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From Publishers Weekly
After a palace coup demolished the reign of King Tarquin of Rome in 509 B.C., a republican government flourished, providing every person an opportunity to participate in political life in the name of liberty. As Holland, a novelist and adapter of Herodotus' Histories for British radio, points out in this lively re-creation of the republic's rise and fall, the seeds of destruction were planted in the very soil in which the early republic flourished. It was more often members of the patrician classes who had the resources to achieve political success. Such implicit class distinctions in an ostensibly classless society also gave rise to a new group of rulers who acted like monarchs. Holland chronicles the rise to power of such leaders as Sulla Felix, Pompey, Cicero and Julius Caesar. Some of these leaders, such as Pompey, appealed to the masses by expanding the republic through military conquest; others, like Cicero, worked to reinforce class distinctions. Holland points to the suppression of the Gracchian revolution-a series of reforms in favor of the poor pushed by the Gracchus brothers in the second century B.C.-as the beginning of the end of the republic, providing the context into which Julius Caesar would step with his own attempts to save the republic. As Holland points out, Caesar actually precipitated civil wars and helped to reestablish an imperial form of government in Rome. With the skill of a good novelist, Holland weaves a rip-roaring tale of political and historical intrigue as he chronicles the lively personalities and problems that led to the end of the Roman republic. Maps.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Ancient history lives in this vivid chronicle of the tumultuous events that impelled Julius Caesar across the one small river that separated the Roman Republic from cataclysmic civil war. With the narrative talents that have established him as a prominent radio personality and novelist, Holland pulls readers deep into the treacherous riptide of Roman politics. To show how Caesar eventually masters that tide--if only temporarily--Holland first traces the bloody career of the ruthless dictator Sulla, who rescues an imperiled Republic even as he breaches its founding traditions. Those breaches deeply disturb the moralist Cato, but the indulgent luxury of a post-Sullan world suits Caesar well enough: a popular favorite, he sets the fashion in loose-fitting togas--and waits for his fated opening. Recounting Caesar's eventual seizure of power in pages as irresistibly cadenced as the legionnaires' march, Holland probes the tragic ironies that quickly expose the bold conqueror to idealistic assassins, who themselves soon perish in the rise of the Augustan Empire. Not a work for scrupulous scholars, but a richly resonant history for the general reader. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating,
This review is from: Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic (Paperback)
After having read Millenium, I wanted more and Rubicon satisfied my craving. Well written and entertaining, it reads like a novel, though I got sometimes confused with some of the characters, Claudius, Metelus, Crassus and all the other "...us". I'll have to read it again.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top Marks,
By
This review is from: Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic (Paperback)
Once you start reading Rubicon, it is very hard to put down. Tom Holland has done a great job. Do yourself a favour and read this book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic of mod. history on the last years of the Republic,
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This review is from: Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic (Paperback)
Easily the best prose I have read on the Roman Republic, etc. since Graves' "I, Claudius". I would venture to say perhaps even better.An amazing read. Easily one of the top 20 or 30 books I have ever had the pleasure of reading, Holland's prose is simply outstanding. And that is something that is very difficult to accomplish with such doughty subject material. His portrayal of each major player during the last years of the Republic really gave me a true sense of what kind of men they really were. Men like Pompey, Cato, Clodius, Julius Caesar really jumped off the page and I really could imagine them debating and arguing in the Senate, each with their own imitable style. They weren't one-dimensional names that appeared on a page, there was a great amount of depth to each. Pompey's arrogance and conceit, Cato's unbending rigidity and austere nature, Clodius' viciousness, and Caesar's pure genius all come to life ! If you have any appreciation for history, get this book.
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