Syme's Controversial Masterwork, May 16 2002

this is one of the best books i have ever read, i am only 15 years old and by far not an expert in roman history (yet). but regardless i can say thet this book is an excelllent one, it describes, in an amazing style, the end of the republic and the rise to power of Augustus one of the greatest and first of the roman emperors. it will not be an exageration to say thet this book has changed my life, and i suggest anyone that has the option to read it!

This is without doubt Syme's masterwork. The praise has been lavish. A.J.P. Taylor said it was a "work of brilliant scholarship which can be enjoyed by the expert and the layman alike". Sir Maurice Bowra said "his work is extraordinarily persuasive and interesting, it is the best book on Roman History that has appeared for many years." The Classical Review wrote that is the "one of the most important books on Roman history since Mommsen.

Despite of intensive study and thorough research, the book was written with a view on the situation in 1939. Fascist dictatorships then seemed to hold a franchise on the future. StalinÕs purges and the Spanish civil war appeared to reenact the drama which had seen a first performance at the end of the Roman republic, when a party-politician and republican General committed high treason and suspended the constitution, which opened unheard of opportunities and eventually swept the son of a small town banker to the highest office and absolute power. I said swept, but SymeÕs monumental study shows that dumb luck and blind opportunity played only a small part in the ascend of one of the coolest, most ruthless, and most calculating minds who ever aspired political power. However considering the youth and inexperience of Augustus at the beginning of his career, and with a look at the staff of first class advisers that surrounded the young man from the very beginning, one wonders whether it...