative and exceptionally well read

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Why does Audible make me leave a written review? I just want to leave stars!

I just want to leave stars!

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Great book for those who want to learn more about the World history. Pleasant voice of the reader and concise informative narrative.

Great book!

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This guy mispronounces most names we have all heard all of our lives, and a lot of regular words.

Narrator?

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