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Rubicon
The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic
- Author: Tom Holland
- Category: Non-fiction
- Publisher: Little, Brown(UK)/Doubleday(US)
- Pub date: 21 August 2003
- Length: 406 pages
About Rubicon
Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2003
Best selling UK history paperback of 2004
‘A terrific read and remarkable piece of scholarship. As an introduction to Roman history, it is unlikely to be bettered’
— DAILY MAIL
‘Fresh and vivid… there is no better and clearer guide to the tangled political events of 100–44 BDC… if a new readership is to be won for ancient history, it is books like this that will pave the way’
— Robert Harris, SUNDAY TIMES
‘The story of Rome’s experiment with republicanism – peopled by such giants as Caesar, Pompey, Cato and Cicero – is told with perfect freshness, fine wit and true scholarship’
— Andrew Roberts
‘Holland has the rare gift of making deep scholarship accessible and exciting. A brilliant and completely absorbing study’
— A. N. Wilson, author of THE VICTORIANS
As Rome conquered the world, so her citizens competed to become the masters of Rome. It is a story of incomparable drama, lit by the glamour of a deadly and brilliant age.
This was the century of Julius Caesar, the gambler whose addiction to glory led him to the banks of the Rubicon and beyond; of Cicero, the vain and nervous parvenu whose defence of freedom would nevertheless make him a byword for eloquence; of Spartacus, the slave who dared to challenge a superpower; and of Cleopatra, the queen who did the same.
And most extraordinary of all is the story of the Republic itself. Its citizens were obsessed by celebrity chefs, all-night dancing and exotic pets. They fought elections in law courts and were addicted to spin. And they toppled foreign tyrants in the name of self-defence. Two thousand years have passed, but we remain the Roman’s heirs.
About the Author
Tom Holland was born near Oxford and brought up in Salisbury, England. He obtained a double first in English and Latin at Queens’ College, Cambridge. He is the author of RUBICON: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic (Little, Brown, 2003) and PERSIAN FIRE: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West (Little, Brown, 2005), and MILLENNIUM: The Eleventh Century and the Making of the West (Little, Brown, 2008). He has adapted Herodotus, Homer, Thucydides and Virgil for BBC Radio, and lives in London with his wife and two small children.