The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 9: The Last Age of the Roman Republic, 146-43 B.C.

Volume IX of the second edition of The Cambridge Ancient History has for its main theme the process commonly known as the "Fall of the Roman Republic." Chapters 1-12 supply a narrative of the period from 133 B.C. to the death of Cicero in 43 B.C., with a prelude analyzing the situation and problems of the Republic from the turning-point year 146 B.C. Chapters 13-19 offer analysis of aspects of Roman society, institutions and ideas during the period. Over the past half century The Cambridge Ancient History has established itself as a definitive work of reference. The original edition was published in twelve text volumes between 1924 and 1939. Publication of the new edition began in 1970. Every volume of the old edition has been totally re-thought and re-written with new text, maps, illustrations and bibliographies. Some volumes have had to be expanded into two or more parts and the series has been extended by two extra volumes (XIII and XIV) to cover events up to AD 600, bringing the total number of volumes in the set to fourteen. Existing plates to the volumes are available separately. *Profusely illustrated with maps, drawings and tables. *Comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the history of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East from prehistoric times to AD 600 by an international cast of editors and contributors In this book the chapters treat public and private law, the beginnings of imperial administration, the economy of Rome and Italy and the growth of the city of Rome, and finally intellectual life and religion. The portrait is of a society not in decay or decline, but, on the contrary, growing up so fast in international predominance and material prosperity, in cosmopolitanism of population and Hellenization of ideas, as finally to tumble over its own feet. It was destined only to be rescued at the price of political transformation. By the end of the second century before Christ the Romans faced a crisis as a result of their mastery of the Mediterranean, which was made sharper by an increased political awareness resulting from the acquisition of experience and the intellectual contacts made in during the acquisition of empire.