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dsizemore96's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
ixthus68's review against another edition
4.0
With recent events in the United States, I thought it might be helpful to look at one of the great Republics in history to see how things went, especially near the end. This book did not disappoint. It was very straight-forward in its presentation and even presented conflicting ideas about specific events giving me, the reader, a deeper trust in what was being said.
I have very little knowledge about the era of the Roman Republic and realized that even more as I listened to this book. This book did not get too deep "in the weeds" but kept things simple but yet interesting.
If you are wanting to read a book about the politics of the Roman Republic and better understand its configuration and how it was manipulated by the people seeking power and how this impacted the ancient world, Rome, and its connected parties, this is a great read. In addition to the book, I benefited from referencing Wikipedia repeatedly for name spellings and the occasional map (although there is one included). I would get confused about who was who on occasion, especially with Sulla and Cinna.
This book gives me a glimmer of hope that the end is not as near for the American Republic as I thought, but that is my personal opinion and I very well could be wrong. This book does give me a better perspective though on how a society can respond in challenging times and what possibilities might lie ahead for us in current times. It also gives me a greater appreciation for our Founding Fathers and how they learned from the Roman Republic and built a government that has stood the test of time.
I have very little knowledge about the era of the Roman Republic and realized that even more as I listened to this book. This book did not get too deep "in the weeds" but kept things simple but yet interesting.
If you are wanting to read a book about the politics of the Roman Republic and better understand its configuration and how it was manipulated by the people seeking power and how this impacted the ancient world, Rome, and its connected parties, this is a great read. In addition to the book, I benefited from referencing Wikipedia repeatedly for name spellings and the occasional map (although there is one included). I would get confused about who was who on occasion, especially with Sulla and Cinna.
This book gives me a glimmer of hope that the end is not as near for the American Republic as I thought, but that is my personal opinion and I very well could be wrong. This book does give me a better perspective though on how a society can respond in challenging times and what possibilities might lie ahead for us in current times. It also gives me a greater appreciation for our Founding Fathers and how they learned from the Roman Republic and built a government that has stood the test of time.
lauren625's review
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, and War
Moderate: Colonisation, Suicide, and Genocide
xavierdragnesi's review
4.0
This was a fast paced and well written account of the crucial decades leading up to the end of the Roman Republic. To someone who both had studied and has a particular interest in this area of history, most of the content was already quite familiar, but Duncan does a very good job at taking the complex political, social and economic issues from the period and tying them together into a cohesive ‘storyline’. I felt that the underpinning of the entire narrative with the collapse of the mos maiorum and the interweaving of relevant references to digestible excerpts of ancient sources was especially well done. There was unavoidably some simplification of certain events and relationships, and I did feel the treatment of certain elements was a little bit dated, such as the ‘optimates’ and ‘populares’ division. Overall though, a solid telling of some of the most underrated years of Roman Republican history, and an enjoyable read.