Once Upon the Tiber: An Offbeat History of Rome

The trouble with reading history is that some earnest scholar has organized it into all the pertinent (and usually dreary) facts. Facts, like good bread, need a little yeast and perhaps a mite of salt to be palatable. History is a diary of humans, and even in the most somber human life funny things happen. The Romans made quite a splash in human history; and of course any bunch that hung around for twelve hundred years had its ironies, foibles, and grins.

This book ambles through major Roman events and personalities from the time of Aeneas to the time of Romulus Augustulus, looking in on soldiers and ladies and entrepreneurs, highlighting oddities and picking on famous people of every stripe, including the major Roman authors, who are even better than the politicians at taking themselves too seriously and everything else in vain.

If you want the truth about Venus the Bald (Chapter XI) and Marius the Muddy (Chapter XV)—or if you just have to know how a man can protect his personal heliocaminus (Chapter XXIV), this is the book for you.

This book features:

• 24 short, entertaining chapters on Roman history, selected from ancient authors (Vergil, Livy, and others)
• Pertinent Latin quote (with translation) for each chapter
• 29 line drawings by Mark Bennington
• “Reality Check” on factual reliability of sources and author’s method
• Notes (source citations, explanatary)
• Glossary of names and terms
• Major Points in Roman History
• Bibliography
• Index