The Romans gave us aqueducts, roads, and the alphabet you are reading in. They also crucified an estimated 6,000 men along the Appian Way, fed Christians to lions for political theatre, and assassinated 60 of their own emperors in two centuries. This book is the version that got cut from the textbook.

What the Pax Romana actually cost the conquered provinces between Augustus and Marcus Aurelius. Caligula in 39 AD, his senate sessions, the sister rumors, the bridge of boats across the Bay of Naples, and the cause of his madness reconstructed from surviving sources. Nero and the Great Fire of 64 AD, what Tacitus actually said about the Christian persecutions, and what modern archaeology has confirmed. The Praetorian Guard auctioning the empire to the highest bidder in 193 AD, with named bidders and the price they paid. The Crisis of the Third Century, a fifty year stretch with 26 emperors, most assassinated by their own troops, named one by one. Caracalla's massacre at Alexandria in 215 AD, court testimony from Cassius Dio, and the named neighborhoods his cavalry sacked. The end of paganism under Theodosius I, the closing of the temples, and the burning of the Library of Alexandria's daughter library.

Investigative ancient history, not a defense of Rome. Named emperors, named conspirators, named victims. Drawn from Tacitus, Suetonius, Cassius Dio, modern excavation reports, and the imperial documents that survived. What modern Roman archaeology has uncovered in the past 20 years that Gibbon never knew.