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In 49 B.C., the seven hundred fifth year since the founding of Rome, Julius Caesar crossed a small border river called the Rubicon and plunged Rome into cataclysmic civil war. Tom Holland' s enthralling account tells the story of Caesar' s generation, witness to the twilight of the Republic and its bloody transformation into an empire. From Cicero, Spartacus, and Brutus, to Cleopatra, Virgil, and Augustus, here are some of the most legendary figures in history brought thrillingly to life. Combining verve and freshness with scrupulous scholarship, "Rubicon "is not only an engrossing history of this pivotal era but a uniquely resonant portrait of a great civilization in all its extremes of self-sacrifice and rivalry, decadence and catastrophe, intrigue, war, and world-shaking ambition.… (mais)
YossarianXeno: Rubicon and Imperium are both exceptionally well-written and researched accounts, one non-fiction and the other fiction, of the politics of Rome covering much of the same period.
statmonkey: Rubicon gives the other side of the story, telling how the Republic that Mithradates fought came to be. The Poison King details how Romes biggest rival came to be a threat and what was really going on in Pontus before and after Sulla. The books complement each other very well.… (mais)
Thruston: Syme's dense Tacitean style is a world away from Holland's light narrative sweep, but he conveys the same sense of excitement and tension, albeit with the confines of a much more scholarly approach.
"Too much liberty leads both men and nations to slavery. More laws, less justice. Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude." - Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes About Liberty (link) link. I had always wondered why names such as Cicero are familiar to me, and that lead me to read.
Interesting book, about the decline and fall of the Roman Republic. The Roman Republic lasted a long time, no question about it. Eventually, it deteriorated into factionalism, civil war and later, reconstituted as the Roman Empire. In its 378 pages, the book surveys a rather lengthy period of time, and suffers somewhat from a lack of focus. That being said, I do recommend it to serious history buffs. ( )
The author makes the time of the fall of the Roman Republic feel very contemporary. It was both refreshing, confusing, and off-putting, all at once. ( )
A well written, informative narrative with more names and characters than you can keep track of, so kudos to Mr. Holland for compiling and detailing this massive history into one volume. It means, of course, that it will likely have to be re-read numerous times to fully grasp the entire scope of the material, which for a dullard like me probably means never. Still, four stars for Mr. Holland and a the longest, historically incestuous soap opera ever written. And kudos to the ancient Romans for having documented the Republic's rise and fall in such intimate detail. ( )
Delightful straightforward tale, Rome in the first Century B.C., roughly. The Gracchi brothers through Octavian. This is fundamental history for Europe but I sure didn't know any of it beyond the most basic dots, et tu Brute and Cleopatra's snake. Holland tells the tale very well... OK, between Clodius and Cato and Crassus, I get a bit lost. But I can hardly blame the author. Holland gives us a good sense of the values of the Romans and how those drove people's actions.
I can't compare this to other books on this place and period, because I haven't read any others. So, also, I can't offer any opinion on what was left out, etc. But for a first book to get a person a basic foundation & motivated to learn more, this book is great! ( )
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.
In 49 B.C., the seven hundred fifth year since the founding of Rome, Julius Caesar crossed a small border river called the Rubicon and plunged Rome into cataclysmic civil war. Tom Holland' s enthralling account tells the story of Caesar' s generation, witness to the twilight of the Republic and its bloody transformation into an empire. From Cicero, Spartacus, and Brutus, to Cleopatra, Virgil, and Augustus, here are some of the most legendary figures in history brought thrillingly to life. Combining verve and freshness with scrupulous scholarship, "Rubicon "is not only an engrossing history of this pivotal era but a uniquely resonant portrait of a great civilization in all its extremes of self-sacrifice and rivalry, decadence and catastrophe, intrigue, war, and world-shaking ambition.
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Rubicon by Tom Holland
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Interesting book, about the decline and fall of the Roman Republic. The Roman Republic lasted a long time, no question about it. Eventually, it deteriorated into factionalism, civil war and later, reconstituted as the Roman Empire. In its 378 pages, the book surveys a rather lengthy period of time, and suffers somewhat from a lack of focus. That being said, I do recommend it to serious history buffs. (