Reviews

Rubicon truly is a popular history book, and it's important to rate it with that in mind. In the context of a popular history book, it is pretty great. The history of the republic, from its birth from squalid hill tribes in an unimportant peninsula through its domination of the entirety of the mediterranean and much of the known world is told at breakneck pace through the stories of its great men (and the occasional woman). There are certainly missing aspects. The patron-client model, for example, explains a substantial part of Roman politics throughout this period and would have well-served readers. But I appreciated Holland's attempts to explain Roman culture and tradition, including superstition, as explanations for how the Roman Republic functioned.

At the same time, for all the veneration Holland gives the Republic, he doesn't exactly give the reader much reason to wish it had succeeded or survived, or even the lessons we might use today. Likewise, Holland often glosses over the atrocities committed by Rome upon those it subjugated. The extent of slavery is discussed, but, excepting a short bit during the slave revolts, the reality of slave life in the Republic is completely skipped.

As a popular history, Rubicon is fantastic. It's almost more of a novelization than a history. In that regard, it deserves four, maybe even four-and-a-half stars. As an actual history, though, it's quite lacking and Holland's tone and frequent failures to provide context for the events makes it hard to recommend for someone wanting to actually learn of and from the last days of the Republic.

mrgale's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Lovely bit of narrative history, areas ive read about before but nicely paced through with some interesting little tidbits made it feel fresh. Going to work my way through his other Rome books - the Hollandology?