Gates Of Rome

This critically acclaimed novel takes the reader on a breathtaking journey from the grandeur of Rome to the savagery of its most far-flung provinces, as one of history's greatest narratives unfolds.

This novel interweaves history and adventure to recreate the life of Julius Caesar. In the city of Rome, a titanic power struggle is about to shake the Republic to its core. Citizen will fight citizen in a bloody conflict and Julius Caesar will be in the thick of the action.

Barbarians serving in the Roman army, like all other Roman soldiers, faced difficult choices as political events buffeted their leaders and threatened their livelihoods. Honorius, Stilicho, Alaric, Galla Placidia, Constantius III and usurpers like Constantine III and Attalus left their imprints upon these years - coloring the fabric of political and spiritual life as much as they affected military affairs.

Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026. But all three have been given a second chance - to work for an agency that no one knows exists. Its purpose: to prevent time travel destroying history . . . Project Exodus - a mission to transport 300 Americans from 2070 to 54AD to overthrow the Roman Empire - has gone catastrophically wrong. Half have arrived seventeen years earlier, during the reign of Caligula. Liam goes to investigate, but when Maddy and Sal attempt to flee a kill-squad sent to hunt down their field office, all of the TimeRiders become trapped in the Roman past. Armed with knowledge of the future, Caligula is now more powerful than ever. But with the office unmanned - and under threat - how will the TimeRiders make it back to 2001 and put history right? ** Book five in the bestselling TimeRiders series by Alex Scarrow. ** Ancient Rome gets a time-travel makeover! ** TimeRiders (Book 1) won the Red House Book Award older readers category, and was Penguin UK's first ever number one on the iBookstore. ** www.time-riders.co.uk

An investigation of the America-Rome analogy that goes deeper than the facile comparisons made on talk shows and in glossy magazine articles. America's post–Cold War strategic dominance and its pre-recession affluence inspired pundits to make celebratory comparisons to ancient Rome at its most powerful. Now, with America no longer perceived as invulnerable, engaged in protracted fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and suffering the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, comparisons are to the bloated, decadent, ineffectual later Empire. In Why America Is Not a New Rome, Vaclav Smil looks at these comparisons in detail, going deeper than the facile analogy-making of talk shows and glossy magazine articles. He finds profound differences. Smil, a scientist and a lifelong student of Roman history, focuses on several fundamental concerns: the very meaning of empire; the actual extent and nature of Roman and American power; the role of knowledge and innovation; and demographic and economic basics—population dynamics, illness, death, wealth, and misery. America is not a latter-day Rome, Smil finds, and we need to understand this in order to look ahead without the burden of counterproductive analogies. Superficial similarities do not imply long-term political, demographic, or economic outcomes identical to Rome's.

The book explodes the Christian theology and the Christian stumbling block which it exposed as a consequence thereof. It leaves Christianity stripped of all content, shows us its true intentions and thus prevents us from being ensnared into its awful trap

From the author of the bestselling The Dangerous Book for Boys “Brilliant…stunning,” raved the Los Angeles Times about Conn Iggulden’s first novel, Emperor: The Gates of Rome. “Iggulden is a grand storyteller,” declared USA Today. Now Iggulden returns to the landscape of ancient Rome and the life of Julius Caesar in a new novel filled with all the sumptuous storytelling that distinguished his first book. Sweeping from the windswept, pirate-ruled seas to the stifling heat of the Roman senate, Iggulden takes us further down the path to glory as Julius Caesar comes into his own as a man, warrior, senator, husband, leader. In a sweltering, sparsely settled region of North Africa, a band of disheveled soldiers turn their eyes toward one man among them. Ragged, dirty, and half starved, the men will follow their leader into the mad, glorious fight for honor and revenge that only he wants to fight. Their leader is named Julius Caesar. The soldiers are Roman legionaries. And their quarry is a band of pirates who made the mistake of seizing Julius Caesar—and holding him for ransom. Now, to get his revenge, Caesar will turn peasants into soldiers, building a shipborne fighting force that will not only decimate a pirate fleet but will dominate the Mediterranean, earning him the coveted title Military Tribune of Rome. While Caesar builds a legend far from Rome, his friend Gaius Brutus is fighting battles of another sort, rising to power in the wake of the shocking assassination of a dictator. Once Brutus and Caesar were as close as brothers, both devoted to the same ideals and attracted to the same forbidden woman. Now, when Caesar returns—with the winds of glory at his back—they will find themselves at odds. For each has built an army of elite warriors—Caesar’s forged in far-flung battles, Brutus’ from Rome’ s political killing fields. But in an era when men die for their treachery and their allegiances, the two men will soon be united by a shock wave from the north. There, a gladiator named Spartacus is gathering strength, building an army of seventy thousand desperate slaves—to fight a cataclysmic battle against Rome itself. Filled with unforgettable images—from the death throes of a king to the birth of Caesar’s child, from the bloody battlefields of Greece to the silent passion of lovers—Emperor: The Death of Kings is an astounding work, a stunning blend of vibrant history and thrilling fiction.

This eBook edition features exclusive bonus content, Conn Iggulden’s original short story “Fig Tree.” One of history’s most notorious assassinations sets the stage for a riveting tale of political intrigue, epic battle, and righteous retribution in a new novel of ancient Rome from #1 New York Times bestselling author Conn Iggulden. THE BLOOD OF GODS Julius Caesar has been cut down. His blood stains the hands of a cabal of bold conspirators, led by famed general Marcus Brutus—whom Caesar once called a friend. Have these self-proclaimed liberators bravely slain a power-mad tyrant or brutally murdered the beloved Father of Rome? Hailed as heroes by a complicit Senate and granted amnesty, the killers eagerly turn toward plotting the empire’s future under their control. But Caesar’s death does not rest easily with all of Rome. For two men whose bonds of friendship, family, and fidelity to the emperor are unbreakable, the shocking assassination is nothing less than treason. And those responsible must pay with their lives. Through countless battles and years of peace, Marc Antony has wielded a sword and raised a cup at Caesar’s side. Now, in the wake of the cold-blooded coup, he is powerless against the political might of Brutus and his treacherous senators. Yet with no weapons other than eloquence and outrage, Antony will turn the tide of public opinion and spark a rebellion that will set the streets of Rome ablaze. At the same time, Gaius Octavian, adopted son and chosen heir of Caesar, has gained wealth and influence beyond imagining. But the soul-deep wound of his father’s death will never be healed by gold or power. He will rest only with the blood of the killers on his blade. Drawn together by their common cause, Antony and Octavian marshal their forces into an avenging army on a mission to reunite all that Caesar’s fall has torn asunder. Even as his cohorts flee for their lives—or fall prey to vigilantes—a defiant Brutus vows never to relinquish what his ruthless ambition has won him. As opposing legions join in mortal combat, the destiny of Rome will turn on which of their commanders is the mightiest and most cunning. Marking the author’s triumphant return to the setting of his celebrated Emperor series, The Blood of Gods unfolds with unmatched power, electric with the high-adventure storytelling, captivating historical detail, and stirring battle scenes for which Conn Iggulden is renowned. Praise for Conn Iggulden’s Empire series “Dramatic historical fiction to keep adults turning pages like enthralled kids . . . [Iggulden] is a grand storyteller. . . . A spirited, entertaining read.”—USA Today “Exhilarating . . . Words like ‘brilliant,’ ‘sumptuous’ and ‘enchanting’ jostle to be used, but scarcely convey the way Iggulden brings the schoolbook tale to life, or the compelling depictions of battle, treachery and everyday detail in a precarious world well lost but vividly re-created.”—Los Angeles Times “What Robert Graves did for Claudius, Conn Iggulden now does for the most famous Roman emperor of them all—Julius Caesar.”—William Bernhardt, author of Criminal Intent “[Iggulden] excels at describing battle scenes both small-scale and epic.”—The Seattle Times “Utterly marvelous . . . Solid research and a real knack for character development bring [Julius Caesar] to life in a truly magical, electrifying way.”—The Telegram (St. John’s, Newfoundland)