Rise of the Roman Empire: The Will to Endure is a daring interpretation of the ways and means that the Roman Empire became the greatest military power of the ancient world, and how the vastness of this empire engulfed the entire Mediterranean world, as well as most of Europe. In the second century BCE, the Greek historian Polybius (200-118 BCE), after arriving in Rome in 168 BCE, asked in his Histories: "How did the Romans succeed in building a world empire in such a short span of time?" This book takes the perspective Polybius's question was mistaken, in the sense that the formation of the Roman Empire, took a very long time-indeed, centuries. The formation of the Roman Empire began in 390 BCE when the Gauls burned Rome; and even before that time, as this book demonstrates, the kings of Rome were some of the first empire builders.

An audaciously daring narrative, this text presents an overview of the early history of Rome, focusing the reader's attention to those distinctive and often hidden cultural features that contributed to create a unique ancient Roman mindset and civic outlook. Using an historical format, Thomas L. Dynneson addresses these cultural forces which ultimately shaped the Romans into the ancient world's most powerful military city-state. Comprised of numerous values and beliefs, the Romans sought to develop their citizens as a cohesive whole. This approach enabled a mastering of both the practical and utilitarian tactics for solving problems, an expression of classical intellectualism. Identifying this sense of idealism paralleled with the Romans embodiment of sacrifice to overcome all obstacles, the author explores several features of becoming Roman. Within this text, each section is designed to pull together the general historical elements which helped to create a unique Roman citizenship. The final section of each chapter contains further analysis, including the author's narrative regarding the general sources used, and the second containing a review of one exceptional recommended reading. The later chapters of the book provide a special "Recent Scholarship" section, which explores the work of recent scholars' "revisionists" perspectives related to the traditional ancient sources.

This book focuses on the development of civism as it contributed to ancient Greek culture, and helped shape the psychology of citizenship in the Western world. The strength of this work is its interdisciplinary examination of those trends and influences that combined to give new insights into the rise and the fall of democracy in the ancient polis of Athens. The author presents an extensive description of the intellectual forces that attracted «international scholars and teachers to Athens, who in turn established important schools of higher learning as they labored to develop and advance the study of rhetoric and philosophy as competing alternative approaches for addressing the perceived weakness of the democratic system. This volume is an ideal supplement for instruction in courses in classical history, political science, philosophy, history of Western education, and advanced foundations of education.

This book explores the relationship between citizenship and civism through a general survey of European history. It begins with an exploration of the dynamics of citizenship and civism in the formative Neolithic and classical societies, followed by an exploration of the middle ages, renaissance, reformation, and the enlightenment. The latter half of the book focuses on the rise of the modern nation-state following the French Revolution. The chapters spanning the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries focus on the development of citizenship and civism in Britain, France, Germany, and Russia.