Best Selling Books by Bryan Ward

The history of Roman Imperial architecture is one of the interaction of two dominant themes: in Rome itself the emergence of a new architecture based on the use of a revolutionary new material, Roman concrete; and in the provinces, the development of interrelated but distinctive Romano-provicial schools. The metropolitan school, exemplified in the Pantheon, the Imperial Baths, and the apartment houses of Ostia, constitutes Rome''s great original contribution. The role of the provinces ranged from the preservation of a lively Hellenistic tradition to the assimilation of ideas from the east and from the military frontiers. It was--finally--Late Roman architecture that transmitted the heritage of Greece and Rome to the medieval world.

Why did Rome fall?Vicious barbarian invasions during the fifth century resulted in the cataclysmic end of the world''s most powerful civilization, and a ''dark age'' for its conquered peoples. Or did it? The dominant view of this period today is that the ''fall of Rome'' was a largely peaceful transition to Germanic rule, and the start of a positive cultural transformation.Bryan Ward-Perkins encourages every reader to think again by reclaiming the drama and violence of the last days of the Roman world, and reminding us of the very real horrors of barbarian occupation. Attacking new sources with relish and making use of a range of contemporary archaeological evidence, he looks at both the wider explanations for the disintegration of the Roman world and also the consequences for the lives of everyday Romans, in a world of economic collapse, marauding barbarians,and the rise of a new religious orthodoxy. He also looks at how and why successive generations have understood this period differently, and why the story is still so significant today.

The death of Goodchild in 1968 and Ward-Perkins in 1981 left a wealth of material on the Christian sites and monuments of Cyrenaica unpublished.

The work of J. B. Ward-Perkins on Roman architecture spanned fifty years, and his numerous published papers covered almost every aspect of the subject. This selection of sixteen studies focuses mainly on the provinces, particularly the North African cities. There are two articles on Roman town-plann ng, followed by a study of Nero''s Golden House at Rome. The following nine papers deal with architecture in the provinces. The author''s interest in the excavations under St. Peter''s in Rome resulted in the publication of a number of studies on the development of Early Christian architecture from such Roman models as the basilica and the Imperial mausolea. Five of these papers are included here in the final section on Early Christian architecture. There is a Preface by Professor Roger Ling, and a comprehensive index.

"A wide survey over four millennia is possible for quarrying tools and techniques because of their simplicity and long-lived traditions. The chief contribution of the Romans was their organisation of the stone trade by mass production, standardisation and long-distance transport. Indeed, in post-Roman Europe, especially in Britain, it was the excellence of Roman building stone which allowed so much subsequent ''quarrying'' in the buildings themselves. One exception in Saxon times was the quarry for Bradford-on-Avon''s church. With the 12th-century spurt in church building activity, however, natural stone quarries once more became common and distribution methods familiar to the Roman world re-emerged." - COPAC.

Here in 450 plates--50 in full color--is the life and art of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae, the ancient Roman towns buried by a catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius for more than sixteen centuries until their discovery and excavation. This volume brings together more than 300 murals, sculptures, and artifacts recovered from the ashes and ultimately housed in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and the Pompeii Antiquarium.

The Last Statues of Antiquity is the first comprehensive survey of Roman honorific statues in the public realm in Late Antiquity, offering a richly illustrated pan-Empire exploration of the reasons behind the decline and eventual disppearance of Roman statuary c.AD 250-650, examining variations between regions, cities, and the honorands.