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Your Emperor needs you! The year is ad 100 and Rome stands supreme and unconquerable, from the desert sands of Mesopotamia to the misty highlands of Caledonia. But the might of Rome rests entirely on the shoulders of the legionaries, who stand strong against the barbarian hordes, pushing back the frontiers of the empire. This book - a kind of `unofficial guide' for the new recruit, and part of Thames & Hudson's highly successful `Unofficial Manual' series - tells you how to get in and get on in the legions, the best places to serve, life in camp, on campaign and in battle, and such things as how to stop your armour going rusty and how to storm a city. It will have immense appeal to all those who enjoy ancient history, but who want to be entertained at the same time.

This is ancient Greece - but not as we know it. Few people today appreciate that Greek civilization was spread across the Middle East, and that there were Greek cities in the foothills of the Himalayas. This book tells the story of the Greeks outside Greece, such as Sappho, the poet from Lesbos; Archimedes, a native of Syracuse; and Herodotus, who was born in Asia Minor as a subject of the Persian Empire. From the earliest times of prehistoric Greek colonies around the Black Sea, through settlements in Spain and Italy, to the conquests of Alexander and the glories of the Hellenistic era, Philip Matyszak illuminates the Greek soldiers, statesmen, scientists and philosophers who, though they seldom - if ever - set foot on the Greek mainland, nevertheless laid the foundations of what we call 'Greek culture' today. Instead of following the well-worn path of describing Athenian democracy and Spartan militarism, this book offers a fresh look at what it meant to be Greek by telling the story of the Greeks abroad, from India to Spain.

Magic was everywhere in the ancient world. The supernatural abounded, turning flowers into fruit and caterpillars into butterflies. Magic packed a cloud of water vapour with energy enough to destroy a house with one well-aimed thunderbolt. It was everyday magic, but it was still magical. Philip Matyszak takes readers into that world. He shows us how to make a love potion or cast a curse, how to talk to the dead and how to identify and protect oneself from evil spirits. He takes us to a world where gods, like humans, were creatures of space and time; where people could not just talk to spirits and deities, but could even themselves become divine; and where divine beings could fall from - or be promoted to - full godhood. Ancient Magic offers us a new way of understanding the role of magic, looking at its history in all of its classical forms. Drawing on a wide array of sources, from Greek dramas to curse tablets, and lavishly illustrated throughout, and packed with information, surprises, lore and learning, this book will offer an engaging and accessible way into the supernatural for all.

The ancient world saw the birth and collapse of great civilizations. In mainstream history the Classical world is dominated by Greece and Rome, and the Biblical world is centred on the Hebrews. Yet the roughly four-and-a-half thousand years (4000 bc-ad 550) covered in this book saw many peoples come and go within the brawling, multi-cultural mass of humanity that occupied the ancient Middle East, Mediterranean and beyond. While a handful of ancient cultures have garnered much of the credit, these forgotten peoples also helped to lay the foundations of our modern world. This guide brings these lost peoples out of the shadows to highlight their influence and achievements. Forty-five entries span the birth of civilization in Mesopotamia to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, offering an alternative history focusing on the names we aren't familiar with, from the Hurrians to the Hephthalites, as well as the peoples whose names we know, such as the Philistines and the Vandals, but whose real significance has been obscured. Each entry charts the rise and fall of a lost people, and how their culture echoes through history into the present. Important ancient artefacts are illustrated throughout and fifty specially drawn maps help orientate the reader within this tumultuous period of history. Philip Matyszak brings to life the rich diversity of the peoples founding cities, inventing alphabets and battling each other in the ancient world, and explores how and why they came to be forgotten.

Here is an informative and entertaining guide to everything that any tourist needs for a journey back in time to ancient Rome in AD 200. You need only pack your imagination and a toothbrush – this guide provides the rest, describing all the best places to stay and shop, what to do, and what to avoid. Brought to life with wonderful computergenerated reconstructions of ancient Rome, this highly original, witty book will appeal to tourists, armchair travellers and history buffs. Table of Contents 1. Getting There: Puteoli, Hitting the Road • 2. The Environs of Rome:Villas, Aqueducts, Necropolises, The Pomerium, Walls and Gates • 3. Settling In – Where to Stay: The Seven Hills, Types of Accommodation, Sanitary Facilities, Medical Emergencies, What to Wear, Food) • 4. Out and About: Dining Out, Meeting People, Roman Names, The Social Order, Slaves, Family • 5. Shopping: Where to Shop, Changing Money, What to Buy, Aediles • 6. Law and Order: Praetorians, Urban Cohorts, Vigiles, Law Courts, Prison, Punishment • 7. Entertainment: Colosseum, Circus Maximus, Theatre, Brothels • 8. Religion: Temples to Visit, Religious Festivals • 9. Must-See Sites: The Forum of the Romans, The Arch of Titus, The Imperial Forums, The Forum of Augustus, Later Forums, Triumphal Columns, The Tomb of St Peter, The Baths • 10. Roman Walks: The Palatine, Along the Tiber, The Campus Martius

At the heart of this history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty are the lives of six men - Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius Caligula, Claudius and Nero - men who mastered Rome and changed it from a democracy to a personal possession. It was no easy task: Caesar and Caligula were assassinated, Nero committed suicide and Claudius was poisoned. Only Augustus and Tiberius died natural deaths - and even that is uncertain. The Julio-Claudian saga has a host of other characters, from Cicero, the last great statesman of the Republic, to Livia, matriarch of the Empire; the passionate Mark Antony and the scheming Sejanus; and Agrippina, mother of Nero and sister of Caligula, who probably murdered her husband and in turn was killed by her son. Set against a background of foreign wars and domestic intrigue, the story of Rome's greatest dynasty is also the story of the birth of an imperial system that shaped the Europe of today.

Discover the lives of the ancient Romans, pieced together from inscriptions, discarded letters, biographies and myth over two thousand years of history. The Roman empire witnessed a huge diversity of human experience over its history. At its pinnacle, it exerted its rule across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, from Britannia to the Black Sea. In this collection of 100 lives, Philip Matyszak and Joanne Berry give voice not only to famed rulers and generals whose names and deeds have been enshrined in classical texts but also to the ordinary citizens - centurions, scholars, Christian martyrs and civil servants - who made up the fabric of Roman society. The biographies of these individuals, whose stories range from the happy and uneventful to the tragic and dramatic, are pieced together from ancient art, artefacts and myths. Matyszak and Berry illuminate the sometimes surprising exploits of Rome's women, such as Amazonia, a sword-swinging gladiator, and Metila, a priestess of the cult of Cymbele. Romans of every class and creed are represented, from Faustulus, a shepherd said to have adopted the infant Romulus and Remus, to the poet Virgil, whose words still echo down the ages. Each of these lives forms part of a larger picture, together making up a rich mosaic that gives us a glimpse of what it meant to be a Roman.

The ruins of ancient Athens, Luxor, and Rome are familiar cornerstones of world history, visited by travelers from across the globe. But what about the cities that have dropped off the map? That have been submerged under water, or swallowed up by the sands of time? Where are they, and what can they tell us about our past?Lost Cities of the Ancient WorldMatyszak reveals a dynamic network of peoples and cultures who fought and traded between themselves, exchanging inventions, ideas, and philosophies, with the result that people as far apart as Catalhöyükin Turkey and Skara Brae in Scotland’s Orkney Islands shared a common heritage. By examining the motivations that first drew populations to gather and settle together, as well as the challenges that led to their cities’ abandonment, this visually striking and often surprising book offers us a fresh perspective on our urban origins.