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Ancient Rome
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
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Ancient Rome
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Summary
With commanding skill, Thomas R. Martin tells the remarkable and dramatic story of how a tiny, poor, and threatened settlement grew to become, during its height, the dominant power in the Mediterranean world for 500 years. Encompassing the period from Rome's founding in the eighth century BC through Justinian's rule in the sixth century AD, he offers a distinctive perspective on the Romans and their civilization by employing fundamental Roman values as a lens through which to view both their rise and spectacular fall.
Interweaving social, political, religious, and cultural history, Martin interprets the successes and failures of the Romans in war, political organization, quest for personal status, and in the integration of religious beliefs and practices with government. He focuses on the central role of social and moral values in determining individual conduct as well as decisions of state, from monarchy to republic to empire. Striving to reconstruct ancient history from the ground up, he includes frequent references to ancient texts and authors, encouraging readers to return to the primary sources.
Comprehensive, concise, and accessible, this masterful account provides a unique window into Rome and its changing fortune.
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What listeners say about Ancient Rome
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Danny
- 30-09-22
Very informative
I really enjoyed this book and it gave me a good understanding of the Roman Empire.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rob Beresford
- 29-06-21
My first Audible Book. Impressed.
Very enjoyable listen to the reader about Ancient Rome by Thomas R Martin. I look forward to listening more audiobooks.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Duck
- 22-10-21
An excellent starting place
This book succeeds admirably in its stated intention of giving a broad overview of ancient Rome, with the aim of inspiring further research and reading.
As someone who came to the subject with essentially zero knowledge, this has helped me at least get something of a grasp on this time. If you are already well read on this period I doubt there is much here to entice you as it doesn't deal with any one subject in depth, but given that it covers such a huge span of time in less than 9 hours, that's understandable.
The narrator is absolutely fine. It's certainly not the most inspired reading I've heard, and doesn't liven up what is potentially already a dry subject, but it's clear and well read throughout.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Susan Sabin
- 04-03-22
Poorly read
Dreadful pronunciation! Such a shame. just a little bit of homework on how names, bith ancient and modern, woukd make this so much better. I cringed at the way some names were pronounced.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- kris clark
- 13-09-22
not as good as Ancient Greece
I really enjoyed the authors " Ancient Greece:, ancient Rome wasn't as enjoyable, because of repetition, the author also discusses Jesus as a historical figure without references to historical texts. fictional charactors surley should not be included in historical nonfiction.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 27-10-21
its ok
ok overview of roman history. nothing special nothing terrible. could be better and could be worse.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Andrew
- 15-09-21
Lightweight and superficial content. Reader ok.
This book only really skims the surface and it is difficult to see what audience this aims at. Much of the content skips very superficially along without being interesting - for example, a major civil war is skipped over in a couple of sentences. This comes across very much like a high level précis of someone else’s work. There are far better works out there on all levels.
The reader is decently competent, mispronounced a few names here and there., but not too egregious.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MR J H T Ashworth
- 14-08-21
why this narrator?
I imagine the book is fascinating but couldn't deal with the narration. it is like listening to a droid. had to turn off.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Eugene Oconnell
- 28-06-22
Like a Catholic priests version of History
To start with the narrator speaks in a tedious monotone that does not change at all.
As to the content in which through the first 600 years of the empire in double quick time then it deals in mind-numbing detail with the growth of the Christian church. I am not at a religious seminary and was bored out of my skull. I suggest this book is largely for those of a Christian religious persuasion. Otherwise don’t waste your time like I did
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Glenn Michael Harper
- 17-04-22
no booty in this discarded waste basket
Listening to this for 9 hours soon became an uphill struggle and an exercise in perseverance with scant reward to show at the end. A rambling scattergun of a narrative attempts to outline the society and culture of Rome, with character vignettes that go unexplained and the bold premise of encapsulating centuries worth of history in one book is a sunken failure.
Martin seems to enjoy mentioning the word 'booty' every few pages, like a forlorn king, struggling to fight against the waves of present day vernacular, that denotes 'booty' not as reward but as the rear end. Perhaps a drinking game whenever 'booty' is uttered could brighten this dour affair?
Unfortunately, the rear end is a perfect analogy for the quality of the narration by Lescault, whose starched delivery fails to engage on any memorable level.
One to avoid.
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1 person found this helpful