The Neverending Empire

The Infinite Impact of Ancient Rome

Aldo Cazzullo, Loredana Maria Rinaldi

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9780008700430
• eBook ISBN: 9780008700447
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

From the international bestselling author and notable journalist Aldo Cazzullo comes a brilliantly researched and extremely accessible journey through the history and legacy of the Roman Empire.

"The only way to narrate over a thousand years of history is to understand what it has left us. To tell the reasons, the things and the stories, thanks to which Roman civilization is alive".

From its mythical foundations and epic construction to its enduring historical and cultural impact, the ancient Roman Empire has long fascinated readers across the world. In The Neverending Empire esteemed Italian journalist Aldo Cazzullo describes an exciting new historical perspective: that the Roman Empire never fell. In fact, its influence reaches further and deeper than ever.

Beginning with the origins of Rome, and the literary myth of Aeneas and Romulus, Cazzullo takes the reader on a page-turning voyage through ancient history, bringing to life the most captivating moments and characters of a dominant Empire: the republican age, with heroic men and women willing to die for their country. The adventure of coup plotters like Catiline and revolutionaries like Spartacus, the slave who inspired rebels of every age. The extraordinary stories of Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus, two of the greatest leaders to have lived.

Cazzullo goes on to draw fascinating parallels between the ancient and modern world, revealing how Rome lives on, across every facet of life and society. The ancient Romans have inspired poets, and artists, from Dante to Hollywood. They have dictated the rules of war, architecture, language and law. They have inspired America's democratic influence and the digital revolution led by Mark Zuckerberg, a great admirer of Emperor Augustus: the first man to lead a multi-ethnic community of people who didn't know each other but shared language, images and culture.

From the Napoleonic to the British regimes, the ideas and philosophies of ancient Rome have been much imitated, but never surpassed. This is the remarkable story of an enduring Empire. An Empire that never died. An Empire that lives on, forever.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Note to Readers
• Epigraphs
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 AENEAS
• 2 TO DIE FOR ONE’S COUNTRY
• 3 REVOLUTIONARIES AND COUP MAKERS
• 4 CAESAR
• 5 AUGUSTUS
• 6 CONSTANTINE
• 7 THE NEVERENDING EMPIRE
• 8 ROME LIVES
• Sources
• Acknowledgements
• About the Publisher