Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor by Anthony Everitt is enriching
As a self-styled Roman history buff who has always considered Augustus to be my role model because he essentially singlehandedly created the Roman Empire, I had to read his biography to get the detailed backstory.
I had learned a lot on the topic from Edward Champlin’s fantastic lectures on the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire while at Princeton and had enjoyed HBO’s fantastic TV show Rome and was looking forward to learning more.
The book is not nearly as well written or as enjoyable as Ron Chernow’s brilliant biographies, but I loved both learning more about Augustus’ life and the social and cultural mores of the time.
If you are a fan of Roman history, you owe it to yourself to check it out!
Thanks for the suggestion, just added it to my Amazon wish list!
Another book about Roman history (although about dramatically less happy times!) that I would recommend is “The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History”, of Peter Heather, I almost read it from front to cover in a long flight between India and Europe, as I could not put it aside and was hoping for the flight to last a bit longer not to bit interrupted!
I just ordered it!
Btw, further to our conversation, and as you obviously have an interest in both the internet and Roman history, I thought you might find this Roman-times maps mash-up interesting http://www.omnesviae.org
Regards,
Miquel