Rome after Sulla offers a new perspective on the damaged, volatile, and conflictual political culture of the late Roman republic. The book begins with a narrative of the years immediately following the dictatorship of Sulla (80-77 BC), providing both a new reconstruction of events and original analysis of key sources including Cicero's pro Roscio, Appian, the Livian tradition, and Sallust's Historiae. Arguing that Sulla's settlement was never stable, Rome after Sulla emphasises the uncertainty and fear felt by contemporaries and the problems caused in Rome by consciousness of the injustices of the Sullan settlement and its lack of moral legitimacy. The book argues that the events and the unresolved traumas of the first civil war of the Roman republic triggered profound changes in Roman political culture, to which Sallust's magnum opus, his now-fragmentary Historiae, is our best guide. An in-depth exploration of a new, more Sallust-centred vision of the late republic contributes to the historical picture not only of the legacy of Sulla, but also of Caesar and of Rome's move from republic to autocratic rule. The book studies a society grappling with a question broader than its own times: what is the price of stability?
What actions are justified when the fate of a nation hangs in the balance, and who can see the best path ahead? Julius Caesar has led Rome successfully in the war against Pompey and returns celebrated and beloved by the people. Yet in the senate fears intensify that his power may become supreme and threaten the welfare of the republic. A plot for his murder is hatched by Caius Cassius who persuades Marcus Brutus to support him. Though Brutus has doubts, he joins Cassius and helps organize a group of conspirators that assassinate Caesar on the Ides of March. But, what is the cost to a nation now erupting into civil war? A fascinating study of political power, the consequences of actions, the meaning of loyalty and the false motives that guide the actions of men, Julius Caesar is action packed theater at its finest.
Parenti presents a story of popular resistance against entrenched power and wealth. As he carefully weighs the evidence in the murder of Caesar, he sketches in the background to the crime with fascinating detail about Roman society.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "James and Deborah Fallows have always moved to where history is being made.... They have an excellent sense of where world-shaping events are taking place at any moment" —The New York Times • The basis for the HBO documentary streaming on HBO Max For five years, James and Deborah Fallows have travelled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, the America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla is one of the central figures of the late Roman Republic. Indeed, he is often considered a major catalyst in the death of the republican system. the ambitious general whose feud with a rival (Marius) led to his marching on Rome with an army at his back, leading to civil war and the terrible internecine bloodletting of the proscriptions. In these things, and in his appropriation of the title of dictator with absolute power, he set a dangerous precedent to be followed by Julius Caesar a generation later. ??Lynda Telford believes Sulla's portrayal as a monstrous, brutal tyrant is unjustified. While accepting that he was responsible for much bloodshed, she contends that he was no more brutal than many of his contemporaries who have received a kinder press. Moreover, even his harshest measures were motivated not by selfish ambition but by genuine desire to do what he believed best for Rome. The author believes the bias of the surviving sources, and modern biographers, has exaggerated the ill-feeling towards Sulla in his lifetime. After all, he voluntarily laid aside dictatorial power and enjoyed a peaceful retirement without fear of assassination. The contrast to Caesar is obvious. ??Lynda Telford gives a long overdue reappraisal of this significant personality, considering such factors as the effect of his disfiguring illness. The portrait that emerges is a subtle and nuanced one; her Sulla is very much a human, not a monster.
New York Times Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Foreign Affairs, and Kirkus Reviews Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (Nonfiction) Shortlisted for the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History) A San Francisco Chronicle Holiday Gift Guide Selection A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection A sweeping, "magisterial" history of the Roman Empire from one of our foremost classicists shows why Rome remains "relevant to people many centuries later" (Atlantic). In SPQR, an instant classic, Mary Beard narrates the history of Rome "with passion and without technical jargon" and demonstrates how "a slightly shabby Iron Age village" rose to become the "undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean" (Wall Street Journal). Hailed by critics as animating "the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life" (Economist) in a way that makes "your hair stand on end" (Christian Science Monitor) and spanning nearly a thousand years of history, this "highly informative, highly readable" (Dallas Morning News) work examines not just how we think of ancient Rome but challenges the comfortable historical perspectives that have existed for centuries. With its nuanced attention to class, democratic struggles, and the lives of entire groups of people omitted from the historical narrative for centuries, SPQR will to shape our view of Roman history for decades to come.
*Includes pictures *Includes excerpts of ancient accounts *Includes a bibliography for further reading "If Sulla could, why can't I?" - Pompey the Great When the topic of Roman dictators during the 1st century BCE comes up, one name instantly springs to mind. In 49 BCE, the "die was cast" as Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon at the head of the 13th Legion and ushered in a civil war that permanently destroyed the Roman Republic, leaving a line of emperors in its place. Caesar's legacy is so strong that his name has become, in many languages, synonymous with power: the emperors of Austria and Germany bore the title Kaiser, and the czars of Russia also owe the etymology of their title to Caesar. His name also crept further eastward out of Europe, even cropping up in Hindi and Urdu, where the term for "emperor" is Kaisar. However, it's quite possible that none of what Caesar did would've happened without the template for such actions being set by Lucius Cornelius Sulla 40 years earlier. At the time, when Caesar was in his teens, war was being waged both on the Italian peninsula and abroad, with domestic politics pitting the conservative, aristocratic optimates against the populist, reformist populares, and this tension ultimately escalated into an all-out war. One of the leading populares was his Caesar's uncle, Gaius Marius, a military visionary who had restructured the legions and extended the privileges of land ownership and citizenship to legionaries on condition of successful completion of a fixed term of service. In the late 2nd century BCE, Marius had waged a successful campaign against several Germanic tribes, and after earning eternal fame in the Eternal City, Marius was appointed a consul several times, but in 88 BCE he entered into conflict with his erstwhile protégé, the optimate Sulla, over command of the army to be dispatched against Mithridates of Pontus, a long-time enemy of Rome and its Greek allies. Ironically, Marius's reforms had made the legions fiercely loyal to their individual generals rather than the state, which allowed Sulla to march his army against Rome and force Marius into exile. With that, Rome's first civil war was officially underway, but Sulla's triumph proved short-lived, however. Just as Sulla departed for a campaign, Marius returned at the head of a scratch army of veterans and mercenaries, taking over the city and purging it of Sulla's optimate supporters, and though Marius died in 86 BCE, his party remained in power. Upon his successful return to Rome, Sulla proclaimed himself Dictator, an all-powerful legislative authority which normally could be only vested in times of extraordinary crisis and never for more than a period of six months. Sulla's supporters went on a rampage across Rome, and some of them disinterred Marius's body and dismembered it before throwing the pieces into the Tiber River. Of course, the purge included the murder of Marius's most prominent supporters as well, all in an effort to allow Sulla to proclaim himself Dictator for life. In the process, Caesar was a natural target and went into exile, putting him on the path to one of history's most legendary military careers. Sulla had become renowned in Rome as a general during the Jugurthine, Social, and Mithridatic Wars, but naturally he is now remembered for the gruesome acts committed during his tenure as Rome's first lifelong dictator. Sulla's unprecedented period of one-man rule is viewed by many historians as a means of re-establishing peace and order in Roman politics while safeguarding the Republican system from abuse by powerful individuals. In other words, with no small amount of irony, Sulla justified assuming sole power temporarily to prevent others from doing so in the future. However, there are also those who believe that Sulla was just another ambitious politician who wanted to seize power for himself.
This book is a study of Sulla’s policies in Italy and in the Greek East. Its main aim is to show how Sulla revived Rome’s alliances with the local elites at a critical moment for the survival of her Mediterranean hegemony. The discussion calls into play a wide range of political, economic and religious issues, and the argument is developed from three complementary standpoints: role of elites, administration, and ideology. Sulla, the Elites and the Empire deals with both the impact of a prominent individual and the impact of the Roman empire. It sets outs to offer a new understanding of Sulla and his age and, more generally, to contribute to the understanding of the late Roman Republic.
The fall and rise of ancient Rome from more than two decades of internal conflict, as its aristocracy took up arms against each other. By the early first century BC, the Roman Republic had already carved itself a massive empire and was easily the most powerful state in the Mediterranean. Roman armies had marched victoriously over enemies far and wide, but the Roman heartland was soon to feel the tramp of armies on campaign as the Republic was convulsed by civil war and rival warlords vied for supremacy, sounding the first death knell of the Republican system. At the center of the conflict was the rivalry between Marius, victor of the Jugurthine and Northern wars, and his former subordinate, Sulla. But, as Gareth Sampson points out in this new analysis, the situation was much more complex than the traditional view portrays it and the scope of the First Civil War both wider and longer. This narrative and analysis of a critical and bloody period in Roman history will make an ideal sequel to the author’s Crisis of Rome (and a prequel to his first book, The Defeat of Rome). “A very readable insight into a period of Roman history that is very important but a mystery to most people.”—Firetrench
