This highly readable, engrossing, and crystal-clear account straddles, with great facility, cultural and historical issues most other Roman history textbooks struggle to integrate." —John Lobur, Associate Professor of Classics, University of Mississippi"This is a fitting work exploring the rise and fall of one of the world's most incredible institutions, the Roman Republic. It is also a timely warning to the dangers posed by internal pressures and an inability of a political system to evolve to the changing times." —Dennis Campbell, Associate Professor of History, San Francisco State University"This is a nuanced depiction of the political and military history of the Roman Republic with some delightful anecdotes about cults, rotting fish sauce, and goat-skin thongs." —Dr. Kristi DiClemente, Assistant Professor of History, Mississippi University for Women