Nouvelle édition, revue, augmentée et enrichie d'environ 2500 gravures dessineés d'apres̀ l'antique et de 100 cartes ou plans
t.1. Des origines à la fin de la deuxième guerre unique.--t. 2.De la batail le de Zama au premier triumvirat.--t. 3. César, Octave, Les commencements d'Auguste.--t.4. D'Auguste à l'avènement d'Hadrien.--t.5. Hadrien, Antonin, Marc Aurèle, et la société romaine dans le Haut Empire.--t.6. De l'avènement de Commode à la mort de Dioclétien.--t.7. De l'avènement de Constantin à la mort de Théodose
The author, Jean Victor Duruy (1811 – 1894), was a French historian and statesman.
He devoted himself to secondary school education, holding his chair in the College Henri IV at Paris for over a quarter of a century. Already known as a historian by his Histoire des Romains et des peuples soumis à leur domination (7 vols, 1843–1844 ), he was chosen by Napoleon III to assist him in his biography of Julius Caesar, and his abilities being thus brought under the emperor's notice, he was in 1863 appointed minister of education. In this position he worked incessantly, attempting broad and liberal reforms which aroused the bitter hostility of the clerical party. Ironically, despite open domestic opposition to his views in education, in 1868, he was instrumental in the reformation of Galatasaray High School in strict concordance with his secular views, as the first Western-style state higher education institution in Ottoman Empire.
Among his measures were the reorganization of higher education , the foundation of the conférences publiques, which became universal throughout France, and of a course of secondary education for girls by lay teachers. He introduced modern history and modern languages into the curriculum both of the lycées and of the colleges. He greatly improved the state of primary education in France, and proposed to make it compulsory and free of charge, but failed to obtain the emperor's support for this move.
As an historian Duruy aimed in his earlier works at a graphic and picturesque narrative which should make his subject popular. His fame, however, rests mainly on the revised edition of his Roman history, which appeared in a greatly enlarged form in 5 vols. under the title of Histoire des Romains depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à la mort de Théodose (1879–1885), a really great work; a magnificent illustrated edition was published from 1879 to 1885 (English translation by WJ Clarke, in 6 vols., 1883–1886). His Histoire des Grecs, similarly illustrated, appeared in 3 volumes from 1886 to 1891 (English translation in 4 volumes, 1892). He was the editor, from its commencement in 1846, of the Histoire universelle, publiée par une société de professeurs et de savants, for which he himself wrote a "Histoire sainte d'après la Bible," "Histoire grecque," "Histoire romaine," "Histoire du moyen âge," "Histoire des temps modernes," and "Abrégé de l'histoire de France."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Duruy
