| Title | : | The Grass Crown (Masters of Rome, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 038071082X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780380710829 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 1104 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1990 |
The Grass Crown (Masters of Rome, #2) Reviews
-
This heroic endeavour by the brilliant Colleen McCullough, rests snugly amongst the likes of the Count of Monte Cristo and the Grapes of Wrath. Yes, The Grass Crown is that good.
This is the second instalment of a series of books covering the late Roman Republic, say around 100-80 BCE. We are still some decades before the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, takes the throne in 27 BCE. But this book covers the period of a crumbling, corrupt, decaying, ultra-violent, civil war ridden Republic, run by a Senate full of bickering, desiccated or bloated Patricians, lording it over the unwashed masses – or as McCollough refers to them, the Head Count.
The two main characters here, as in the first book, The First Man in Rome, are Gaius Marius and Cornelius Sulla – the former being a great general and the latter his reliable accomplice. This second book follows on from their audacious warmongering in Germania and Africa to new fields afresh trying to keep the Republic in order. Their main theatres of activity are in the East (where Turkey, the Black Sea, Iran, and the Middle East are now) and Italy itself with the brutal Civil Wars, the main cause of which was the lack of citizenship rights for the people living in Italy who weren’t granted Roman Citizenship. The King in the East, Mithridates is one of the most interesting, capricious and violent characters you’ll ever come across, by the way.
This series makes Game of Thrones look like Sesame Street, albeit a very violent version of Sesame Street. Perhaps with Bert and Ernie impaling Big Bird (who was so bloody annoying anyway) and The Count finally revealing his tricks with numbers (which weren’t that clever anyway if you think about it) were just a guise to relieve Grover of 2 litres of his blood behind the garbage bin.
Anyway……Marius is really THE Man – he was Consul Seven times. Now, Consuls were the people who ran the show. After the Romans decided they didn’t like to be subject to the tyrannic rule of Kings, they created a system whereby two Consuls were voted in by the Patricians, two – to ensure there was a counterbalance to combat tyranny. These guys called the shots. Marius was a superstar general and extremely wealthy and would think nothing of directing his soldiers to slaughter whoever was in in his way – Numidian, Cappadocian, Italian, Roman, military or civilian, young or old, it didn’t matter.
Marius’ sidekick for much of the first book was the dashingly good looking, incredibly buff Sulla. This man was equally as brutal, and a rake of the highest order. He treated the women in his life abysmally, lover, wife, daughter – you name it, he was a bastard. Well now Sulla emerges from Marius’ shadows.
Marius, was known for his luxurious eyebrows, they're almost dripping off his forehead here
The dashing Sulla
This is historical fiction at its best. Marius and Sulla going at their enemies and each other is one of the best rivalries of all time. The research McCullough must have done would have been colossal. She includes maps of actual battles (containing so much detail, I had to go full nerd, and study them with my magnifying glass), plans of buildings, places such as the forum and a 100-page Glossary at the end. Yes 100 pages dripping with delicious Republic of Rome facts. Oh, this was heaven on a stick!!
There are countless characters from all over the Republic in this story and sometimes I went nuts trying to remember ‘who was who’ – but a bit of patience and hard work here and there really paid off. The reader also must digest names like Quintus Varius Severus Hybrida Sucronensis, for heaven’s sake, it was enough to make me want to eat my own head!!
In amongst the bloodletting there was an equal amount of political shenanigans. I really enjoyed this aspect, it might not be for everyone, but it did illustrate just how complicated the Republican political system was. Really, us humans haven’t change at all.
Oh, there is a bonus here because we see the real Julius Caesar as a young boy grow up, he was the nephew of Marius, he even spent considerable time helping him recover from one of his numerous strokes. You couldn’t make this stuff up!!!!!
I’ll shut up now, I’ve said so little about the story you probably know less about it than before you read my review BUT it’s that big, so vast – I wouldn’t know where to begin.
5 Stars -
The Grass Crown (Masters of Rome #2), Colleen McCullough
The Grass Crown is the second historical novel in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, published in 1991. The novel opens shortly after the action of The First Man in Rome. Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla eat dinner together with their wives, and discuss the threat presented by Mithridates VI of Pontus and Tigranes II of Armenia.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: دوم سپتامبر سال 2009 میلادی
ا. شربیانی -
This is the second book in the superlative Masters of Rome series. At once both an a Brobdingnagian effort of research and love, as well as a phenomenal work of gripping historical fiction. While massive, this is a great way to learn about the history of Rome. Considering the superb glossary, and the fairly accurate events, this book will give you a glimpse into the various forces and personalities that pushed the Roman Republic to its end.
Gaius Marius, Six-time Consul, and Hero of the Jurgurthine and Germanic Wars, has suffered a stroke. His mind is starting to go. His one-time ally, Lucius Sulla, is now his rival, whom Marius sees as a threat. Sadly, it is Marius' obsession and his changed personality, that account for the awful measures he goads his clients into. This results in Sulla striking back with force and the whole situation devolves into violence.
To top it of, Mithradates of Pontus has assembled a huge army and is conquering Anatolia. He also commits the infamous "Asiatic Vespers" massacre (88 BC) where 150,000 (80,000 Romans/Italians and 70,000 Roman/Italian Slaves) were slaughtered. Just to be fair, the historian Appian always stated that a total of 80,000 died. Colleen McCullough is going with Plutarch's numbers, which are similar to hers. Still, you get the picture.
Sulla goes off to fight Mithradates, the Consul Cinna manages to lose control of Rome to the madman Marius and young Julius Caesar is appointed Flamen Dialis, spitefully, by Marius. This is done to abort a famous prophecy that said Marius would indeed be Consul an unprecedented 7 times and be the First Man in Rome, but his nephew will be the greatest Roman of all. By JC becoming Flamen Dialis, he can not go to war. Thus ends this part of the story.
A magnificent work! Truly a mangum opus of the historical fiction genre and a must read for all fans of good stories, Roman history or great historical fiction. -
Edit 9/12/14: I'm kind of doing a quick run through of this again before tackling Fortune's Favorites to refresh myself on the billion people, places and events and I have to admit I was probably being a bad-moody, picky little bitch when I gave this four stars originally. Shameful! It certainly deserves five stars. When you have a book that veers from vicious, sprawling oratorial battles in the Senate to profound psychological portraits of truly legendary people to scenes like the one in which Mithridates beshits himself on his royal barge because one of his other boats bumped into it you have something special. I'm just sad this series has to eventually end when the Republic dies and it doesn't continue on with the Emperors.
Original Review:
McCullough's utterly fucking magisterial series continues with this moody entry. Sulla continues his amoral, body-piling struggle up the cursus honorum, Marius struggles to remain in power to fulfill the prophecy of his seventh consuslship while also battling with his own sanity, Marcus Livius Drusus launches his plan of seriously controversial and potentially dangerous reform in the aim of repairing relations between Rome and the Italian Allies, and little Caesar continues to be creepily precocious or precociously creepy, I still can't decide. Also, Aurelia stays firmly in her Aurelia mold, which is...indescribable. In the far east, King Mithridates VI of Pontus is about to start some serious shit. Obviously the history and people here are eternally fascinating, and McCullough has the brains, prose and research to render the definitive fictional account of the most fascinating and tumultuous period of this legendary city's existence. Wow, I got worked up pretty quick there didn't I? It's this old Australian lady, man...or it could be that I'm listening to Prince's "Do Me Baby" as I write this. The man messes with brain chemicals, and no question.
These books are a serious literary feast. They're stuffed with just...everything. Politics, war, architecture, tradition, sex, complex interpersonal relationships and dramatic events great and small are on every page. No one could question McCullough's research and you're gonna learn every possible thing about this era of Rome that you can imagine and a ton you can't. The political system of Republican Rome was seriously complex and this woman has allowed even a clueless pleb such as myself an understanding of how it worked. I probably mentioned this in my review of the first book, but her liberal use of maps, diagrams and portraits (all created by the author herself) will also help your understanding and mental recreation of this fascinating, dead world. I do have to say her portraits can be a bit hinky-looking (excepting the obviously author-revered Sulla)...I looked ahead at the portrait of Vercingetorix from Caesar and almost fucking threw up. In that particular instance, hewing so closely to the historical portrait (from a coin) was probably not a good idea. This is of course from another book though, and the worst offenses such as Mithridates are excusable. The author is obviously gifted and clearly loves her chosen subject, and it shows even in these amateur portraits.
The characters are vividly drawn and even complex. Even when I find them repulsive, the Romans are constantly entertaining to read about. Constantly conquering shit, scheming and gossiping and stealing, murdering each other...it's clear why the Roman world has so fascinated us and been so prevalent in our fiction. That said, you probably aren't gonna get very close emotionally with these people as you may have in other historical novels. Take Sulla, for instance. He's a joy to read, and my love for the underdog certainly wants to see him succeed despite all the snobbish two-faced haters in the Senate, but the dude is honestly fucking abhorrent. He's clearly a sociopath and remorseless murderer, as well as a pretty heavy misogynist (despite being loved by women, and I'm confident in including the author as one of these women.) It's a mixed experience and often an uncomfortable one, but one gets the sense that this is really how it was in this world. None of these traits were necessarily even considered particularly reprehensible. So morbidly gripping.
I do have a couple of relatively minor complaints; the dialogue can be a bit stiff and exposition-heavy. Also, McCullough clearly doesn't have much of an interest in Roman military matters; the marches and battles of the constant warring are certainly referenced and depicted, but too often it's in the form of secondhand relation or a quick glossing over. I am an unrepentant nerd when it comes to ancient military and these episodes could certainly have been depicted with more detail and depth. I get that not everyone is interested in these things but there is absolutely no way to get around the fact that Rome's military and its wars were an absolutely crucial factor in its rise to such heights of power. In a book where a gossipy letter can take up five to six pages we should not be blasting through fucking MAJOR BATTLES in a couple sentences! It's just not good enough to say "and then Marius and his army ran really quick up the Via Appia and slaughtered the shit out of the Samnites and everyone was stoked." When I look at the whole of this epic story, though, these complaints can seem kind of nitpicky, though. If the rest of the series continues with this kind of epic quality I really don't see the reason for me to read another fictional account of the era. Which is closeminded and dumb, but this lady is good. -
I don’t write reviews.
Ambition. Political ambition. Ambition for power. Ambition to become the greatest man in Rome. Ambition that will not allow another to outstrip one’s ambition or gain more than one has or will gain. Ambition to be remembered forever. Often equal ambition to ensure others won’t be remembered, and certainly not remembered as greater man.
Auctoritas. Dignitas. Paterfamilias. Imperium. Patrician or Plebian. First class knight or senator or just a member of the Head Count of Rome. Imagine being in the dangerous position where you cannot be questioned, even when your policies and military failures lead to the destruction of your people and soldiers. Imagine another dangerous position where you cannot question at all. You can speak up and be killed, or stay silent and watch those you love die.
I cannot understand. Oh how I try! McCullough’s writing transports me directly into the minds of these men, yet I cannot understand. These men are enigmas, which is positively fascinating. Even though their ambition and hubris lead to their ultimate demise, I love to watch. I found myself feeling for these personalities. Whether I felt for good or bad.
McCullough brought history to life. Her maps are really helpful in this book: Italy of the Social War, the areas of Rome’s Asia Province, the Mediterranean countries, some, allies and others, enemies, King Mithidrates’ expansion and following war against Rome, and the routes taken by the generals during these wars.
***Note on the audiobook version***
This book is 1200 pages which would be over 40 hours long. The one available is severely edited down into a 6 hour story. I recommend reading the real complete version. -
Ok, I can admit it - I'm an ancient Rome junkie, and Colleen McCullough is my dealer. Nobody - not even the venerable Robert Graves, or Marguerite Yourcenar, can write a crackling, entertaining AND factually nails-on story of Ancient Roman politics, history and characters like McCullough. Thanks to her books I can describe the difference between a praetor and a consul, and understand that great Roman leaders didn't just start with Julius Caesar. This book mostly covers the period of the dictator Sulla's rise to fame, the twilight of the great Gaius Marius, and the early childhood and adolescence of both Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus.
-
4.5 stars.
*exhales slowly*
.... wow. The last 300 pages were the very definition of intense.
‘The Grass Crown’ picks up basically where ‘
The First Man in Rome’ left off, and covers the period up to the point of Marius’ seventh and final consulship . However, this is not his story. While he does get quite a bit of page-time, it’s here that the character of Sulla really starts to shine and come into his own in terms of political power. This is the point where he steps out of Marius’ military shadow and starts to hold his own, and McCullogh has created such a fascinating and complicated character with him.
We also get a lot of important secondary characters come to the forefront of the novel, particularly as a good chunk of it deals with the so-called ‘Social War’ – a civil war between Rome and Italian allies who were sick of hiding in Rome’s shadow and wanted the rights to Roman citizenship. Marcus Livius Drusus really stands out as a strong character, and I loved reading about him and his family.
It’s also within this novel that, for those who know their Roman history (unlike me, whoops >.<), McCullough introduces the very-young characters of Cicero, Young Cato, Young Pompey and Crassus, and it’s interesting to see how these men start to find their own way in the world and navigate Roman politics.
We also get to take a few trips to the East, seeing the rise of Mithridates VI, king of Pontus. For many years, he was a significant thorn in the side of the Romans, posing a significant threat to their strength in the East. Both Marius and Sulla take separate trips to Mithridates’ court – in Sulla’s case, accompanied by a Roman army as well – and it offers up a brief respite from suburban Rome, too, providing a perspective in the novel that isn’t Roman.
Like ‘The First Man in Rome’ before it, ‘The Grass Crown’ is a significantly long novel – both being over 1,100 pages. My interest did wane slightly at various times, picking up at others, but the last 300 pages (long enough to be a novel in itself) were probably the best part of the novel. Even if there wasn’t always action in the form of battles or wars occurring on the page, there was always some kind of political action – and it was just as riveting and intense as reading a full-blown battle. I’m not going to spoil it for those few people who, like me before reading, have no idea of the course of Roman history at this particular time. There’s a whoooooole lot of shit that goes down, and the point at which the novel ends is a significant precipice – one that I’m eagerly waiting to jump off in the next book, ‘
Fortune's Favorites’. All that you do need to know is that you’re in for a hell of a ride. -
I am, quite frankly, in awe of the amount of research and detail that went into this book. This is how historical fiction should be: respecting the uniqueness of cultures far removed from ours, but unflinching in the face of the alienness and brutality that were inherent to these periods - unlike the pretty costume fests that historical fiction is usually. Quite frankly, after studying Greek and Roman history for a semester I vowed I'd never spent a single minute on it again (less due to the subject itself and more thanks to inept and unfriendly teachers), but I devoured and loved every single word in this book. I do wish McCullough had spent more time discussing what a monumental turn in history Sulla's decision to lead his army on Rome was - she did, of course, but the last 300 pages of the book felt rushed to me. I'd have liked to see more of Marius' decent into madness instead reading about characters telling other characters about this madness, but these are minor nitpicks in light of this fantastic series of books.
-
Wow, 800 pages and where did it go? Ms. McCullough does an outstanding job of bringing Republic Rome to life. Excellent character development, fast-moving, hooking plot... and all based on true events and historic reasearch.
This second book in the series covers Lucius Cornelius Sulla's rise to being First Man, and then things go nuts!!! Blood, blood and more blood.
McCullough creates vivid, believable and lovable characters, and avoids getting bogged down in historical detail "showing off", but works in an appropriate level of detail to enrich the story without losing the strong narrative line.
Unfortunately, the parallels with modern American politics are scary and sad. (the usual quote... forget... doomed... repeat it).
Top notch Historical Fiction. -
I think this might be a better book than First Man in Rome, but it's hard to say. As other reviewers have mentioned, the absence of Rutilius Rufus' letters is a sad omission; on the other hand, there's a lot more dynamic conflict in this one -- Marius v Sulla, rather than Marius v. a bunch of (mostly nameless) antagonists we don't really care about.
Each of these men have strengths and weaknesses, and McCullough depicts them fantastically -- well-drawn, with complex depths that can sometimes turn up surprising results. Marius, the fading First Man who doesn't realize he's fading, and Sulla, the rising star whom you'd feel more sympathy for if it weren't for the fact that he's a (mostly) cleverly concealed sociopath (references to the "clawed creature" inside him abound).
What I found most intriguing was how relatable these people were -- when you were following each of their various perspectives, you were led step by step to understand exactly how they *thought* their actions were necessary to Save the Republic...while at the same time knowing with the wisdom of historical hindsight that in actuality they were step by step destroying everything it had meant. Marius realizes that government cannot be entrusted to a bunch of oligarchial old fuddy-duddies, so he acts to move power to the people where he thinks it belongs, demonstrating the dangerous power of demagoguery to his nephew Caesar who will make much better use of it. Sulla "restores" Rome, but at the price of marching an army into the previously-inviolable precincts of the city, setting a salutary example that others are quick (very quick) to follow.
The bloody purges of Marius are horrific -- one reads history that says, OK, pre-eminent nobles were slaughtered without distinction, but it doesn't really mean anything. This book has spent time with most of these leading figures, even if they're peripheral to the main action, so when Marius' thugs run amok and start killing them, it's a big "Holy crap I can't believe these people!" sort of moment. I do not look forward to Sulla's purges when he returns, which I recall being a lot worse.
If I had a nit to pick here, it would be that the author can sometimes get lost in describing the who's who of senators, who's marrying the other one's daughter, who's being prosecuted for treason and corruption, who's exiled, who's un-exiled, etc. But then, the Romans were themselves obsessed with this kind of litigiousness and social climbing, so perhaps all that's really saying is that McCullough is a quintessential Roman (or that I am not, in this respect). So I can't really fault her a star for that.
800+ pages flew by remarkably quickly! -
... he was an inveterate Marius-hater, and proud of it.
me by the end of this book. (not really, I'm gonna miss that man, but boy did he make some CHOICES in this one).
In honor of old man Marius leaving me after 2000 pages, I'm going to share my favorite Gaius Marius memes I found on the internet (under the spoiler tag because they're not actually great memes, I just think they're mildly amusing and need to save them somewhere):
I don't think this was as good as the first book in the series. There are just too many names to keep track of and it lost me at times. But while it's slow going at times, when shit finally hits the fan in this one the book hits higher peaks than the previous book. Everything goes to hell and when you think it can't get worse, it does.
I'm still absolutely blown away by the impressive work Colleen McCullough has done here. This series is clearly so meticulously researched, and the attention to detail in every little part of it is amazing.
This book (and series in general) just proves to me that when it comes to my interest in ancient history, I would much rather read a straight up historical fiction book set in that time period than yet another retelling of some ancient myth. The retellings can be good too, and I know the lines between myth and history thousands of years ago are blurry at best, but I love diving into a masterpiece like this and then spending hours on wikipedia and old history books looking up what's (supposedly) real and what Colleen McCullough made up, and following those rabbit holes wherever they lead me.
(I mean I literally bought an ebook of
The Civil Wars by
Appian today because I read a footnote on wikipedia about Young Marius this one time being referred to as Gaius Marius' nephew instead of his son, and I knew I had to go straight to the 2000 year old source so I could see it for myself and analyze it.)
I need a break from ancient Rome now, because the last 200 pages really traumatized me in many ways, but hopefully in 2023 I can get through both
Fortune's Favorites and
Caesar's Women! -
A mixed bag. Flashes of genius interspersed with long stretches of tedium and density. Rise of Sulla and Fall of Gaius Marius. List of characters woefully incomplete. Line drawings good but maps and diagrams poor. I do not understand reasoning for all the very positive reviews. 2.5/5.
-
I was a horrible classics student. I barely read the books and I couldn't remember the dates or names of anything other than the obvious characters and events. But I could remember fun details and things that were amusing to me. Killing someone by pouring molten gold down their throat is one of those things.
So when Mithridiates tells a consul (who knows what his name was, SEE? SEE?!) "you'll get your precious gold," I squealed "OH SHIT!" clapped my hands with glee, and giggled for the rest of the scene.
There might be something seriously wrong with my psychology. But when I told Patty, the one who lent me the book, all this, she just said "psh, that's why we're friends." So I might be psychotic but I'm not alone.
I still like Sulla. Even though he murders people because he gets bored.
And I'm glad he didn't get killed (yet) because I still want more. Yes, even though he broke up with Metrobius.
So much happens in this book, which is good since it's a thousand fucking pages, but it's odd to look back on things that happened and realize they're all in the same book. They seemed to happen so long ago.
But, luckily, there were more characters to care about, so I wasn't bored for their storylines. It was upsetting in the middle, when all the good people started to die but my Sulla remained so I soldiered on.
-
-Continuación de la saga que enfrenta opiniones pero que hizo mucho por el género.-
Género. Novela histórica.
Lo que nos cuenta. En la Roma del siglo I antes de Cristo, la salud y el poder de Cayo Mario empiezan a decaer mientras la estrella de Sila está en ascenso. La relación entre ambos comienza a cambiar y ciertas decisiones del Senado la complicarán todavía más. Las amenazas contra Roma y su poder están en la península itálica y también fuera de ella. Además, una serie de jóvenes romanos empiezan a destacar en el entorno social, político y militar de la república. Segundo libro de la serie Señores de Roma.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/... -
I love this series! McCullough is such a good writer...her pacing, characterization, and style are all fantastic. I also enjoy reading about a period of ancient Rome that I am not as familiar with. I did enjoy "The First Man in Rome" slightly more than this one; I think because there was more of a "rise to glory" theme in the first book as opposed to this one's "fall from grace." Still so fantastic though.
-
I've always found the Italian Civil War very confusing. I still find it very confusing, but I think I understand it a little better now.
-
La storia si ripete, ciclicamente. Leggere questa serie di Colleen McCullough me lo fa pensare di continuo, per esempio quando nel Senato di Roma si discute sulla cittadinanza romana, col rifiuto categorico di molti a estenderla a tutti gli italici, con la terribile Lex Licinia Mucia che portò alla Guerra Sociale. Be', i discorsi sembrano così attuali da non poterci credere! E personaggi quasi dimenticati - che su Wikipedia occupano poche righe - come l'immenso Marco Livio Druso, qui acquistano finalmente la loro importanza.
Caio Giulio Cesare cresce, ed è un ragazzino eccezionale già da adesso. Cresce in un'insula nella Suburra, con una madre speciale, piena di carattere - Aurelia - e una serie di inquilini provenienti da ogni parte del mondo, imparando le loro lingue e le loro usanze (una cosa che gli sarà utilissima per la sua carriera militare e per la forma mentis).
Il libro spazia dalla conclusione de I giorni del potere, nel 99 a. C., con Giulio Cesare un frugoletto di meno di due anni, alla morte di Caio Mario, console per la settima volta, nell'86 a. C.
Un Caio Mario che, dopo il secondo ictus, impazzisce ed è sempre più perseguitato dalla profezia di Marta la Siriaca, che gli aveva annunciato, sì, sette consolati, ma anche che sarebbe stato superato in gloria dal nipote di sua moglie, Caio Giulio. E sebbene Caio Giulio Cesare si presti per amore della madre Aurelia e della zia Giulia a fargli letteralmente da bastone dopo il primo ictus, facendogli riprendere la vita politica e accompagnandolo dappertutto (e approfittandone per farsi raccontare tutto delle sue campagne militari e delle popolazioni che ha incontrato nella sua lunga esperienza), Caio Mario, approfittando del proprio potere consolare, gli fa un ultimo sgambetto per renderlo innocuo (secondo lui!): lo nomina, cioè, flamen dialis, sacerdote di Giove Capitolino, una figura particolare, che deve seguire dei protocolli strettissimi, che gli impediranno certo di diventare un soldato e quindi il grande uomo che supererà Caio Mario nella grandezza della storia di Roma. (Vediamo… — disse Cesare il Giovane con voce riflessiva — come Flamen Dialis non potrei vedere nessun cadavere umano, non potrei toccare nulla che sia fatto di ferro o di acciaio, dalle forbici e i rasoi a una spada e una lancia. Non potrei portare nodi su di me, né toccare capre, cavalli, cani, né piante d’edera. Non potrei mangiare carne cruda, né grano, né pane lievitato, né fagioli, non potrei toccare pelle che provenisse da un animale ucciso appositamente per ricavarne pelle. Avrei molti compiti interessanti e importanti. Per esempio, annuncerei la vendemmia ai Vinalia, guiderei le greggi nei cortei suovenaurilia, spazzerei il tempio di Giove, organizzerei la purificazione delle case dove è avvenuto un decesso. Sì, proprio molte cose interessanti e importanti!)
E quindi, adesso non vedo l'ora di continuare la lettura della serie, per scoprire come Caio Giulio aggirerà l'ostacolo.
E aspetto anche che Silla rientri a Roma dopo aver combattuto in Asia Minore contro Mitridate (dopo una partenza quanto mai... travagliata).
Quante stelle si possono mettere a questo romanzo? (Ma a tutta la serie dei Masters of Rome di Colleen McCullough, sia ben chiaro!) Perché quando lei racconta la Storia sembra di essere nel 91 a.C. a Roma (ma anche nel Ponto con Mitridate, per dirne una, eh!) Quindi cinque sono a stento sufficienti! -
Second in the “Masters of Rome” series.
This volume has a number of struggles within it: the attempt by Livius Drussus as a patrician and non-demagogue Tribune of the Plebs to gain full Roman citizenship for the Italians in the face of opposition lead by his brother in law Caepio (furious that Drussus’s sister has had an affair with an Italian, her first child by Caepio is the bitter and malicious Servillia – eventually mother of Brutus and lover of Caesar) culminating in his assassination; the resulting war with the Italians which leads to huge loss of life on both sides for little real aim as part of finishing the war is granting citizenship to any Italians not joining the war; the increasing threat of Mithradetes (the reader like the Romans initially finds it very hard to keep track of or interest in the various Asian kings and their inter-relationships); the attempt by Sulla to become a military hero in his own right and then counsel; Marius’s struggle against illness and increasing madness to secure a seventh consulship but with the aid of a dangerous assortment of allies; the struggle between Marius and Sulla for military pre-eminence – starting with the war against the Italians where Sulla comes into his own, followed by Marius engineering to have the war against Mithradetes transferred back to himself, Sulla’s invasion of Rome, Marius’s reinvasions and massacres; the struggle for power between the patrician Senate and the commercial Knights, while at the same time the increasing foreign wealth and the loyalty of head count soldiers to a general prepared to grant them public land after their service call into question the very concept of the republic and increasingly replace it with close to a military dictatorship; Marius’s attempt just before his death to prevent the prophecy about Caesar’s greatness by making him a religious person.
We also meet Young Pompey and Cicero in the entourage of the Northern general Pompey the Butcher. -
not as ridiculously over-the-top fun as the first one, but still way more fun than it had any right to be. I think the only reason I liked this one just a little less is the fact that it dragged occasionally, here and there, which threw a hitch into the pacing. having said that, it was still wonderful - the characters are dynamic, the history feels fresh and alive, the politics are complicated, and the relationships are rich. I will be reading the next one very soon, and I'd absolutely recommend these books to anyone interested in this period of history.
-
I have nothing bad to say about this book. Nothing. It's brilliant. I have never read a book about these historical figures written in such a way, I can almost see and feel them, fear them, feel bad for them, admire them, and wish them dead all a the same time. Masterfully done.
I can't wait to read the next book. -
Final update 11/6/12: It only took a year and two months but I FINALLY finished this behemoth. The delay wasn't because it wasn't good - quite the contrary, it's an incredibly entertaining history lesson disguised as a novel - but because I had so much going on personally that I just didn't have time to sit and immerse myself in this world. Even if I'd had the time, it wouldn't have been a quick or easy read. It's an old-school historical fiction epic, written in archaic, old-fashioned language, which forces you to slow down and really focus on what you're reading. It doesn't help that the cast of characters is huge and they all have long, multi-layered names, and they all overlap because, of course, all Roman patricians were related in some way. I had a hard time keeping a lot of the secondary characters straight in my head, especially after I took my six-month break in reading - I ended up forgetting who was who! But it's a fascinating book in much the same way Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles is fascinating because you see the genesis of these legendary figures. Julius Caesar makes his first appearance in The Grass Crown, as does Pompey Magnus and Marcus Tullius Cicero. Seeing them in their childhood incarnations and reading about the events that shaped them into such remarkable men will give you goosebumps. It's not easy but it's definitely worth the effort.
Update 9/14/12: Desperately need to immerse myself in ancient Rome again, so I'm going back to this one and hoping that I can remember the threads of the story.
Update 4/21/12: HA! Trying to read an epic thousand-page novel while buying and moving into a new house is not advisable. I haven't picked it up in months, but I ought to go back to it soon, or else I might need to start at the beginning.
Update 9/20/11: I already know all the main players from "First Man in Rome", so I'm getting through the sequel a lot quicker. And it's riveting! -
Le promesse del primo libro vengono tutte mantenute in questo seguito, la cui prima parte - devo ammetterlo - scorre molto più velocemente della seconda non perché quest'ultima sia meno interessante ma piuttosto per la grande maggioranza di dettagli contenuti in ogni riga: saltarne una significherebbe perdere qualche informazione preziosa e bisogna stare attenti ad ogni riga. Opera notevole per una scrittrice e una sfida decisamente ardua per un lettore la cui passione non viene mai meno anche perché stuzzicata da ogni parola. Il libro termina in un punto critico della storia romana: un astro tramonta, uno sta per arrivare alla sua maggior gloria e un altro è a malapena nascente - pur consapevole del suo futuro pieno di ambizioni. Non vedo l'ora di metter mano al prossimo che è parecchio più sottile (almeno di duecento/trecento pagine ad occhio) e penso proprio che tutta l'estate sarà dominata da Cesare e Silla.
-
This is the second book in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, following The First Man in Rome. It covers the period from 99 -86 B.C. Since I know very little about the history of ancient Rome I learned a great deal from this detailed account which is largely a story of political intrigue, civil war and upheaval. I also found it to be very suspenseful and proved that truth can be stranger than fiction. The central characters are Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius, both of whom were featured in The Grass Crown. This book also introduces Julius Caesar as a child. As someone who reads pretty quickly this was a rare book that took me a full month to read, so it is not an easy undertaking to get through it, but it is definitely worth the time and energy for anyone who is interested in history. I look forward to reading the entire series. -
Great book, as historically accurate as for events and characters as a historical novel can be. I was so into this book I could physically experience the events to smelling tasting and the heartbreak that the characters experienced, it was so realistic to me that I was dreading the end of the book. I came to Identify with one of the main characters Gaius Marius, I was wishing that I could skip over the ending because I didn't want here about his last days and his death, which is was familiar with through reading history. I would love to have the luxury to read this series from book I ( First man of Rome) to the last book, straight through. I would love to spend the next year living in Rome through this series. But it is not to be. I recommend this book to all who love history.
-
This is volume 2 of McCullough's massive 7 book series, and follows the decline of Marius into illness and madness, and the ruthless rise of Sulla. The two men, once friends and mentor/apprentice, become enemies, and draw the Roman world into their bloody conflict.
McCullough is excellent at sticking to the sources and yet bringing the characters and events to real life. No-one is a single-dimensional hero or villain, and the moral complexities of the age are delineated marvellously.
This is a little-known period of history, and McCullough is excellent at conveying the unease and political turbulence that was to eventually bring down the Republic. -
I'd read The First Man of Rome on a friend's recommendation back in 1994, then picked this up at a used bookstore several years later. Being schooled in church history, I'm weak on the history of the Roman Republic before Caesar. The time gap between the two books, the second of which follows immediately on the heels of the first, and my ignorance doubtlessly caused me not to appreciate this novel as much as I might have.
