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, spices, precious stones and coloured marble, not to mention an exotic array of foods and wine, from the novelty of British oysters to garum, a fish-sauce, from southern Spain.

At the same time, the aesthetics of the city of Rome were being embraced in the provinces with the establishment of towns with public buildings and baths, and the adoption of the Latin language. And with these attributes of civilisation came other trappings of Roman culture: lavish entertainments, elaborate dinner parties and vice. A world of pleasure had arrived. Passions for food, refi ned taste, drink, sex and excess, collecting unusual objects (human, animal or mineral), and a desire for the display of excess rebuilt Roman culture. This book charts how pleasure shaped Roman society and argues the case for pleasure being regarded as a potent historical force.