Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic |  | Author: Tom Holland
Category: Book
Buy New: $24.00
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Rating:  83 reviews
Sales Rank: 1138565
Media: Library Binding
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 408
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 1435292316
Dewey Decimal Number: 937
EAN: 9781435292314
ASIN: 1435292316
Publication Date: May 29, 2008
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Product Description
bA masterful, witty, brilliantly researched popular history of perhaps the greatest civilization ever and the events and people that led to its transformation from a republic to an empire.br/bbrOn a dark January morning, Julius Caesar, the governor of Gaul, rode with his closest aides towards a river named the Rubicon, which marked the line of the frontier with Italy. A governor was forbidden to lead troops out of his allotted province #8211; to break this severest of laws was tantamount to a declaration of civil war. Caesar was a gambler, however. Like the consummate actor on the public stage he had always been, he quoted a line from one of Menander's plays: "It's time to roll the die." Then he ordered the legion behind him to advance, over the river and on towards Rome. Crossing the Rubicon was a step so consequential that it has come to stand for every fateful step in history since. When Caesar rolled his die, the result was indeed a civil war, one that would end up destroying Rome's traditional freedoms and establishing a permanent dictatorship on the wreckage of her constitution.brbrIn iRubicon/i, Cambridge- and Oxford-educated historian and novelist Tom Holland gives us a harrowing and exciting account of the fall of the Republic, one that begins in 100 BC, the approximate birthdate of the generation that was to bring about the Republic's ruin. He then traces the development of these men into the ruling minds of the Republic, and the occurrence at the Rubicon that marked the end of the expansionism for which they had fought. iRubicon/i captures the suspense and drama of Rome's most famous political rivalries and shows its vibrant and charged atmosphere, all the while featuring some of the most celebrated personalities in history#8211;Julius Caesar, Cicero, Spartacus, Cleopatra, Brutus, Pompey, Virgil, and Augustus. As America embarks on its own imperial adventures, iRubicon/i is the chronicle of Rome for which we have all been waiting#8211;carefully researched and wildly compelling.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 78 more reviews...
 The REAL story.... August 5, 2008
Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Rubicon, by Tom Holland, gives you the real story, the real history, about how the Republic of Rome fell. The book starts well before the crossing of the Rubicon and ends with the starting of what will be, in the end, the Roman Empire. Like most historical events, nothing happened in a day and many readers will enjoy the chain of events that brought about the major event that we have placed under the sentence - The Fall of the Roman Republic. It is complex, confusing and, in some cases, the details are unknown. When DID Caesar cross the Rubicon? Where IS the Rubicon? What were many of the people thinking, what were their goals, what did they want? We meet Brutus and Cleopatra, Spartacus and Virgil, Cicero and Augustus. Mr. Holland really helped me to understand the history. Those who enjoyed HBO's Rome and the many novels of the Masters of Rome series should pick this book up.
 Perils of Republic June 30, 2008
Ron Braithwaite (El Indio, Texas United States)
Holland does a beautiful job of putting us in the middle of a society long gone. His presentation is lively, readable and, at the same time, let's us feel the humanity and alieness of a civilization like no other. We feel the desperate inevitability of the downward cascade of history. Rome was in the process of growing bloated with territory and wealth. At the same time, the political structure was such that there were inadequate checks and balances to prevent an individual--such as Julius Caesar--from grabbing excessive power. br / br /Despite Caesar's assassination, the Republican egg had already been cracked. At this point the Republic--even if her supporters had succeeded in regaining power--was probably finished. It is altogether possible that the Republican government of Rome simply didn't have the mechanisms to successfully manage a world empire. As it turned out, Imperial Government had even more weaknesses and the downward spiral--at first very slow--that would ultimately doom the Empire started the moment Caesar's army crossed the Rubicon creek. br / br /This is a cautionary tale and, although some of the forces that doomed the Republic, are quite different from those that exist today, other forces are similar. The "mob" is always vulnerable to charismatic leaders who promise "bread and games." We are probably very, very close. br / br /Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Conquest of Mexico
Hail Rubicon! June 17, 2008
Bijan Khoshnood (Washington, DC)
While I am somewhat familiar with this era of Roman history, I am by no means an expert. For anyone interested in the late Republican era of Roman history, but who has very little knowledge of it, Rubicon is the perfect introduction. br / br /Written in a fluid, highly detailed narrative, Rubicon reads like a novel. The great exploits of well-known figures such as Julius Caesar, Pompey, Cicero, Cato, Mark Antony and Cleopatra are covered along with other, less-well known, but highly important, personalities such as Sulla and Gaius Marius. br / br /While primarily focused on politics, Rubicon also touches upon social and cultural history of the era, which adds much more depth and brings the personalities to life by showing them in their historical context. At the same time, Mr. Holland does a great job helping the reader relate much of all this to our own era. In the person of the Greek philosopher Posidonius, who sees the expansion of Rome - even into his native Greek lands - as a positive thing, one is reminded of many neo-conservative thinkers who see the expansion of American power and dominion as a positive thing for all who it encounters. The diehard Republican Cato, who is a fanatically anti-Caesar stalwart, reminds one of Ron Paul and his libertarian, anti-interventionist views. br / br /Besides the personalities, there is the Publicani, who are among the first to go into a conquered area and establish business ventures, much like modern-day contractors and multi-nationals with strong ties to the government. Rome even had it's own sin city for the upwardly mobile in the form of Baiae, which was like a cross between Las Vegas and St. Tropez, France. br / br /Unlike Holland's other book "Persian Fire," which is pretty much drawn from a single source, i.e. Herodotus, Rubicon is drawn from a wide range of sources. While it is great to read the original writings of ancient authors such as Julius Caesar, Plutarch, Livy, Suetonius, Tacitus and the like, one would have to read a great number of texts in order to get a full account the personalities, culture and politics of this most complex era of Roman history. Rubicon synchronizes all of these into one highly readable account.
I Claudius - the Prequel May 21, 2008
Sutton (London, England)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Before I read this book my knowledge of Roman history was mostly confined to the twelve Caesars, thanks to Suetonius and Robert Graves. The Republic seemed very complicated and I didn't understand why the Romans felt such a sense of loss at its passing. After reading it, I now understand. For this I give it five stars and also for the fact that the book is very well-written and the author has a great narrative gift. br /As I'm not a scholar of Roman history I can't vouch for its accuracy, but I can't imagine there is a better introduction to the end of the Roman Republic. br / br / br / br /
A Panegyric for the Roman Republic April 22, 2008
nafrica (Oakland, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The virtue of this account of the waning days of the Roman Republic is that Holland gives you a real sense of the loss that pro-republican senators felt with the rude assertions of Sulla, Caesar, then finally, and exhaustively, Octavian. Holland also does a great job of bringing to life the cultural logic that drove events to where they led. Republican Rome was a strange and captivating land where age-old 'traditions' had an unusual influence and power, so that rising stars had to constantly moderate their ambitions by 'playing by the rules' or at least look like they were giving due deference. Julius Caesar's error was pushing things too far, too fast. But this isn't to say that the republic had any chance of surviving. The unprecedented amount of plunder from conquering Asia Minor, Syria and Gaul so concentrated wealth and power in a few individuals that the old system of checks and balances could not but give way to ambition. If not Caesar, then some other general would have done it. br / br /And while the book focuses most of its time on the lead-up to Caesar, you do get a good sense of how Octavian was able to finally consolidate power permanently, and why after decades of devastating civil war, he was declared the 'savior of the world', the bringer of 'peace on earth' and the 'son of god' (which, incidentally, explains why the Romans cracked down so viciously on Christians who ascribed to another king those titles). br / br /I also found the Roman idea of 'liberty' (juxtaposed to Caesar's tyranny) to be fascinating, where freedom was narrowly defined as the priviledge reserved for the aristocratic and moneyed classes to pursue martial and political glory without any one person becoming too dominant. It should be noted that Roman liberty did not include plebians, subjugated foreigners, slaves, and women. br / br /For the most part, I found Holland's prose to be lucid and fast-paced. The book doesn't read like a dry history tome, but more like a novel. On the other hand, sometimes, especially when he was introducing new characters, I didn't quite know where he was going. Also, Holland's account is thematic, not chronological, so I occasionally got a bit lost with the timeline. Other than these complaints, I thought Holland's "Rubicon" was a very exciting read, not only focusing on key players like Pompey, Mark Anthony, Cato, but bringing to life minor characters like Brutus, Clodia, Clodius, Marius, Catulus, Mithridates. Overall, a great read!
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