The greatest hits of the Roman Republic’s turbulent beginnings.

Hundreds of years before Rome became a wealthy empire, it was part frontier, part battlefield, and part political cauldron. This book is about becoming Rome. It's a story so special that it has been meticulously passed down for 2,000 years.

Inside are the legendary stories of famous early Roman leaders. Romulus. Brutus. Cincinnatus. Coriolanus. Appius Claudius (and his similarly-named descendants). Capitolinus. Camillus. Each story is a reflection upon human nature and the realities of leadership.

The First Romans shows Rome not as an inevitability, but as a succession of moments when only honor, training, courageousness, and great weaponry (Ch. 32) determined whether the fragile Republic would break apart or move forward.

Lucas C. Wagner, translator of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita, Books I-X, has packaged into a single book what Machiavelli once called early Roman virtù: the judgment, skill, and courageousness needed to master Fortune.