Olga Gribanova itibaren Le Pin-la-Garenne, France

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04/27/2024

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2018-04-08 14:40

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This is actually a bit of a letdown from the previous six books. My understanding is that McCullough intended the series to end with The October Horse, and it shows. Although "Antony and Cleopatra" is sprawling with history and is quite entertaining, it does feel more obligatory and less passionate than its predecessors, which felt more like a single, massive tale. Brief recap: The October Horse ends with Julius Caesar assassinated and many of the conspirators dead, including Brutus and Cassius. Marcus Antonius (Caesar's cousin) and Octavian (Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted heir) form two-thirds of Rome's Second Trimverate, along with the largely irrelevant Lepidus. Antony and Octavian have essentially carved up the Mediterranean world, with Antony ruling the East like an Alexander, and the still-too-young-for-the-Senate Octavian left to deal with the mess that is Rome proper. Antony seems to have the better of the deal, but his oversized passions and appetites catch up with him as he ages. Octavian, meanwhile, is the underdog with youth, patience, subtlety, and a core of supremely able allies to guide him toward the final confrontation. Each has his setbacks and triumphs, and the Triumvirs cooperate and undermine each other as they see fit. Antony's tendency to live in the present puts him at the disadvantage to Octavian, who plans years ahead. The real challenge in this book is that McCullough seems to have little affection for Antony, magnifying his flaws to create a deeply unsympathetic portrait of the man. Granted, Antony didn't fare much better in CAESAR and The October horse, where his earlier antics were at least somewhat tempered by the lower body count and youthful, er, charm of the outlandish younger man. The bitterness and self-doubt of the co-ruler of the world, after Caesar's near-complete snubbing in his will in favor of the too-young, asthmatic Octavian, results in a horrific death toll in battlegrounds throughout the East. Octavian, likewise, isn't a deeply sympathetic character, but at least the qualities that lead him to become the architect of Imperial Rome are showcased believably, and however insidious some of Octavian's manipulations are, one is left at the end of the book with the sense that Rome is far safer in his hands than in Antony's, which was certainly true. Even before Caesar ditched the presumed heir, Antony had committed massacres, insurrections, and instabilities inside Rome, disqualifying him in Caesar's eyes from the right to rule. Cleopatra, meanwhile, who was fairly sympathetic when connected with Julius Caesar, becomes in many ways everything Octavian's propagandists paint her to be: a deadly threat to Rome. Far from the epic love stories elsewhere, this Cleopatra discovers her love for Antony only near the end of her life; prior to that she is a calculating politician, using Antony to her ends. Though one gets the sense that the two richly deserve each other, even if the rest of the world doesn't deserve them. As in the other books, McCullough makes the ancient world her canvas, including further Spain and Gaul in the West and the farthest reaches of the East. You feel the scope and the limits of Roman influence. The challenges of ruling Rome are also depicted from a variety of angles: piracy and grain prices, ambitions of those who see the vulnerabilities of the still-young, still unproven Octavian, jealousies and intrigues of the Noble Families, and living up to the Divine image and practical expectations of Caesar when others can carry it off with so much less effort. For centuries Romans had a cursus honorum, the course of honor, which decreed at what age a proper Roman politician rose to prominence. The last decades of the Republic saw many breaches of this - from the seven consulships of Marius to the Dictatorship of Sulla, Pompey's early-twenties generalships, the too-young consulship of Young Marius and Pompey, the first Triumverate, and on and on. By the time Octavian grabbed the brass ring at age 18, the Usual was no longer so common. Even so, Octavian revolutionized Roman politics, and this book gives a good feel for how he went about it - and it's often anything but pretty. That's the irony of this book. The man who ushered in the decades of Pax Romana had to change his name to begin the new era for a changed Rome. The events in this book walk us through the last nails in the coffin of the Roman Republic.

Okuyucu Olga Gribanova itibaren Le Pin-la-Garenne, France

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