"Rome continues to be a solid, tangible, and monumental expression of a legend. It is the eternal city where all roads of the ancient world converged, and has been the model for the very concept of a universal empire through the millennia. Through art, architecture, and urban planning, the empire expanded with an exceptional synthesis of technology, politics, law, and propaganda, conquering Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East. Accompanied by the masterpieces and memories of illustrious figures, we follow the arc of a city and a civilization from its beginnings to its height and fall, leafing through pages of history from the various eras. Rome was the final act of antiquity, and a dramatic conception of a new world."--Jacket.

Includes indexes. Translation of: Roma antica.

The Roman Republic Begins to Assert Itself --Toward an Empire -- 27 B.C. -- A.D. 96, The Empire's Beginning and Establishment -- The Pax Augusta: Ideology and Propaganda -- The Augustan Style -- A Portrait of Augustus -- The Ara Pacis -- Artistic Craftwork -- Livia's Villa -- The Provinces: Narbonesis Gaul -- Portraits of the Julio-Claudian Family -- Nero and the Domus Aurea -- The Flavian Dynasty: A Turning Point for the Principate -- Flavian Art -- Pompeii -- Styles of Pompeii -- The Arch of Titus and the Historic Roman Relief -- Bread and Circuses -- The Colosseum -- A.D. 96-192, The Height of the Empire: From Trajan to the Antonines -- Trajan the Optimus Princeps -- The Trajan Forum and Market -- The Provinces: Hispania -- Hadrian's Villa -- Hadrian and Antinous -- Urban and Architectural Development -- Palmyra -- The Eastern Rites: Isis -- Marble Funeral Monuments and Sarcophagi -- Mosaics and Stuccowork -- A Golden Age of Justice and Well-being -- The Antonine Column -- Marcus Aurelius -- A Turning Point during the Reign of Commodus -- The Portraits of Fayyum -- A.D. 192-305, Crisis in the Empire: From the Severans to the Tetrarchy -- A Turning Point for the Military -- Lepcis Magna -- Sculpture in Rome and Africa -- Portraits and Sarcophagi -- The Catacombs -- The Baths of Caracalla -- Invasions and Disorder -- Rome as Fortress: The Aurelian Walls -- The Tetrarchy: Toward a New Peace -- The Baths of Diocletian -- Diocletian's Reforms -- A.D. 305-565, The Fall of the Empire: Epilogue to an Ancient World.