This is what you get when you combine ‘epic’ with ‘historical fiction’. While this book is never going to win any races for fast pacing, the level of detail and research together with the masterful weaving together of historical events into a story containing vivid settings and a cast of hundreds that all fully come alive in the pages makes for a way of enjoying this period of history in a way that is unrivalled. Having learnt significantly more about the late Roman Republic since the first time I read this book, I was able to appreciate it even more for all the little hints, references and off hand remarks which lend further depth to the story that McCullough crafts while also creating subtle links to future events. Marius and Sulla remain my two of my favourite Roman figures as a result of this book, and I think this will always be confort food for me. ( )

OH. This book is like concrete, but I am going to assume very solid when all is said and done. Very slow pacing, well written and literate. It is quite obvious the author made bored housewives her target on this book. ( )

Engrossing details of Roman life, with characters drawn so finely that I still miss them. ( )

Richly immersive account of Marius's first six consulships in the last decade of the 2nd century BC as Rome deals with the Jugurthine war and the looming threat of a German invasion. ( )

I started to get more interested in ancient Rome (particularly the Republic) after the HBO series started. I read Tom Holland's excellent Rubicon and knew I needed more--especially on Marius and Sulla, two of the most fascinating characters of this or any historical period. When I learned of McCullough's series, I began with this one and was immediately hooked. I've read all seven, but my favorites are the first 3 or 4.

I really appreciated the way she was faithful to the known history but filled in the unknown areas with reasonable and interesting guesses (e.g., Sulla's first wife probably wasn't Julius Caesar's other aunt, if he had more than one, but she was a Julia). There are dozens of interpretations that she makes (and usually explains in the notes at the end) that are usually so well thought-out and ring true to the known history. Her take on Caesar's epilepsy was particularly interesting and reflects her expertise as a medical doctor (a perspective most historians can't draw on). Her explanation of how Marius made J.C. the flamen dialis, a priesthood that would have prevented any kind of military or significant political career, was ingenious. It's clear (and she points out as much in her afterwords) that some things may not have happened the way she portrays them. But you never get the sense that, like some historical fiction writers, she's changing the history to fit her story. Instead, she tries to understand sometimes conflicting facts to arrive at a plausible rationale.

But, mainly, it's the characters that give this series life. Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and Julius Caesar are living, breathing human beings. She gets inside their heads, and you really get the sense that you know and understand these historical giants, who all were contemporaries of one another and of other legendary figures--Marc Antony, Cicero, Pompey Magnus, Crassus, Spartacus, Brutus, Cassius, and on and on.

I was never that interested in Roman history as a student, with its emphasis on the imperial period. But I think I find something tragic and bittersweet about the end of the republic, which, after all, was a functioning form of democracy more than 2,000 years ago. These men all held the ideal of the republic dear, but they just couldn't help destroying it, blinded as they were by their own hubris, greed, and ambition. It's a fascinating and exhilarating story, and the best way I can think of to understand this important period of Western history. ( )