The Die is Cast

I have been reading over the Easter holidays - belatedly, I confess - Tom Holland's 'Rubicon'. I am very impressed. As an introduction to the last 100 years of the Roman Republic, it strikes an excellent balance between scholarship and entertainment and offers strong encouragement subsequently to get to grips with the sources. I suppose my major reservation is that too many ancient historians devote too much time to the individual's role in shaping history, whereas the best of recent scholarship has focused on the socio-economic background so neglected by the ancients. Holland does little to reflect their efforts, despite his bibliography which suggests otherwise. Nonetheless, I very much recommend this to my students. He certainly has made some of the drearier topics of the period come alive, not least Caesar's campaigns in Gaul (Holland's treatment of the Battle of Alesia is particularly graphic) and the subsequent Civil War (by focusing more on Caesar's duel with Pompey than the more far-flung mopping-up operations). It is a far cry from 'Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres...'! I even have some inclination to read more about the wars with Mithridates: to think I thought I might die happy in almost total ignorance thereof!