Simon Baker (Author) Simon Baker read Classics at Oxford University. In 1999 he joined the BBC's award-winning History Unit where he has worked on Timewatch and a wide range of programmes about the classical world. He was the Development Producer on the BBC One series Ancient Rome - The Rise and Fall of an Empire. This is his second book.Mary Beard (Foreword By) Mary Beard is a Professor of Classics at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Newnham College. She has written widely on the history and culture of the ancient (and modern) world. Her most recent books are The Parthenon and (with Keith Hopkins) The Colosseum. She is Classics Editor of the Times Literary Supplement and her major study of the Roman Triumph was published by Harvard University Press in 2007.

"Lively and well-researched: an excellent read" -- Peter Heather, author of The Fall of the Roman Empire "This is a history of Rome that combines vivid drama and a gripping storyline with a keen alertness to bigger historical questions" -- Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge University "Brings the distant past to fully fleshed life" Good Book Guide "Highly recommended" Birmingham Evening Mail "Rome is revealed as it really was - gritty, magnificent and sometimes pretty sordid. Splendid stuff" Manchester Evening News

Simon Baker (Author) Simon Baker read Classics at Oxford University. In 1999 he joined the BBC's award-winning History Unit where he has worked on Timewatch and a wide range of programmes about the classical world. He was the Development Producer on the BBC One series Ancient Rome - The Rise and Fall of an Empire. This is his second book.Mary Beard (Foreword By) Mary Beard is a Professor of Classics at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Newnham College. She has written widely on the history and culture of the ancient (and modern) world. Her most recent books are The Parthenon and (with Keith Hopkins) The Colosseum. She is Classics Editor of the Times Literary Supplement and her major study of the Roman Triumph was published by Harvard University Press in 2007.

"Lively and well-researched: an excellent read" -- Peter Heather, author of The Fall of the Roman Empire "This is a history of Rome that combines vivid drama and a gripping storyline with a keen alertness to bigger historical questions" -- Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge University "Brings the distant past to fully fleshed life" Good Book Guide "Highly recommended" Birmingham Evening Mail "Rome is revealed as it really was - gritty, magnificent and sometimes pretty sordid. Splendid stuff" Manchester Evening News