Ebook: The Roman Empire: From Augustus to the Fall of Rome

In 31 BCE, on an otherwise unremarkable afternoon in the Mediterranean, the Roman general Octavian surveyed the aftermath of the ferocious Battle of Actium, where he’d defeated his rival Mark Antony in a war for control of Rome. This moment, in which a military leader rests and reflects on his next move toward becoming the sole leader of the Western world, is the germ out of which grows one of the most breathtaking stories in world history. This leader would soon ingeniously maneuver his way to become Rome’s first emperor, setting the stage for five centuries of Roman expansion; warfare; and, ultimately, collapse.