Rubicon

Where histories of the Roman Empire must cover a millennium and more, Rubicon restricts itself to the lifetime of the Republic only - a mere 541 years, from 590 BC, when the monarchy fell, to 49 BC, the fateful year when Caesar, standing by the river that defined the limits of Rome, took the momentous decision to lead his army across, and declared himself sole ruler. Not that Republican Rome was ever a democratic paradise, of course. Tom Holland shows how 'freedom and egalitarianism, to the Romans, were very different things... for a citizen, the essence of life was competition, wealth and votes the accepted measures of success'. Slavery was the norm, and with it the bloody spectacle of gladiatorial combat. Poor Spartacus found himself alone among his followers in imagining a better world, as 'no one objected to the hierarchy of free and un-free, merely his own position within it'. Holland brings to life the names of a thousand schoolbooks - Crassus, Pompey, Cicero, Caesar - and gives them both personality and relevance. Indeed, the similarities with modern Western democracy extend beyond political structure and personality cults to lifestyle, fashion and food fads. Yet 'parallels can be deceptive'. The social and sexual mores of the Romans were vastly different, and we have no slavery, nor gladiatorial arenas, to speak of. Moreover, what appears to be a well-documented period in history is, Holland reminds us, the exclusive preserve of the powerful and privileged, as if a history of the Second World War 'relied solely upon the broadcasts of Hitler and the memoirs of Churchill'. His achievement is to set the chronological history of the Republic and its dominant figures against a vivid background of Roman life, as experienced by everyone, from the bottom up, albeit in markedly different ways. His prose is insightful and sardonic, fluid and authoritative. This is recommended reading for anyone interested in the ancient world. (Kirkus UK)