'At last, a history of the Roman state as it has always been crying out to be told, and never has been'RODERICK BEATON'A sweeping historical survey that spans two millennia' WALL STREET JOURNALThe definitive history of Rome and its citizens.Rome is often remembered for its spectacular collapse. Yet for more than two thousand years - through civil wars, plagues, invasions and religious upheaval - the Roman state survived, adapted and reinvented itself. From a muddy settlement on the banks of the Tiber to the glittering court of Constantinople, this is the sweeping, untold story of a civilisation that refused to fall.The Romans tells the first truly complete history of Rome in all its epic scale: the Punic Wars, the fall of the republic to the rise of Christianity, Alaric's sack of Rome, the emergence of Islam and the Crusades that would ultimately bring the empire to an end. It is also the story of diverse men and women who shaped the empire: African emperors, Byzantine intellectuals, and ordinary citizens whose loyalty together made it the most resilient state the world has ever seen.