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Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor - Anthony Everitt
Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor
by: (author)
4.25 10
He found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome’s first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations, for all of Western history to... show more
He found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome’s first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations, for all of Western history to follow. Yet, despite Augustus’s accomplishments, very few biographers have concentrated on the man himself, instead choosing to chronicle the age in which he lived. Here, Anthony Everitt, the bestselling author of Cicero, gives a spellbinding and intimate account of his illustrious subject. Augustus began his career as an inexperienced teenager plucked from his studies to take center stage in the drama of Roman politics, assisted by two school friends, Agrippa and Maecenas. Augustus’s rise to power began with the assassination of his great-uncle and adoptive father, Julius Caesar, and culminated in the titanic duel with Mark Antony and Cleopatra.The world that made Augustus–and that he himself later remade–was driven by intrigue, sex, ceremony, violence, scandal, and naked ambition. Everitt has taken some of the household names of history–Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Antony, Cleopatra–whom few know the full truth about, and turned them into flesh-and-blood human beings.At a time when many consider America an empire, this stunning portrait of the greatest emperor who ever lived makes for enlightening and engrossing reading. Everitt brings to life the world of a giant, rendered faithfully and sympathetically in human scale. A study of power and political genius, Augustus is a vivid, compelling biography of one of the most important rulers in history.From the Hardcover edition.
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Format: paperback
ISBN: 9780812970586 (0812970586)
ASIN: 812970586
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Pages no: 377
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
SF Fan Man
SF Fan Man rated it
Ancient history is made up of bits of information from dated manuscripts and the plausible conjectures of historians. Reading this book, I would add that the personal biases of history writers fill in the information gaps which are especially large the farther back in time we go. The end result is...
The Book High
The Book High rated it
This was definitely an interesting book, for more reasons that the author likely intended. This was the first biography I've read in which the opinions of the author were so unabashedly evident. Julius Caesar is discussed in tones of honor sometimes bordering on worship. Antony is vilified and vi...
bobsburgers23
bobsburgers23 rated it
4.0 Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor
Don't really dig Ancient Rome as much as I should but I love how sympathetic Everitt is to his characters and the care he takes in writing about them.
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