About this title: A masterful popular history of perhaps the greatest civilization ever and theevents and people that caused its downfall--highly readable, suspense-filled, and well-researched.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Fair. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 2004-02-17
ISBN-13:9780385503136ISBN:038550313X
Description: Good. Tight, bright and shiny, shelf and edge wear, corners bumped, page corners creased, some underlining and marking, stray pen mark on page edges. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Anchor
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400078974ISBN:1400078970
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First edition. Stated first edition [March 2003]
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780385503136ISBN:038550313X
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Pencil'd notation of FEP, otherwise immaculate, with mylar cover over perfect dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 432 p. Contains: Illustrations. By the author of PERSIAN FIRE. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: RB Large Print
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9781419304958ISBN:141930495X
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First edition. Illustrated.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780385503136ISBN:038550313X
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. FIRST EDITION (March 2003) stated, One in number line. Small creases in lower spine edge. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 432 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very good; Collectible. 1st Edition (HC 2003). 1st printing w/ full 10 numberline. Ex. Library copy. No marks/underlines/highlights. Pages are clean and tight. minor shelfwear. Free deliver confirmation. Satisfaction guaranteed! read more
"This was an interesting character based narrative about the last 180 odd years of the Republic. It does not spend any time on the military side except to note the scope of the battles, the victors and the consequences.
It's focus was primarily on the political, economic, personality and cultural forces that interacted to give birth to the empire.
Twas quite easy to read and was in many ways a bit of a page turner, and as such was leaving a tremendous amount of material out. A good way to dip your toe into the period and of course, it reveals almost as much about our current world perspective as it does about Rome."
"Interesting history but somewhat overly dramatic and revisionistic, in my opinion. Reads at times more like a Harold Robbins novel. It makes me sad when people write books that do nothing but disparage every single thing of which they are writing about. It became tedious toward the end. For a better picture of the "scandalous" goings on in Rome at around that time, I would suggest Suetonious instead. Further, while I am no great Cicero fan I hardly think the portrayal of him in this book as being a nebbish, vacillating sissy-pants is unfair and likely not altogether true. It seemed to me as if the author had an extremely low opinion of Cicero, which is fine, but I feel that perhaps this book wasn't necessarily the appropriate medium to express that opinion so assiduously. I wanted to like and enjoy this book much more than I did."
"I was a bit disappointed, I thought this would be a story, like historical fiction. I should have looked closer at the book. It is kind of dry like a long string of dates, names you can't pronounce and lots of repetition of certain points."
"Holland's book is one of the best on the topic. It is both very well researched (and his use of quotes from classical sources is exceptionally helpful) and very readable to a general audience. What makes his book unique is that it is not a biography of individuals but the story of the republican system, its people, and its descent into collapse. As he says in his introduction, it is a story about citizens in Rome and what they lost politically in the last century BC/BCE.
Much of Holland's narrative will be familiar to students of Roman history. You'll still find the Brothers Gracchi, Sulla and Marius, and the triumvirates. But, his narrative also brings much that is new or unfamiliar, particularly connections to culture, economy, and society at the time these political events were playing out. While their republic was fraying, these Romans still tried to live and enjoy life, even when those enjoyments provided distractions that worsened the plight of the republic. Holland also offers plausible alternative interpretations of the famous figures and their motivations. For example, shortly after defeating Antony, Octavian was granted the legal inviolability of a tribune of the plebs (a republican office). Normally this is interpreted as Octavian's first step in constructing the political basis on his principate regime. Holland points out, though, that legal inviolability meant nothing during the tumult of the civil wars, as inviolability didn't prevent the murder of Caesar or others. Instead of being a power grab by Octavian, Holland sees tribunician inviolability as a gesture by the Roman people themselves. Since inviolability would only mean something within the republic system, citizens were conveying their hope to Octavian that he would restore and honor the republic. By accepting inviolability, Octavian signalled that his rule would at least maintain a semblance of the republican system.
Of course, a semblance of the republic is all that remained under the principate, a semblance that faded under Augustus's successors. Ultimately, Holland's narrative is a somber one, a tale of loss of political liberty that would not be seen anywhere again in the world for the next 1,000 years. Though Holland pointedly avoids making explicit comparisons between ancient Rome and the U.S. today, he suggests (and I think quite rightly) that what happened to the Roman republic should be of interest to Americans today. The pressures that tore at Rome's republic--competition between the ruling classes, extreme factionalism, the criminalization of political differences, erosion of the political liberty and economic independence of citizens--are possibly timeless issues for any republic to consider."
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