I've enjoyed biographies of Augustus and Hannibal on Audio CD. "Augustus" is by Anthony Everett, and sadly I can not find the Hannibal set at the moment. Both lived during at an incredible time of change in Roman history. The stories are interesting, each is better "written" than many a Hollywood drama.

Also, it is just fascinating to listen to accounts from pre-Christian times. The characters share many common human traits with us, but are also deeply different. It will make you question what it means to be human.

Interesting. I was thinking more of 'business' stuff, but there's always a correlation between business and topics such as rise and falls of empires. Thanks for that!

If you're talking business books try The Rebel Sell "How the counter culture became the consumer culture". and I book I love for it's story telling is Boo Hoo "$135 million. 18 months... a dot.com story from concept to catastrophe".