Crossing the Rubicon

Crossing the Rubicon PDF Author: Luca Fezzi
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300249020
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
A dramatic account of the fateful year leading to the ultimate crisis of the Roman Republic and the rise of Caesar’s autocracy When the Senate ordered Julius Caesar, conqueror of Gaul, to disband his troops, he instead marched his soldiers across the Rubicon River, in violation of Roman law. The Senate turned to its proconsul, Pompey the Great, for help. But Pompey’s response was unexpected: he commanded magistrates and senators to abandon Rome—a city that, until then, had always been defended. The consequences were the ultimate crisis of the Roman Republic and the rise of Caesar’s autocracy. In this new history, Luca Fezzi argues that Pompey’s actions sealed the Republic’s fate. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, including Cicero’s extensive letters, Fezzi shows how Pompey’s decision shocked the Roman people, severely weakened the city, and set in motion a chain of events that allowed Caesar to take power. Seamlessly translated by Richard Dixon, this book casts fresh light on the dramatic events of this crucial moment in ancient Roman history.

Crossing the Rubicon

Crossing the Rubicon PDF Author: Luca Fezzi
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300249020
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
A dramatic account of the fateful year leading to the ultimate crisis of the Roman Republic and the rise of Caesar’s autocracy When the Senate ordered Julius Caesar, conqueror of Gaul, to disband his troops, he instead marched his soldiers across the Rubicon River, in violation of Roman law. The Senate turned to its proconsul, Pompey the Great, for help. But Pompey’s response was unexpected: he commanded magistrates and senators to abandon Rome—a city that, until then, had always been defended. The consequences were the ultimate crisis of the Roman Republic and the rise of Caesar’s autocracy. In this new history, Luca Fezzi argues that Pompey’s actions sealed the Republic’s fate. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, including Cicero’s extensive letters, Fezzi shows how Pompey’s decision shocked the Roman people, severely weakened the city, and set in motion a chain of events that allowed Caesar to take power. Seamlessly translated by Richard Dixon, this book casts fresh light on the dramatic events of this crucial moment in ancient Roman history.

The Byzantine Republic

The Byzantine Republic PDF Author: Anthony Kaldellis
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674967402
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Although Byzantium is known to history as the Eastern Roman Empire, scholars have long claimed that this Greek Christian theocracy bore little resemblance to Rome. Here, in a revolutionary model of Byzantine politics and society, Anthony Kaldellis reconnects Byzantium to its Roman roots, arguing that from the fifth to the twelfth centuries CE the Eastern Roman Empire was essentially a republic, with power exercised on behalf of the people and sometimes by them too. The Byzantine Republic recovers for the historical record a less autocratic, more populist Byzantium whose Greek-speaking citizens considered themselves as fully Roman as their Latin-speaking “ancestors.” Kaldellis shows that the idea of Byzantium as a rigid imperial theocracy is a misleading construct of Western historians since the Enlightenment. With court proclamations often draped in Christian rhetoric, the notion of divine kingship emerged as a way to disguise the inherent vulnerability of each regime. The legitimacy of the emperors was not predicated on an absolute right to the throne but on the popularity of individual emperors, whose grip on power was tenuous despite the stability of the imperial institution itself. Kaldellis examines the overlooked Byzantine concept of the polity, along with the complex relationship of emperors to the law and the ways they bolstered their popular acceptance and avoided challenges. The rebellions that periodically rocked the empire were not aberrations, he shows, but an essential part of the functioning of the republican monarchy.

Rubicon

Rubicon PDF Author: Tom Holland
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 030742751X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
A vivid historical account of the social world of Rome as it moved from republic to empire. In 49 B.C., the seven hundred fifth year since the founding of Rome, Julius Caesar crossed a small border river called the Rubicon and plunged Rome into cataclysmic civil war. Tom Holland’s enthralling account tells the story of Caesar’s generation, witness to the twilight of the Republic and its bloody transformation into an empire. From Cicero, Spartacus, and Brutus, to Cleopatra, Virgil, and Augustus, here are some of the most legendary figures in history brought thrillingly to life. Combining verve and freshness with scrupulous scholarship, Rubicon is not only an engrossing history of this pivotal era but a uniquely resonant portrait of a great civilization in all its extremes of self-sacrifice and rivalry, decadence and catastrophe, intrigue, war, and world-shaking ambition.

Dynasty

Dynasty PDF Author: Tom Holland
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 0748127895
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
'A masterly account of this first wicked century of the Roman Empire' Sunday Times 'Holland does not just tell the story of the reign of the Julio-Claudian family. He knits the history of ancient Rome into his narrative - its founding myths, the fall of the republic, the religious superstitions - with a skill so dextrous you don't notice the stitching. Dynasty is both a formidable effort to compile what we can know about the ancient world and a sensational story' Observer 'A witty and skilful storyteller... He recounts with pleasure his racy tales of psychopathic cruelty, incest, paedophilia, matricide, fratricide, assassination and depravity' William Dalrymple, New Statesman 'A wonderful, surging narrative... [for] anyone interested in history, politics or human nature - and it has never been better told' Mail on Sunday THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Caesar's Civil War

Caesar's Civil War PDF Author: Adrian Goldsworthy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472809882
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 125

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Book Description
Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great were two of the greatest generals Rome had ever produced. Together they had brought vast stretches of territory under Roman dominion. In 49 BC they turned against each other and plunged Rome into civil war. Legion was pitched against legion in a vicious battle for political domination of the vast Roman world. Based on original sources, Adrian Goldsworthy provides a gripping account of this desperate power struggle. The armies were evenly matched but in the end Caesar's genius as a commander and his great good luck brought him victory in 45 BC.

Caesar Against Rome

Caesar Against Rome PDF Author: Ramon Jimenez
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Military historians will discover details about every facet of Roman warfare from weaponry to personnel policy, tactics, operations, and logistics."--BOOK JACKET.

Caesar at the Rubicon

Caesar at the Rubicon PDF Author: Theodore H. White
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description


History of Julius Caesar Illustrated

History of Julius Caesar Illustrated PDF Author: Jacob Abbott
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This is a story about a historical figure written by Abbott. The author describes in detail the youth of Caesar nd his role in the Sylla and Marius conflict. Readers learn a lot of interesting facts. One of which is revealed at the end of the book, namely the murder of Caesar on the day when he was going to be crowned King of the Roman Empire.

Caesar in Gaul and Rome

Caesar in Gaul and Rome PDF Author: Andrew M. Riggsby
Publisher: Univ of TX + ORM
ISBN: 0292795793
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
A fresh interpretation of Caesar’s The Gallic War that focuses on Caesar’s construction of national identity and his self-presentation. Anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with Latin knows “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres” (“All Gaul is divided into three parts”), the opening line of De Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar’s famous commentary on his campaigns against the Gauls in the 50s BC. But what did Caesar intend to accomplish by writing and publishing his commentaries, how did he go about it, and what potentially unforeseen consequences did his writing have? These are the questions that Andrew Riggsby pursues in this fresh interpretation of one of the masterworks of Latin prose. Riggsby uses contemporary literary methods to examine the historical impact that the commentaries had on the Roman reading public. In the first part of his study, Riggsby considers how Caesar defined Roman identity and its relationship to non-Roman others. He shows how Caesar opens up a possible vision of the political future in which the distinction between Roman and non-Roman becomes less important because of their joint submission to a Caesar-like leader. In the second part, Riggsby analyzes Caesar’s political self-fashioning and the potential effects of his writing and publishing The Gallic War. He reveals how Caesar presents himself as a subtly new kind of Roman general who deserves credit not only for his own virtues, but for those of his soldiers as well. Riggsby uses case studies of key topics (spatial representation, ethnography, virtus and technology, genre, and the just war), augmented by more synthetic discussions that bring in evidence from other Roman and Greek texts, to offer a broad picture of the themes of national identity and Caesar’s self-presentation. Winner of the 2006 AAP/PSP Award for Excellence, Classics and Ancient History

Rubicon

Rubicon PDF Author: Tom Holland
Publisher: Abacus
ISBN: 9780349138954
Category : Rome
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
The Roman Republic was the most remarkable state in history. What began as a small community of peasants camped among marshes and hills ended up ruling the known world. Rubicon paints a vivid portrait of the Republic at the climax of its greatness - the same greatness which would herald the catastrophe of its fall. It is a story of incomparable drama. 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, whose defence of freedom would make him a byword for eloquence; of Spartacus, the slave who dared to challenge a superpower; of Cleopatra, the queen who did the same. Tom Holland brings to life this strange and unsettling civilization, with its extremes of ambition and self-sacrifice, bloodshed and desire. Yet alien as it was, the Republic still holds up a mirror to us. Its citizens were obsessed by celebrity chefs, all-night dancing and exotic pets; they fought elections in law courts and were addicted to spin; they toppled foreign tyrants in the name of self-defence. Two thousand years may have passed, but we remain the Romans' heirs.