Plebs Romana

Name: Plebs Romana
Price: 34.99 AUD
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ISBN: 9781805465102

People, Power and Politics in Ancient Rome

Peter Jones

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Hardback

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English

Atlantic Books
03 February 2026

History; Ancient history: to c 500 CE

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'Jones has an eagle's high eye for the history of Rome' - The Times 'Jones makes the classical world feel both beguiling and fresh' - Sunday Times

You may think about the Roman Empire every day, but I bet you rarely think about the plebs. The plebs were the commoners, the general populace and lower social classes, and as such their feelings, thoughts and voices are seldom captured in the sources. Most books about Ancient Rome treat the plebs as irrelevant 'lowlifes', which is indeed how they were viewed by the patricians at the centre of the existing popular histories.

Plebs Romana is the first history of Ancient Rome to centre the class of people who made up the empire's majority. A 700-year story that begins with the founding of the Roman Republic, celebrated historian Peter Jones traces the rise of the plebs, from being a powerless group to a political match for the 'patrician' elite. Along the way we learn how they conducted the world's first general strike, became the driving force of Rome's rise to power, and that it was the increasing class conflict between the rich and the poor, rather than the rise of Christianity, that destroyed the world's most powerful and consequential empire.

By: Peter Jones
Imprint: Atlantic Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Main
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781805465102
ISBN 10: 1805465104
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 03 February 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Peter Jones was educated at Cambridge University and taught Classics at Cambridge and at Newcastle University, before retiring in 1997. He has written a regular column, 'Ancient & Modern', in the Spectator for many years and is the author of various books on the Classics, including the bestselling Learn Latin and Learn Ancient Greek, as well as Vote for Caesar and Reading Virgil's Aeneid I and II.

Reviews for Plebs Romana: People, Power and Politics in Ancient Rome

Jones' books are neat introductions to aspects of Greek or Roman history, lightly and colourfully told, but underpinned by a lifetime of scholarly rigour. Plebs Romana... is erudite, precise and packed with information, while being exactly the right size to keep in the downstairs loo. * Dan Jones, Sunday TImes * Delightfully informative... learned, but deftly executed... It is an absorbing account, full of wonderful little stories of events or of individuals that made their mark in the tussles which led the plebs to gain real power and influence in Roman politics. * Classics for All *