Akron Public Library

Classic Books Library presents this new beautiful edition of William Shakespeare's play, "Titus Andronicus" (1594). This edition features a specially commissioned new biography of William Shakespeare. Unlike Shakespeare's other plays based on Roman histories, the story of "Titus Andronicus" is a fictional work. The play dramatises the gruesome events that take place in the battle for a nation between the brutal Roman general Titus and his powerful...

The story takes place in Rome shortly after the expulsion of the Tarquin kings. Ordinary citizens are rioting after stores of grain were withheld. The rioters are particularly angry at Gaius Martius, a brilliant Roman general whom they blame. War breaks out with a neighboring Italian tribe, the Volscians, who are led by Martius' great rival, Tullus Aufidius.

Returning to Rome after 3 years in the field, General Marcus Vinicius meets and falls in love with the devout Christian, Lygia. She doesn't want to have anything to do with the warrior. Though Lygia grew up Roman, and as the adopted daughter of a retired general, Lygia is technically a hostage of Rome. Marcus gets Emperor Nero to give her to him for services rendered. Lygia is not happy about this situation, but she falls in love with Marcus anyway....

The epic tale of the bold gladiator slave Spartacus (Douglas), the woman who believed in his cause, and the power-hungry Roman general who challenged his convictions.

After landing with Allied troops at Anzio, Italy in 1944, war correspondent Dick Ennis and buddy Corporal Rabinoff tell Anzio commander General Lesley that the road to Rome is wide open. But instead of heading to Rome, Lesley attempts to build a coastal stronghold, only to discover that the Germans have outflanked them by enclosing the Anzio beachhead.

Through civil wars and world conflicts, the Roman Republic had survived 400 years, its empire stretching from Spain to Syria and beyond. But at the millennium, it seemed about to buckle. An entrenched Senate would not and could not respond to the nation's precipitous decline; its leaders, locked in the status quo and fighting for privilege, were talking reform to death. As the Republic careened to the brink of ruin, the battle lines were drawn by...