Rome: Empire of the Eagles, 753 BC û AD 476

A major new single volume history of the greatest empire of antiquity, which challenges the orthodox view that Rome was a bringer of civilisation.This controversial book presents Rome as an exploitative, violent and unstable systemIt tells how Rome's search for plunder to feed itself led eventually to a self-destructive process that ate away at the system's socio-economic foundationsCovers the rise and fall in one comprehensive volume The Roman Empire is widely admired as a model of civilisation. In this compelling new study Neil Faulkner argues that in fact, it was nothing more than a ruthless system of robbery and violence. War was used to enrich the state, the imperial ruling classes and favoured client groups. In the process millions of people were killed or enslaved.Within the empire the landowning elite creamed off the wealth of the countryside to pay taxes to the state and fund the towns and villas where they lived. The masses of people - slaves, serfs and poor peasants - were victims of a grand exploitation that made the empire possible. This system, riddled with tension and latent conflict, contained the seeds of its own eventual collapse.Archaeologist and historian Neil Faulkner works as a lecturer, writer, editor and professional broadcaster. He has worked as excavation director for Time Team and is an Honorary Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at the University College of London. His previous books includeThe Decline and Fall of RomanBritain(2004) andApocalypse: the Great Jewish Revolt againstRome, AD66-73(2004) andHidden Treasures, which accompanies the BBC series.

Neil Faulkner works as a freelance lecturer, editor, writer, excavator and occasional broadcaster. His previous books include The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain (2004); Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt against Rome, AD 66-73 (2002); and Hidden Treasure: Digging up Britain's Past (written to accompany the BBC archaeology series in 2003).