A History of the Roman Republic

Rome’s rise to world power occurred in many stages on a long, intermittent path from its small, rural peasant beginnings to becoming an ancient empire. The decisive junctures in this historical process took place in the time of the Roman Republic. This epoch is brought to life in Klaus Bringmanns’ grand history of the Roman Republic. In an accessible and vivid style, he describes the decisive markers and turning points in more than five hundred years of Roman history. Overviews of longer time periods alternate with the portrayal of important, momentous events of internal and external history—such as the war against Carthage or the struggle over the efforts at reform spearheaded by the Gracchi brothers. The protagonists of the Roman Republic are introduced via close-up views—the legendary Brutus, who is said to have expelled the last Roman kings, the proverbially stern Cato, but also Marius and Sulla, Caesar and Pompey, and finally, Augustus, who would transform the Republic into a monarchy. For this new edition, Klaus Bringmann has revised and expanded the chapter on the history of money in the Roman Republic. Klaus Bringmann taught at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main until he became professor emeritus. C.H.Beck has published several of his other works: Römische Geschichte. Von den Anfängen bis zur Spätantike (Roman History. From its Beginnings to Late Antiquity, 2010), Kleine Kulturgeschichte der Antike (A Brief Cultural History of Antiquity, 2011) and Im Schatten der Paläste. Geschichte des frühen Griechenlands (In the Shadow of Palaces. A History of Early Greece, 2016).