Originally published: London: Allen Lane, 2005.

List of maps -- Preface -- Hadrian and the classical world -- PART ONE. The archaic Greek world -- 1. Homeric epic -- 2. The Greeks' settlements -- 3. Aristocrats -- 4. The immortal gods -- 5. Tyrants and lawgivers -- 6. Sparta -- 7. The eastern Greeks -- 8. Towards democracy -- 9. The Persian wars -- 10. The western Greeks -- PART TWO. The classical Greek world -- 11. Conquest and empire -- 12. A changing Greek cultural world -- 13. Pericles and Athens -- 14. The Peloponnesian war -- 15. Socrates -- 16. Fighting for freedom and justice -- 17. Women and children -- 18. Philip of Macedon -- 19. The two philosophers -- 20. Fourth-century Athenians -- PART THREE. Hellenistic worlds -- 21. Alexander the Great -- 22. Alexander's early successors -- 23. Life in the big cities -- 24. Taxes and technologies -- 25. The new world -- 26. Rome reaches out -- 27. The peace of the gods -- 28. Liberation in the south -- 29. Hannibal and Rome -- 30. Diplomacy and dominance -- PART FOUR. The Roman republic -- 31. Luxury and licence -- 32. Turbulence at home and abroad -- 33. Pompey's triumphs -- 34. The world of Cicero -- 35. The rise of Julius Caesar -- 36. The spectre of civil war -- 37. The fatal dictator -- 38. Liberation betrayed -- PART FIVE. From republic to empire -- 39. Antony and Cleopatra -- 40. The making of the emperor -- 41. Morals and society -- 42. Spectator sports -- 43. The Roman army -- 44. The new age -- PART SIX. An imperial world -- 45. The Julio-Claudians -- 46. Ruling the provinces -- 47. Effects of empire -- 48. Christianity and Roman rule -- 49. Surviving four emperors -- 50. The new dynasty -- 51. The last days of Pompeii -- 52. A new man in action -- 53. A pagan and Christians -- 54. Regime change, home and away -- 55. Presenting the past -- Hadrian : a retrospective -- Notes -- Select bibliography -- Commentary on the illustrations -- Index.