h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I find the Roman "Empire" fascinating, and am enjoying all the recent entries. As the US "empire" fades (volume ... what, about 12 in the westward march?), it will be interesting to see if the coming Asian "empire" has new ideas. Of course, this is their second outing, so they should not be starting from scratch.

You mention Prof. Fagan of Penn State Univ. (footnote 7). He has a very good series of recorded lectures on the "History of Ancient Rome", available here:

http://www.teach12.com/ttc/assets/coursedescriptions/340.asp?id=340&d=History+of+Ancient+Rome&pc=History%20-%20Ancient%20and%20Medieval

I enjoyed every lecture, and recall specifically his opening comments, along the lines of how little documented information we have from ancient Rome. I think he said its like viewing the Louvre, but only through the keyholes.

Thanks for reading, Steve!

I'll have to check out those lectures.

Just a tip on the Teaching Company, publisher of Prof. Fagan's lectures - they have rotating sales all year, so virtually every course goes on DEEP discount periodically, like from several hundred $ to maybe $50 - $100. Some of their audio courses are now available as MP3 downloads, the cheapest way. So I burned the last one to a CD and played it in my car.