Caesar and Christ (1944)

Rome remained great as long as she had enemies who forced her to unity, vision, and heroism. When she had overcome them all she flourished for a moment and then began to die.

Two maps that may be helpful:

http://www.ancient.eu.com/uploads/images/266.png
http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/italy_326_bc.htm

In this third volume, Durant takes on the subject of Rome. In typical fashion, the book starts with the Etruscans and ends with Constantine. Durant spices things up by adding an excursion into Christianity. Unlike the two previous volumes, errors are not as noticeable and politics are more in the forefront. Many rulers are not covered, but more are mentioned than one would expect. This gives the book a more finished feel without being too overwhelming. It is a much improvement over the first two volumes and I felt Durant finally hit his stride.

Durant really captures the story element more with this book. The section on Caesar reads like thriller rather than a never ending movie. The details of Caesar's various campaigns are missing which leaves room for all the scams and scandals. These people lived a lot of life and are very colorful; not to mention, they all had serious personality issues. This is something Durant captures very well.

As with the previous two books, Durant includes mini-biographies. He gives a synopsis of their important works and paints a picture of who these people were. Ovid is an obvious “character” but who were Polybius, Tacitus, Plutarch, Suetonius, Livy, Virgil, Sallust, Lucian, Sextus Empiricus, etc? More importantly what are their strengths and weakness as writers, and how do they fit into the historical scene? I really liked these sections and were the highlight of the book.

At times I was perplexed what Durant chose to stress or ignore. Considering his humanism and sympathy for the poor, I was surprised by his lack of interest in the Gracchi Reforms. This topic is usually given a lot of ink but Durant glossed over it. Strange! Then there is the odd section called “The Youth of Christianity”. Sometimes this section is too focused and gave too much detail on Christianity. For example, this section begins with the question did Jesus really exist. This was probably a hot topic when the book is written (it still is) but it seemed out of place. Then there is the section where Durant is comparing the four gospels and questioning which one was most likely written first. For a book of this scope, I didn't think those ideas were relevant; however, it may be beneficial for those who are unfamiliar with Christianity.

Job Well Done!





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A comprehensive history of the Roman civilization from the beginning to the end, about all 600 years or so. This book is detailed to the extreme, in encompasses all the territories of Rome, causes and effects, each Caesar is dealt with individually. The author tells the history of Jesus of Nazareth from a human standpoint, dealing only with his existence in time and his effect on the world; leaving out any of the spiritual meanings of his life. It took me three months to read this book, and though at times it was a bit of a slog, still, it was very readable, even funny, at times. I am glad to have read it, for now I am able to make so many more connections in my mind and the timeline is much clearer for me. I will never read this again, yet, I will keep it for a reference. Oh, there are some nice little maps and photographs of artifacts in it as well. ( )

Review on my blog. ( )

Durant examines the origins of Rome, its greatness, its faults. He looks as all aspects of Roman culture, philosophy, art, literature, architecture, law, religion, etc. Correspondingly, he explores the origins of Christianity as a movement and how it and Rome became intertwined. ( )