The First Emperor: Caesar Augustus and the Triumph of Rome - Anthony Everitt

Advantages: Excellent characterisations; good plot
Disadvantages: None, really.

...to the Senate on the Ides (15th) of March, where the conspirators stab him to death. Brutus tries to appease the common people by explaining that the murder was essential to save Rome from tyranny. But then Caesar’s lieutenant, Mark Antony, gives a speech in which he tells the people that Caesar loved them and left them property in his will. The people riot. Brutus and Cassius flee, and proceed to raise an army. Mark Antony joins forces with Caesar’s nephew, Octavius, to oppose them. A battle takes place in which Brutus and Cassius are defeated, and commit suicide rather than be captured. Mark Antony and Octavius triumph, and the play ends with them giving Brutus a noble burial. JULIUS WHO? One of the interesting things about this play is that, despite its title, it is not about Julius Caesar at all. In fact, Caesar is killed... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Enthralling
Disadvantages: slightly inaccurate

..."The Gates of Rome" is the first book in the "Emperor" series. The series concentrates on one man. His name is Gaius Julius Caesar, the first Roman Emperor. Gaius is young at the beginning and his best and only friend is Marcus, whose parents had died and so Julius Caesar took him in. The book goes through their education and the army training and then their experiences of Rome. Gaius and Marcus worked very hard in their lessons and Gaius, in his history, proved himself to be a great general by spotting traps before they did in real life. Their army training began a year later. They were taught by the best gladiator, who was almost mad. He almost killed them once a day and at the end of their training he said that they would have finished if they managed to kill him in a dual. At that time there are riots in Rome and Gaius... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: A look into the personal lives of the early Caesars
Disadvantages: Overlooks some important events in favour of personal tales

...Suetonius writes, are: + Julius Caesar + Augustus + Tiberius + Gaius Caligula + Claudius + Nero + Galba + Otho + Vitellius + Vespasian + Titus + Domitian Suetonius held nothing back in writing about the personal habits of the emperors and their families, nor did he hold back in his moral judgement of them. Of Tiberius, for instance, he wrote: 'Tiberius did so many other wicked deeds under the pretext of reforming public morals--but in reality to gratify his lust for seeing people suffer--that many satires were written against the evils of the day, incidentally expressing gloomy fears about the future.... At first Tiberius dismissed these verses as the work of bilious malcontents who were impatient with his reforms and did not really mean what they said. He would remark: "Let them hate me, so long as they fear me!" But, as time went on, his... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful