Mathisen’s text is both an impressive and a practical addition to the offerings available for instructors of undergraduate courses on Rome. Following a more recent trend in publishing, the time span covered begins with the cultures of the Mediterranean before Rome’s founding and continues to the conquest of the Byzantine Levant by the Arabs in Late Antiquity. This chronological decision supports the primary aim of the book, as stated in the introduction, to contextualize Roman Civilization within and against competing cultures of the Mediterranean. As a consequence of the expanded focus, the Celts of Iberia and the Garamantes of North Africa receive as much discussion as the Greeks and Etruscans as important civilizations in contact with Roman ancestors.