Top 10 books about the Roman empire

Greg Woolf is the Ronald J. Mellor Chair in Ancient History at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of The Life and Death of Ancient Cities, Tales of the Barbarians, and Et Tu, Brute?

His new book is the second edition of Rome: An Empire's Story. This edition has been completely revised to take into account a decade's research since the first edition was written and includes expanded treatment of material culture and of late antiquity.

[The Page 99 Test: Rome: An Empire's Story (1st edition)]

At the Guardian Woolf tagged ten of "the best volumes in a long and still expanding literature" about the Roman Empire. One title on the list:

Rome. An archaeological guide by Amanda Claridge

If you want to explore the remains of that city, there is no better guide than this. Claridge knows the modern city and its most recent archaeology better than anyone writing in English. Her book is a lucid and compact guide to the most ruinous and built-over monuments. I carry it with me everywhere when in the city (and have worn out a couple of copies).

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue