Ancient Rome: The Definitive Visual History

HIGHLY RECOMMEND: Ancient Rome: The Definitive Visual History (DK Definitive Visual Histories): PERFECT! VERY HIGH QUALITY & WELL DONE. My 2nd DK Definitive Visual History. My 1st DK was Egypt. I LOVE the DK series. Plush cover. This has high quality large pages, sharp printing, lavish photos, and well-organized factual information about Ancient Rome. This is a great companion volume to reading other books about Ancient Rome, or a stand-alone tome to prepare for travel to Roman sites or museums with Roman artifacts. Well-organized history so you can quickly find what you wish to know. BEAUTIFUL book worthy of gift-giving or for anyone who loves books. A BARGAIN at this price. A team of 10 Professors of history contributed the knowledge contained within. I bought this to go along with listening to the Roman History podcast. I also bought a few other Ancient Rome books, and this will help me integrate everything, plus see the real (ruined) buildings, mosaics, jewelry, etc of the time. A great find. 400 pages. I am going to put my money where my mouth is and buy 2 more of the DK histories right now. NOTE: some of their books are in cooperation with The Smithsonian. I cannot recommend these enough. I would definitely gift these, and I now want to own them ALL. Page 10 Chronology of Rulers CH 1 The Roman Kingdome 753-509 BCE CH 2 The Roman Republic 509-133 BCE CH 3 The Republic In Crisis 133-27 BCE CH 4 The Height of the Empire 27 BCE - 192 CE CH 5 An Empire in Transition 192 - 395 CE CH 6 The Fall of the Western Roman Empire 395 - 476 CE

I've been listening to an in-depth Roman history pod cast in preparation for a trip to Rome, and this book was a nice triangulation with some visual interest. They covered a lot of the same material, giving validity to the stories and timeline. I wish I'd found it sooner so I could have read all of it before my trip - I'd say it's worth the splurge!

This is a beautiful book, full of interesting information and gorgeous illustrations. This is not to be read in one sitting, but enjoyed in different sessions. The content is academically rigorous, but limited by the format, and should be seen more as a great introduction to ancient Rome, and not as a formal history book. This would be a great gift for anyone interested in ancient history. I liked it so much that I bought the Ancient Greece book from the same DK series, and so far, it has not disappointed me either.

DK has built its reputation on travel books that are visual and comprehendible, giving travels the quickest, easiest, and most visually directive information they need. Three-times the size of their travel books, this handsome hardcover volume reminds me of the best, and I mean the best, junior high level history books. It covers just enough of everything to ensure one has good basic knowledge of ancient Rome. It has an expansive view that includes the world views and daily lives of the provinces and cultures that surrounded the ancient Romans, and whom they conquered. And the imagery is a pleasure to peruse. It's all just enough to whet your appetite for more. I want DK to do the definitive book on Pompeii, now. I want them to take apart the Pantheon and Colosseum even further and do those definitive books, too. What they cover and present here will get me to the sites and prepare me for the tours. It also sends me looking for more on everything, which is not a bad thing at all. Rest assured, this book is exactly what I imagined it would be. I like it very much, and recommend it to anyone looking for a compressive, visual, and comprehendible overview of ancient Rome's history and daily life.

well illustrated and a lot of info to pour over. perfect coffee table book with countless pictures. can't imagine the effort involved compiling it all, highly recommend for those curious and interested in this important component in world history

The book is organized for relaxed flipping: here a page on the Latin language, here a page on Roman ceramic art, here a page on a particular series of wars. If you read all the pages, you're bound to pick up all the basic information about the Roman empire, and (because this is a "visual history") a good sense of what it looked like; but this is not a history book that purrs along telling you a clear story. This is the latest resource in my ancient Rome education. Here's how it stacks up against some others. "The Story of the Romans" by H.A. Guerber lays out a clear story of the empire in the best tradition of Edwardian children's textbooks. This DK book is so committed to modern accuracy and sensibilities that it can be a slog to read, since it first presents information and then tells you that some archaeologists disagree, or interrupts even the briefest mention of slavery to underscore, in case you were concerned about the omission, that slavery is bad. "A History of Private Life" tells you about everyday life in ancient Rome. Missing from this DK book is any explanation of the patron/client relationship, or the high divorce rates, which were major factors in Roman life. You don't get a sense, except by cobbling together a lot of impressions from all throughout the book, of a day in the life of a random Roman citizen. Suetonius gives the lives and personalities of the emperors -- also not elaborated on much in this book other than as quick and forgettable blurbs. City, by David Macaulay, takes you through the story and engineering of Roman urban planning and architecture -- also touched on much more lightly in this DK book. What this DK book adds to the mix is a good sense of material culture -- the houses, the glassware, the armor -- and that DK assurance that you have read something Definitive that covers all the major bases of the huge subject that is the Roman empire, which is an assurance not provided by the other books I've mentioned above. The book's organization feels random (it's more about the attractive two-page spread than about telling a story) but it does start with the early days of Rome and end at the end. I do feel that I better understand ancient Rome for having read it -- it's not just pretty pictures -- but of the lot, I think it's the least helpful. So four stars. Pretty pictures, authoritative presentation, not much of a narrative and not very good storytelling. I appreciate that the content is not sensationalist and the word choice (e.g. in mentioning the misdeeds of the emperor Tiberius) is discreet: this is, with very little censorship (apart from the visuals), a classroom-friendly book. Here's an example of something that could have been a much more interesting paragraph, that has had all the interest snuffed out of it, with names and dates allowed to obscure the memorable content: "The Romans were not widely welcomed into Britannia. Caratacus, chieftain of the Catuvellauni people, had been responsible for the exile of Verica and resisted his reinstatement. From the late 40s CE he carried out guerilla attacks on Claudius's legions until he was captured by Cartomandua, queen of the Brigantes. She handed him over to Claudius's forces and he was taken to Rome, where he died some time after 50 CE." (p. 174) You can see that some other reading is necessary to bring out the life and interest in this material. That terse paragraph contains enough drama to make an opera or two, or to greatly inspire a child, which is totally lacking in this presentation.

In common with other Visual Histories this book offers only a sampling of images illustrating the very broad topics of art and architecture in the Roman Empire. However, the quality of the imagery is outstanding and includes computer-generated images showing the layout of Rome in its heyday and even includes some views of Nero's Golden House, though they may be somewhat conjectural. Photos of Pompeii as it exists today give a good feel for what is was like to live there, though the deliberate destruction by later generations of most of the erotic pictures have left a gap in the coverage.

I bought this book right after my trip to Rome so that I could dive deeper into to the detailed history of Rome. This book is fantastic and is an interesting and informative read. The illustrations and pictures are well done. I love hard covers but be warned this thing weighs like 10 lbs! lol I learned quite a bit that I did not know before.