Just finished re-reading The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon. Can you recommend any similar works about other empires throughout history that got you excited about a country or region?

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TheGreenReaper7

Not one that got me excited by the place or period per se, but certainly an excellent narrative of Welsh history (up to the Edwardian Conquest) is available for free online:

Sir J.E. Lloyd, The History of Wales: From the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, 2 vol., 1911.

Lloyd's remains one of the seminal works of Welsh historiography. It is outdated in places and deficient in others (particularly the reign of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (d.1282) but is written in evocative, if antiquated, prose.

Volume 1:

  1. The Prehistoric Epochs
  2. The Historic Dawn
  3. Wales under Roman Rule
  4. The Fifth Century
  5. The Age of the Saints
  6. Struggle of the Cymry and the English
  7. The Age of Isolation
  8. The Tribal Divisions of Wales
  9. Early Welsh Institutions
  10. The Age of the Sea-Rovers

Volume 2:

  1. The Norman Conquest - First Stage
  2. The Norman Conquest - Second Stage
  3. National Revival
  4. Owain Gwynedd
  5. Rhys ap Gruffudd
  6. The Close of the Twelfth Century
  7. Llywelyn the Great - Early Manhood
  8. Llywelyn the Great - Maturity
  9. Between Two Tides
  10. Llywelyn ap Gruffudd