According to tradition, when Romulus, founder of Rome, asked for a divine sign, twelve eagles swooped down from the heavens. In ancient occult lore this portended twelve hundred years existence for Rome. The founding occurred in 753 B.C.; the last Roman emperor vanished from his throne in A.D. 476...a glorious span of 1229 years. In this colorful and straightforward history Donald R. Dudley covers the whole story of Roman rule: from the birth of the Republic to the collapse of the Empire, treating the rise and growth of Christianity as an integral part of the culture of the classical world. He tells of military campaigns and conquests, and of a peculiarly Roman system of politics-the clientelae-where the noble Roman advised the foreign client on Roman affairs and presented his case to the Senate, while the client returned these favors with services to the patron in his own country, thereby strengthening the bond between Rome and non-Rome and extending her imperial power. He studies the men who shaped Rome's destiny: Scipio, Tiberius, Caius Gracchus, Pompey, Crassus, Caesar, Sulla, Lucullus, Augustus, Nero, Trajan. He describes Roman architecture and art; studies domestic and social life; analyzes legal and political institutions. He sets before the reader the vivid history of the power, the greatness, the glory...that was Rome.