Caesar: A Novel (Masters of Rome Series)

Fifth book of McCullough’s Masters of Rome series which covers the end of the republic from Marius to Antony, 110 BC to the Battle of Actium in 31 and Octavian’s assumption of the title Augustus in 27.

First class research, first class recreation of an alien culture.

Bleaker than the fourth volume which told of Caesar’s rise to power. The conquest of Gaul more realistically cruel than Caesar’s own breezy PR despatches in the Commentarii de Bello Gallico. The task abroad complete and opposed by political enemies at home, Caesar chooses the path Marius and Sulla took before him, and marches on Rome.