Rubicon

[Lei-Lei Jayenne]

I was only aware of Tom Holland as an author from his Supping with Panthers book, which I quite liked when I read it a few years back. However, this writer has now proved himself to be a fine writer of history, Rubicon deals with the last days of the Roman Empire, something i've studied fairly extensively using the books that have survived from historians of the time. But Holland has provided an easy to understand introduction to the subject, that deals with the actual charcters and personalities involved, rather than bombarding us with numerous dates, places and events, which tend to become rather muddled and hard to remember. Through Holland's writing we get glimpses of what people like Sulla, Pompey, Cicero and Julius Caesar were actually like, their personality quirks, and their temperaments, and some salacious gossip. It's a funny page-turner of a book, whilst still being historically accurate,which isn't a description I could apply to a lot of Ancient History books I've read or studied. Anybody else read this?