The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 letter word ROMANS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
R
O
M
A
N
S
More clues leading to the result ROMANS
- Managed shop primarily, accepting order for book
- ‘Vroom’, ‘mwah’, ‘nosh’ oddly missing in book of Bible
- Book by Royal Society featuring old fellow
- Acts in front of these empire builders
- Book wherefrom answers framed
- Book gypsy with Poles
- Receivers of letters? From answers they can be found in
- Book about male horses
- Horses attract the eye of bookmaker, making new book
- Empire builders taking some from answer
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Empire builders" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case empire builders = romans.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.