A review by kyscg
The History of Rome: The Republic by Peter D. Campbell, Mike Duncan

adventurous informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

I picked up this book to fill in my gaps of Roman History apart from the major events. I was fairly well-versed with the time of Julius Caesar until the time of his funeral. And with the Punic Wars. But everything before the Punic Wars, about the founding of Rome, to the seven kings, and the structuring of the senate and society, was all unknown. I also didn't know about the Macedonian Wars that were taking place around the time of the Punic Wars, and how Rome had provinces in Gaul, Spain, and the East (Illyria and Greece). The era of Marius and Sulla, the threat of Mithradates, the last of the strong personalities like Cato the Younger, Pompey, Cicero, Clodius, Mark Antony.

I listened to this along with Mike Duncan's other book, The Storm Before the Storm and now I have most of my questions answered. I think I will pick up with Augustus, move all the why to Nero, and stop there, because that's much more than I am interested in at the moment. There are way too many names for me to go on until the fall of the Western Roman Empire.