In this remarkable book Michel Serres doesn't just retell the stories that lie at the foundation of Rome, but takes us back to the very idea of foundation as such. With Livy as his guide, Serres brilliantly traces the way the myth, legend, history, reality and representation of Rome open on to one another. The city itself is described as a multiplicity, as Serres explores the emergence of form in history, time, space, discourse, order, and life.

David Webb, Professor of Philosophy, Staffordshire University, UK

This long-overdue and meticulous translation of Serres' magisterial work on Rome is essential reading for anyone working in the humanities today. Far more than a book on a city, this is a book about inscription, origins, history, emergence, myth, violence and the multiple flows of time that compose the present. Rome is at once lucid and enigmatic, and - precisely because it is concerned with an irretrievable past - a book for the future.

Claire Colebrook, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, College of the Liberal Arts, Pennsylvania State University, USA