Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7190 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-10
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Observer
'A modern, well-paced and finely observed history which entertains as it informs'

Peter Jones, BBC History Magazine
'Explosive stuff ... a seriously intelligent history ... [written] with élan and gusto ... It is a history for our times ... Wickedly enjoyable'

Frederic Raphael, Sunday Times
'RUBICON is unrivalled in revealing the humbug behind the cant and stripping Julius Caesar and company of their moral finery'

Customer Reviews

The age of heroes
I read this hoping for a bit more political analysis, despite the sales pitch that it is an unashamed return to narrative history. I really wanted to know, a bit simplistically, why did Rome rise and then fall? What you get is better: the sheer awe-inspiring drama of the heroic characters of the republic. Pompey, Caesar and Octavian the high achievers; Cicero the trimmer and the orator, and finally brave in death; the uncompromising Cato, unkillable soul of the republican ideal. In the end the bitter personal rivalries became so caught up in the enticing rewards of empire that they could not be contained. Ambition found its outlet in violence and legitimacy perished. Forget the management and leadership gurus, or even the diaries of Alastair Campbell. Better lessons about leadership and political rivalry are in these pages. You will also learn much about how the Romans thought and how all this amazing stuff looked and felt to them. Surely volume two and the empire will follow?

Magnificent
Buy this book if you want to learn how all those great Romans you have have seen in films and TV series and heard about at school lived, died and influenced their world. Buy it if you want to be royally entertained. But buy it also if you want to understand the world of ancient Rome and the mind set of the people that made it supreme and enabled them to dominate the known world for centuries. This is a great book , but then it does tell a great story that will sometimes, literally, make your jaw drop. 2000 years is a long time, but reading this, somehow, it seems like yesterday.

Trust me, you won't be able to turn the pages quickly enough, and you'll find yourself thinking about Sulla, Cicero, Pompey, Crassus, Ceaser, the gladiators, the slaves and the unbelieveably savage bloody battles that the legions fought across thousands of miles of Europe and Asia. Holland brings it all alive and you'll love it.

Enjoyable ramble through Roman History up to Augustus' principate
Narrative History usually gives a one dimensional view of events and eschews argument or controversy in the interests of clarity and readability. This volume following the history of the Roman Republic from the Gracci brothers to the elevation of Octavian (Augustus) as the first emperor is no exception. As an example of popular history it is superb, it achieves what it sets out to do ,which is to give a clear and above all extremely entertaining account of that period. It also achieves a nice balance of detail and narrative clarity. It covers quite an expanse of time and returns frequently to an exposition of the values and ideals of the Republic' putting the sucession of momentus events into that context.Highly recommended as an introduction to the period. For a more traditionally scholarly but possibly less detailed account of the period see Scullard's "From the Gracchi to Nero".