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Loading... Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic (2003)by Tom Holland (Author)
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A thoroughly absorbing account of the fall of the Roman Republic. A counterpoint to Tom Williams' Augustus. If all historians wrote history like this, they'd be backordered at Amazon. ( )In a book titled "Rubicon", I would expect actually more than two chapters about the Roman civil war. While I hugely enjoyed Holland's condense sketch of Greek and Persian history in Persian Fire, I found his attempt in presenting the story of the Roman Republic less stellar. His focus is on Sulla and Cato whom he presents as staunch conservative heroes in contrast to Cicero the weather vane and Pompey the vain. His Caesar is quite dull too. What I lament most, however, is the absence of the stories of the early heroes of the Roman Republic such as Publius Decius Mus whose crazy willingness to sacrifice himself was part of why the other peoples could not resist the Roman impetus. Like the French levée en masse, the Roman Republic was willing to fling countless bodies at its enemies. The Romans were willing to absorb the casualties their enemies could or would not (see Pyrrhic victory). Endurance and frugality (the Roman soldiers ate mostly vegetarian food) in the name of the Republic made the difference (intrinsic instead of extrinsic motivation). The professionalization by Marius and then Sulla prepared the creation of the Roman empire where a commander and no longer the people decided the issue. Insofar, the Republic was already on life support when Caesar entered the stage. The title makes this book sound more extreme than it is: it is lucidly written account of tensions and power struggles in the Roman republic with the focus on the period from around 140 BCE to around 25 BCE. Took me a long time to finish - mainly because it was just a succession of rich and powerful men plotting how to get more wealth and power - round and round. I couldn't see how people could be so shocked when the "Republican Ideal" was violated by one gangster or another as the whole Republic seemed to be based on power-grabs anyway! I crossed the Rubicon with this book, hoping it would be a glorious history of Rome and its last days as a Republic, before the Empire began. It is a decent retelling of basic history but really nothing too stalwart. Given the cast of characters and the swirling battles from the days of Tarquin to Caesar, there should be an elevation of prose and heightened enlightenment, but it reads as a thesis from a college student. The book is meant to be popular history for those who don't know Romulus and his tribe, but it just never quite gets there. Short shrift is given to Gaius Marius and even Sulla, who were the two men who dominated Rome before the Empire. So, not bad, just not great, given the subject matter. But, if you know nothing of Roman history, it will serve a basic purpose. Book Season = Winter
As with most academics reviewing a "popular" book, I approached Rubicon with a certain amount of trepidation. The rather hammy sub-title seemed to suggest the worst. However what is inside the covers is a different matter altogether. This is a well-researched, well-written overview of the Roman republic. It should serve as a model of exactly how a popular history of the classical world should be written.
References to this work on external resources.
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