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briandice's review
5.0
Leave all your presupposes at the table of contents; Appian and his Civil Wars isn’t going to bore you with a dry tale - he’s going to knock your socks off. Fans of Game of Thrones, House of Cards, or even the not so historically accurate but very watchable HBO series Rome will find plenty between the covers to keep their interest.
First a note on the version to buy. John Carter’s modern translation is easy to read and follow throughout Apian’s five books. There are excellent footnotes that shouldn’t be missed (yes, a two bookmark special) – but before you even begin the main text, I highly recommend Carter’s fantastic introduction and also the appendices. I didn’t know my consul from proconsul, a tribune from an imperium – Carter straightens all of this out in a few important pages and prepares the reader for the Roman political world (as well as great short pieces on the Roman Army, the Senate and other germain topics). I also love singing the praises of any paper book versus an electronic version; I started this on an e-reader and it was so terrible I stopped to do more research and found out that the Penguin Classic / John Carter edition was the way to go. Score one for the trees.
How crazy is it that Appian’s work is the only surviving continuous narrative of history encompassing 133 to 35 BCE of the Roman Empire? And what a shit-crazy time it was. There was basically a period of 100 years of ongoing civil war in the Republic/Empire – so much instability it is really a wonder that the entire populous wasn’t bled white. The Julius Caesar assassination and fallout that many readers may find familiar takes the better part of half of the book, but there are so many other really interesting stories and characters leading up to JC’s stage time that are worth knowing.
The one thing about this book that I couldn’t believe – and had one of those literal draw drops – was that it ended before the big showdown between Mark Antony and Octavian. You can sense and see it coming, after the fall of Cassius and Brutus and the preparation for power grabbing in the vacuum, but we don’t learn the end of the that story in this narrative. It would be like watching Star Wars up until the point where all of the rebels leave to attack the Death Star and then the movie ends.
Yet another great book of antiquity that Vollmann has lead me to read. I can’t recommend this enough to my friends interested in Roman history or books of political intrigue.
First a note on the version to buy. John Carter’s modern translation is easy to read and follow throughout Apian’s five books. There are excellent footnotes that shouldn’t be missed (yes, a two bookmark special) – but before you even begin the main text, I highly recommend Carter’s fantastic introduction and also the appendices. I didn’t know my consul from proconsul, a tribune from an imperium – Carter straightens all of this out in a few important pages and prepares the reader for the Roman political world (as well as great short pieces on the Roman Army, the Senate and other germain topics). I also love singing the praises of any paper book versus an electronic version; I started this on an e-reader and it was so terrible I stopped to do more research and found out that the Penguin Classic / John Carter edition was the way to go. Score one for the trees.
How crazy is it that Appian’s work is the only surviving continuous narrative of history encompassing 133 to 35 BCE of the Roman Empire? And what a shit-crazy time it was. There was basically a period of 100 years of ongoing civil war in the Republic/Empire – so much instability it is really a wonder that the entire populous wasn’t bled white. The Julius Caesar assassination and fallout that many readers may find familiar takes the better part of half of the book, but there are so many other really interesting stories and characters leading up to JC’s stage time that are worth knowing.
The one thing about this book that I couldn’t believe – and had one of those literal draw drops – was that it ended before the big showdown between Mark Antony and Octavian. You can sense and see it coming, after the fall of Cassius and Brutus and the preparation for power grabbing in the vacuum, but we don’t learn the end of the that story in this narrative. It would be like watching Star Wars up until the point where all of the rebels leave to attack the Death Star and then the movie ends.
Yet another great book of antiquity that Vollmann has lead me to read. I can’t recommend this enough to my friends interested in Roman history or books of political intrigue.
catsbah's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting read for the Civil Wars. I did find that because very few dates are mentioned sometimes I had to look something up to reference it with what else was going on at the same time.
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