Book excerpt: The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see, said Sir Winston Churchill. This fabulous book looks back across two thousand years. We imagine the Roman Empire as being a world very distant from ours, so distant that we may think we have nothing to learn from them. That however would be a mistake, as Sir Winston Churchill knew. The causes of the triumphs and disasters of our time are much the same as those of the Roman Empire. The Romans were people just like us and the wisest of their great men and women were as wise as the best of ours. Unfortunately, the most foolish of theirs were just as foolish as the worst of ours. Pugnare is the first historical account of the Roman Empire written from a practical business perspective. It is also about people, because business is about people. We can learn a lot from their behaviour, from their successes and failures.