Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Ancient History
Episode: Kathryn Lomas, "The Rise of Rome: From the Iron Age to the Punic Wars"Â (Harvard UP, 2018)
Description: By the third century BC, the once-modest settlement of Rome had conquered most of Italy and was poised to build an empire throughout the Mediterranean basin. What transformed a humble city into the preeminent power of the region? In The Rise of Rome: From the Iron Age to the Punic Wars(Harvard University Press, 2018), the Durham University historian and archaeologist Kathryn Lomas reconstructs diplomatic ploys, political stratagems, and cultural exchanges whereby Rome established itself as a dominant player in a region already brimming with competitors. The Latin world, she argues, was not so much subjugated by Rome as unified...