Before Augustus: The Collapse of the Roman Republic
by
Natale Barca
Is it just me or does anyone else get the irony of someone with the last name of Barca writing about the fall of the Roman Republic?
The book is 342 pages long. It has a full color section of artwork and a few maps in the center of the book. This is from the jacket:
"Before Augustus focuses on the political and military history of this tumultuous period, 60-27 BC."
This is a truly well written and deep book that focuses on the last few decades of the Roman Republic. It follows in detail the life of the Republic from 60 BC until the rise of Octavian (Augustus) to emperor in all but name. This is one of the best history books that I have read over the last year. This is coming from a reader who is most certainly not a fan of either Caesar or Octavian.
At the start of the book Caesar is much like all of the other sons of the aristocratic families of Rome. He needs to be famous and to somehow make or come into a very large sum of money. Money pretty much buys votes by this time in the Republic. Pompey and Crassus are older and have already made a name for themselves. Pompey is, at this time, the first man in Rome, due to his various military campaigns. Crassus has made himself one of the richest persons who have ever lived. While Caesar came from a famous family, it was nowhere near the pinnacle of power it had once been. He needed a war to both make a name and to fill his coffers. The three of them enter into an arrangement called the First Triumvirate. This was strictly a back-alley arrangement between the three. It had no basis in law as the Second Triumvirate had.
The author does an excellent job of showing us all the above and much more. He also shows us all of the other players in the political game called the Roman Republic (its slow decay into this bread and circuses type Republic is for another book). The writer does go into some of the details of how Rome got into the position she was in during the last century of the Republic. However, the main part of the book follows the time of Caesar's rise and fall.
This book is a great deep dive into the history of the players and events that it shows. The only thing that I wish is that it was a two-volume set with just one volume starting with the aftermath of Caesar's death. The machinations of both before, during, and after the Civil War are wonderfully laid bare. I see by the bibliography that the author has written other books in Italian. My hope is that we see more of his work in English. It appears that he has another book offered by Casemate Publishers: Rome's Sicilian Slave Wars. I will have to pick this up as soon as possible.
Thank you so very much Casemate Publishers for allowing me to review this excellent volume. It should be required reading for classes about the Roman Republic of the time. I look forward to a book about Marcus Antonius from the author.
Robert
Book: Before Augustus: The Collapse of the Roman Republic
Author: Natale Barca
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
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