Rome

A thrilling and often corruscating fusion of narrative with scholarship. The Romans have rarely before seemed quite so terrifying.Tom Holland, author of Rubicon: the Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic (2004).

In this dramatically provocative new account the Roman Empire is a bloodthirsty capitalist superstate whose plutocratic stakeholders bled dry untold millions of slaves and serfs, and ethnically cleansed millions more, only to implode exhausted by its merciless policy of ruthless expansionism. Dr Faulkner, for whom Augustus was 'a truly disgusting man', never sits on the fence - this unashamedly partisan book is a must for anyone who wants to be challenged and outraged by our familiar image of Rome's contribution to world history.Guy de la Bdoyre, co-presenter of Channel 4s Time Team.

The Roman Empireis widely admired as a model of civilisation. In this compelling new study Neil Faulkner argues that in fact it was 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 state and the landowning elite creamed off taxes and rents from the countryside to fund their army, their towns, and their villas. The mass of people slaves, serfs, poor peasants were the victims of the exploitation that made the empire possible. This system, riddled with tension and latent conflict, contained the seeds of its own eventual collapse from the outset.