Michel Serres first book in his 'foundations trilogy' is all about beginnings. The beginning of Rome but also about the beginning of society, knowledge and culture. Rome is an examination of the very foundations upon which contemporary society has been built. With characteristic breadth and lyricism, Serres leads the reader on a journey from a meditation the roots of scientific knowledge to set theory and aesthetics. He explores the themes of violence, murder, sacrifice and hospitality in order to urge us to avoid the repetitive violence of founding. Rome also provides an alternative and creative reading of Livy's Ab urbe condita which sheds light on the problems of history, repetition and imitation. First published in English in 1991, re-translated and introduced in this new edition, Michel Serres' Rome is a contemporary classic which shows us how we came to live the way we do. 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.