I wanted to read this book because I don't know much about the history of Ancient Rome. The writing was entertaining and interspersed with anecdotes, jokes, and quips from the period. I most liked the parts that talked about what everyday life was like—descriptions of bars, boardgames, and epitaphs of regular people. I also had to laugh at rumors and tales that were passed down to us through horrible mistranslations—e.g. Caligula didn't really order troops to gather seashells, the word for seashell is the same word for a kind of temporary barracks. The author considers the end of the Roman empire to be when Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all freemen, and the book ends there.