When Isaac Asimov's THE ROMAN REPUBLIC was published last year, the Library Journal had this to say about it in a double starred review:
". ... the author of THE GREEKS has produced a magnificent survey of Rome to 27 B.C. which should definitely be first purchase for all libraries catering to young people. With an amazing knack of sizing up the significant, he presents the why as well as the what and how. Generalizations are surprisingly successful; many details are as fresh as they are illuminating. The scholarship is sound; the style is simple but pleasant. The events and the people involved in them are masterfully characterized. . . All will look forward eagerly to the promised sequel on the Roman Empire."
And now we proudly present Dr. Asimov's promised companion volume. Picking up the tale where the earlier book left off, the author takes his readers through the years when Rome established her empire, bringing peace to a hundred million people.
In the course of this 500 year period, we meet a brilliant roster of personalities: capable Augustus and his line, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Diocletian, Con-stantine, Theodoric. The characters of these men and the events they fashioned are lucidly presented as are the underlying issues of their time.
Here we see Rome developing two of its great heritages — a system of laws that affects our lives to this day as well as the stamp it gave a great Eastern religion.
The Roman Empire is one of the most fascinating ages of history and Isaac Asimov recreated it with all its original gusto.