Roman Passions: A History of Pleasure in Imperial Rome

By the time of the emperors, the Romans had created the world's first global empire stretching from Morocco in the West to Iraq in the East, and from Britain in the North to Egypt in the South. It was an empire delineated by rivers ? the Euphrates, the Danube and the Rhine ? the Atlantic Ocean, and the deserts of North Africa.

Within this territory was the Mediterranean, a liquid continent that facilitated trade and into which flowed a treasure trove of goods from far-flung lands: slaves, sp...