Augustus
First Emperor of Rome
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
About this listen
Caesar Augustus's story, one of the most riveting in western history, is filled with drama and contradiction, risky gambles and unexpected success. He began as a teenage warlord, whose only claim to power was as the heir of the murdered Julius Caesar. Mark Antony dubbed him "a boy who owes everything to a name," but in the years to come the youth outmaneuvered all the older and more experienced politicians and was the last man standing in 30 BC. Over the next half century, he reinvented himself as a servant of the state who gave Rome peace and stability, and created a new system of government-the Principate, or rule of an emperor. Adrian Goldsworthy pins down the man behind the myths: a consummate manipulator, propagandist, and showman, both generous and ruthless. Under Augustus's rule, the empire prospered, yet his success was never assured, and the events of his life unfolded with exciting unpredictability.
©2014 Adrian Goldsworthy (P)2014 Tantor MediaListeners also enjoyed...
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Cleopatra
- A Life
- By: Stacy Schiff
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order.
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Approach this book with caution
- By GolfZilla on 12-02-10
By: Stacy Schiff
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Rome's Last Citizen
- The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar
- By: Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Marcus Porcius Cato: aristocrat who walked barefoot and slept on the ground with his troops, political heavyweight who cultivated the image of a Stoic philosopher, a hardnosed defender of tradition who presented himself as a man out of the sacred Roman past-and the last man standing when Rome's Republic fell to tyranny. His blood feud with Caesar began in the chamber of the Senate, played out on the battlefields of a world war, and ended when he took his own life rather than live under a dictator.
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Unfortunate
- By Olivia N. on 11-06-20
By: Rob Goodman, and others
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Cleopatra: The Egyptian Queen: The Entire Life Story
- By: THE HISTORY HOUR
- Narrated by: Lizzie Richards
- Length: 1 hr and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, nominally survived as pharaoh by her son Caesarion. She was also a diplomat, naval commander, polyglot, and medical author. As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder, Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great.
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Good overview, poor narration
- By HP on 10-31-22
By: THE HISTORY HOUR
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The Age of Caesar
- Five Roman Lives
- By: Plutarch, James Romm - preface and notes, Pamela Mensch - translator
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, Antony: the names resonate across thousands of years. Major figures in the civil wars that brutally ended the Roman republic, their lives still haunt us as examples of how the hunger for personal power can overwhelm collective politics, how the exaltation of the military can corrode civilian authority, and how the best intentions can lead to disastrous consequences. Plutarch renders these history-making lives as flesh-and-blood characters.
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Terrific
- By Michael on 06-13-23
By: Plutarch, and others
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Napoleon
- A Life
- By: Adam Zamoyski
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 27 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Here, historian Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment and what he was himself seeking to achieve. This most famous of men is also the most hidden of men, and Zamoyski dives deeper than any previous biographer to find him. Beautifully written, Napoleon brilliantly sets the man in his European context.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 04-01-19
By: Adam Zamoyski
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The Borgias
- The Hidden History
- By: G. J. Meyer
- Narrated by: Enn Reitel
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The startling truth behind one of the most notorious dynasties in history is revealed in a remarkable new account by the acclaimed author of The Tudors and A World Undone. Sweeping aside the gossip, slander, and distortion that have shrouded the Borgias for centuries, G. J. Meyer offers an unprecedented portrait of the infamous Renaissance family and their storied milieu.
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Marvelous !
- By Cinders on 08-02-13
By: G. J. Meyer
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Alexander the Great
- Journey to the End of the Earth
- By: Norman F. Cantor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor draws on the major writings of Alexander's contemporaries, as well as the most recent psychological and cultural studies to illuminate this most legendary of men - a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments.
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FIVE STAR BOOK!!!!
- By Fun Lovin Lady on 09-25-12
By: Norman F. Cantor
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Napoleon
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Johnson's book is a refreshing return to a concept whose time has come once again: the Great Man theory of biography. It serves as "the greatest possible refutation of those who hold that events are governed by forces, classes, economics, and geography rather than the powerful wills of men and women". Napoleon truly was the Great Man of his age, a towering and terrible genius who managed to conquer the Continent.
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Not your standard biography
- By Mark Grannis on 04-24-05
By: Paul Johnson
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Pax Romana examines how the Romans came to control so much of the world and asks whether traditionally favorable images of the Roman peace are true. Goldsworthy vividly recounts the rebellions of the conquered and examines why they broke out, why most failed, and how they became exceedingly rare. He reveals that hostility was just one reaction to the arrival of Rome and that from the outset, conquered peoples collaborated, formed alliances, and joined invaders, causing resistance movements to fade away.
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2 stars if youve read goldsworthy; 2.5 or 3 if not
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Caesar Augustus has been called history's greatest emperor. It was said he found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. With a senator for a father and Julius Caesar for a great-uncle, he ascended the ranks of Roman society with breathtaking speed. His courage in battle is still questioned yet his political savvy was second to none. He had a lifelong rival in Mark Antony and a 51-year companion in his wife, Livia. And his influence extended perhaps further than that of any ruler who has ever lived.
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Ancient biographies are hard
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The tragic story of the fall of a great empire
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This pie was all crust, no filling
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2 stars if youve read goldsworthy; 2.5 or 3 if not
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Caesar Augustus has been called history's greatest emperor. It was said he found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. With a senator for a father and Julius Caesar for a great-uncle, he ascended the ranks of Roman society with breathtaking speed. His courage in battle is still questioned yet his political savvy was second to none. He had a lifelong rival in Mark Antony and a 51-year companion in his wife, Livia. And his influence extended perhaps further than that of any ruler who has ever lived.
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Ancient biographies are hard
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In this dynamic and engaging biography, Anthony Everitt plunges us into the fascinating, scandal-ridden world of ancient Rome in its most glorious heyday. Accessible to us through his legendary speeches but also through an unrivaled collection of unguarded letters to his close friend Atticus, Cicero comes to life here as a witty and cunning political operator.
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An eloquent man, and a patriot
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More than 2,000 years after his death, Julius Caesar remains one of the great figures of history. He shaped Rome for generations, and his name became a synonym for "emperor" - not only in Rome but as far away as Germany and Russia. He is best known as the general who defeated the Gauls and doubled the size of Rome's territories. But, as Philip Freeman describes in this fascinating new biography, Caesar was also a brilliant orator, an accomplished writer, a skilled politician, and much more.
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Not very good...
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The Rise of Rome
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Emerging as a market town from a cluster of hill villages in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., Rome grew to become the ancient world's preeminent power. Everitt fashions the story of Rome's rise to glory into an erudite book filled with lasting lessons for our time. He chronicles the clash between patricians and plebeians that defined the politics of the Republic. He shows how Rome's shrewd strategy of offering citizenship to her defeated subjects was instrumental in expanding the reach of her burgeoning empire.
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Rome from the fall of Troy through Julius Caesar
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Alexander was born into the royal family of Macedonia, the kingdom that would soon rule over Greece. Tutored as a boy by Aristotle, Alexander had an inquisitive mind that would serve him well when he faced formidable obstacles during his military campaigns. Shortly after taking command of the army, he launched an invasion of the Persian Empire, and continued his conquests as far south as the deserts of Egypt and as far east as the mountains of present-day Pakistan and the plains of India.
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Great book!
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The Roman empire was like no other. Stretching from the north of Britain to the Sahara, and from the Atlantic coast to the Euphrates, it imposed peace and prosperity on an unprecedented scale. Its only true rival lay in the east, where the Parthian and then Persian empires ruled over great cities and the trade routes to mysterious lands beyond. Tracing seven centuries of conflict between Rome and Persia, historian Adrian Goldsworthy shows how these two great powers evolved together
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MAPS NEEDED
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Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome
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Acclaimed British historian Anthony Everitt delivers a compelling account of the former orphan who became Roman emperor in A.D. 117 after the death of his guardian Trajan. Hadrian strengthened Rome by ending territorial expansion and fortifying existing borders. And - except for the uprising he triggered in Judea - his strength-based diplomacy brought peace to the realm after a century of warfare.
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A Biography "too tall for the height of the cella"
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Ancient Rome
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This is the story of the greatest empire the world has ever known. Simon Baker charts the rise and fall of the world's first superpower, focusing on six momentous turning points that shaped Roman history. Welcome to Rome as you've never seen it before - awesome and splendid, gritty and squalid. From the conquest of the Mediterranean beginning in the third century BC to the destruction of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian invaders some seven centuries later, we discover the most critical episodes in Roman history.
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Clear and dramatic
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The Rise of Athens
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Filled with tales of adventure and astounding reversals of fortune, The Rise of Athens celebrates the city-state that transformed the world - from the democratic revolution that marked its beginning through the city's political and cultural golden age to its decline into the ancient equivalent of a modern-day university town. Anthony Everitt constructs his history with unforgettable portraits of the talented, tricky, ambitious, and unscrupulous Athenians who fueled the city's rise.
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Good but not great. With some disturbing opinions.
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Vindolanda
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AD, 98. The bustling army base at Vindolanda lies on the northern frontier of Britannia and the entire Roman world. In just over 20 years' time, the Emperor Hadrian will build his famous wall. But for now, defences are weak as tribes rebel against Rome. It falls to Flavius Ferox, Briton and Roman centurion, to keep the peace. But it will take more than just a soldier's courage to survive life in Roman Britain.
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Much like Bernard Cornwell in style
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Ancient Rome
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- Unabridged
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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.
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Great review and understanding of Christianity
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Scipio Africanus
- Greater Than Napoleon
- By: B.H. Liddell Hart
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Scipio Africanus (236-183 BC) was one of the most exciting and dynamic leaders in history. As commander, he never lost a battle. Yet it is his adversary, Hannibal, who has lived on in public memory. As B. H. Liddell Hart writes, "Scipio's battles are richer in stratagems and ruses - many still feasible today - than those of any other commander in history." Any military enthusiast or historian will find this to be an absorbing, gripping portrait.
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Excellent performance of a tough script.
- By A. Johnson on 12-23-19
What listeners say about Augustus
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- George T. Sugiyama
- 09-09-21
Stunning biography of Augustus
Great presentation including the background history, culture, societal norms which made the history more meaningful, richer, and placed events in the perspective of those times. George Sugiyama, MD
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- Terry Yancey
- 06-10-18
A Plausible but Uncertain Story
I appreciated the authors intellectual honesty and transparency about conjuncture and verifiable information. I now understand the last BC century and first AD century with a new and helpful clarity.
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- Tim
- 05-23-23
Informative
A pretty detailed account of his life and reign. As someway of a novice in this area some of the language was hard to get used to and follow. It’s engaging despite being a little difficult in that regard. A very interesting story.
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- sross1988
- 01-16-17
easy to follow well written
very well written book goldsworthy always does an excellent job with any of his Antiquity novels about Roman literature plenty of references to Antiquity Works which makes it very easy to follow and put them into a timeline that's easy to understand
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3 people found this helpful
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- Samuel
- 04-03-19
Beautiful.
This was well written and beautifully narrated. After I finished Goldsworthys book on Caesar: life of a colossus, I bragged and retold the story of Caesar to friends and family. Now after listening to the life of Augustus I can hardly wait to do the same.
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- P. Jensen
- 01-17-21
Grat story
I loved the history of Agustus. I learned a lot about how Rome moved from Julius Cesar and the Republic to the empire.
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- A9
- 07-10-19
Well written and narrated about an asshole.
Used his adopted dad's money and name to seize power and kill fellow country men.
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- Mike From Mesa
- 10-13-18
The man who owed everything to a name
Who are the great historic figures? As a general rule we seem to consider those who had a great impact on their times and subsequent history as great, but if you were to ask people to name the great figures from Roman history you would likely get the names Julius Caesar, Cicero, perhaps the two Catos and Sulla. You might also get the names of some of the more notorious Roman emperors, Caligula and Nero, but would probably not get the name Augustus, although he had a far more lasting impact on Roman history than any of the others, including Julius Caesar. Perhaps Mr Goldsworthy is right in saying that part of that reason is that Shakespeare never wrote a tragedy about him, but his story, from being the young adopted son of Julius Caesar to his rise in power to being the most powerful and long lasting figure in Rome, is nothing short of astonishing and this book does a great service in explaining how the young Gaius Octavius rose to become the most powerful man in Rome and to live long enough to die peacefully in his bed at the age of 77.
This is the second of Mr Goldsworthy's biographies that I have read, the first being that of Julius Caesar, and the two books blend together nicely with the story of the young Octavius picking up with the assassination of Julius Caesar and, while the history of the Roman Civil War that stemmed from that event is interesting enough itself, the story of how young Octavius became Caesar Augustus, ruled Rome in a veiled monarchy and implemented relatively honest government was far more interesting to me. The fact that he was not a great general but relied upon his friend and associate Agrippa for many of his victories just seems to prove how great a man he was.
Mr Goldsworthy's writing is, as always, first class, and the story never failed in holding my interest. One of the things that I have found appealing in Mr Goldswrothy's writing is his constant honesty and even-handedness. When there is more than one explanation as to what might have happened, or in the circumstances surrounding some event, he always gives all of the possibilities along with his belief as to which is correct and why, and he never states conjecture as fact or describes the thoughts in the head of someone whose thoughts he could not possibly have known. The writing is straight forward and clear, the descriptions easy to understand and the influence of previous events always described. In short this is a great book, read wonderfully by Derek Perkins, and the reader can not fail to come away with a better understanding of the Rome of this period.
One last comment. Some have described Caesar Augustus as the cause of the end of the Roman Republic, but this book and the biography of Julius Caesar have done much to make clear that the Roman Republic actually died a long time before young Octavius set out to avenge his father's assassination. Julius Caesar stated that the Roman Republic was dead long before he brought his army back from Gaul and became dictator and Mike Duncan's book The Storm Before The Storm dates the decline and death of the Roman Republic back to the days of Pompey The Great and possibly earlier. If anything this book makes a strong case that Augustus' actions did more to save Rome than to destroy it, although those actions led directly to the excesses of some of the subsequent Emperors and the result of some generals plotting to become the next Emperor.
A great book, excellently read. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Ian Woods
- 06-17-15
Exhaustive but Entertaining look at Augustus
Goldsworthy's exhaustive tome on the life and times of Caesar Augustus will thrill those of us obsessed with Ancient Rome, and the narration of Derek Perkins lends a regal and measured tone to the narration. Tracing his life from pre-conception (Julius Caesar's last 10 or so years) to a few years after his death, Goldsworthy gives the reader an unvarnished look into one of history's most dominant figures. From young avenging warlord to murderous Triumvir to moderate "first citizen" to de facto king, Caesar Augustus's life is at once sordid, fascinating, and, as the Romans who later deified him believed, immortal. I highly recommend this engaging and relentlessly informative biography. Those without a keen interest in the subject might be overwhelmed by the thorough recounting of Augustus's life, hence 4 stars overall.
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- Katelyn
- 11-26-16
Everything I Expected
Dr. Goldsworthy is the consummate historical author. His extensive knowledge and exhaustive research, coupled with his clear precise writing, enables the reader to make a quantum leap in understanding about Augustus and his times.
Thoroughly enjoyable by anyone who wants to know more about this fascinating time in history. This is a book I plan to read again.
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