I just finished Robert Harris’s Imperium, which (according to the end notes) was written to be faithful to the prolific letters of Cicero, an important guy in the late Republic.
Last years of the Republic. The Republic lasted around 500 years, and then the Empire lasted about the same. The really interesting years of the Republic are more or less the last 100 years. Rubicon does cover the early Republic, but really gets interesting about the time that the history does. There is also the period of the Roman Kingdom, starting in 753BC about 200 years before the Republic (509BC). Most of the Kingdom period is not known from history so much as myth and legend.
753 BC is also year 1, A.U.C, or Ab urbe condita. The Western Roman Empire ended around 476AD.
There is also a Greek and Etruscan period before even the “founding of the City”, but little is known.
I apparently had a post vanish.
The title is somewhat misleading. The main topic of Holland’s book is the end of the Roman Republic (and founding of the Empire) but he outlines the Republic’s history back to Tarquin’s overthrow as background. And he follows it through into the first decades of the Empire until the end of Augustus’ reign.
If you’re looking for a more detailed history of early Rome - stuff like Aeneas, Romulus and Remus, and the seven kings - you might try The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (1000 - 264 BC) by Tim Cornell. But be aware that this early on you’re looking more at mythology and archeology rather than history.
Rome’s time in history was about a thousand years. So given the size of book you want, that gives the author about 4 pages for every 10 years of history. It would be pretty hard to do that and not have it superficial & summarized enough to be the Rome for Dummies that you wanted to avoid. [Could you write a useful history of everything since 2000 in 4 pages?]
That’s why the best books on Rome pick out a smaller period of Roman History and concentrate on that.
How about Michael Grant’s History of Rome? Possibly a bit dry for some people but I found a very useful starter. About 400 pages and covers the whole period from the founding to the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD. Not much depth but will give background to pick out periods you are interested in.
Sorry, meant to add thoughts on WW1. The two single volume histories of the war I would go for are John Keegan’s *The First World War *and Martin Gilbert’s book with the same title. Both British historians but they are the ones I know! I would avoid AJP Taylor - dated and slanted - and Hew Strachan’s single volume *First World War *- it just did not work for me.
For a book that polarises readers try Gary Sheffield’s Forgotten Victory: The First World War - Myths and Realities. This sets out from the beginning to undermine the public perception of WW1 as a futile bloodbath of ignorant plebs led by idiot toffs (the Blackadder school of history: “…yet another gargantuan effort to move his drinks cabinet six inches closer to Berlin”) and look at the war the light of modern historical research. Personally I think he does an excellent job and the argument for a more nuanced view is overwhelming (even Keegan - who has no love of British WW1 generals - has modified his views over the years) but there is still a core of people who will never budge from the old meme and slate books like this on Amazon.
A very smart friend of mine loves Harris’s Roman book series. Some day I hope to get to them myself.
I just read this, http://www.amazon.com/Legionary-Soldiers-Unofficial-Manual-Manuals/dp/0500251517/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276883127&sr=1-8, and really enjoyed it - it’s written as if it’s a manual for a new recruit to the Roman Army in 100 AD, with lots of sardonic advice about what you’ll need to do to survive your 25-year enlistment.