Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

Last updated
Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
Rubicon- The Last Years of the Roman Republic.jpg
First edition (UK)
Author Tom Holland
Cover artistAdolphe Yvon
LanguageEnglish
SubjectAncient Rome
Publisher Little, Brown (UK)
Publication date
2003
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePaperback
Pages378
ISBN 978-1-4000-7897-4
LC Class DG266 .H64 2005

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic, or Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic, is a popular history book written by Tom Holland, published in 2003.

The book tells the story of the end of the Roman Republic and the consequent establishment of the Roman Empire. The book takes its title from the river Rubicon in the northern Italian peninsula. In 49 BC, Julius Caesar crossed this river with his army and marched on Rome, breaking a sacred law of the Roman Republic and throwing the nation into a civil war.

Reception

The book won the 2004 Hessell-Tiltman Prize. The Hessell-Tiltman prize is awarded annually for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content. Entrants are to be books of high literary merit – that is, not primarily written for the academic market – and can cover all historical periods.

The Observer described the book as "a modern, well-paced and finely observed history which entertains as it informs... That he makes a complicated historical period comprehensible is a tribute to broad research." [1] A reviewer in the German Damals magazine wrote that while the book contributed nothing essentially new it was still an asset for bringing a whole era back to life in a sovereign and coherent manner. [2] Rubicon has received favorable reviews from the Houston Chronicle , The Seattle Times , the Los Angeles Times , and others. [3] [4] [5] [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Peacemakers</i> (book) 2001 book by Margaret MacMillan

Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War (2001) is a historical narrative about the events of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. It was written by the Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan with a foreword by the American diplomat Richard Holbrooke. The book has also been published under the titles Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World and Peacemakers: Six Months That Changed the World.

The PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize is awarded to the best work of non-fiction of historical content covering a period up to and including World War II, and published in the year of the award. The books are to be of high literary merit, but not primarily academic. The prize is organized by the English PEN. Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman was a member of PEN during the 1960s and 1970s; on her death in 1999 she bequeathed £100,000 to the PEN Literary Foundation to found a prize in her name. Each year's winner receives £2,000.

Rubicon is a river in northern Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Holland (author)</span> English popular historian and writer (born 1968)

Thomas Holland is an English author and popular historian who has published best-selling books on topics including classical and medieval history, and the origins of Islam.

Mark Mazower is a British historian. His areas of expertise are Greece, the Balkans, and more generally, 20th-century Europe. He is Ira D. Wallach Professor of History at Columbia University in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Moorhouse</span> British historian (born 1968)

Roger Moorhouse is a British historian and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Hicks (archaeologist)</span> British archaeologist and anthropologist

Dan Hicks, is a British archaeologist and anthropologist. He is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. His research is focused on contemporary archaeology, material culture studies, historical archaeology, colonial history, heritage studies, and the history of art, archaeology, anthropology, and museum collections.

Bryan Ward-Perkins is an archaeologist and historian of the later Roman Empire and early Middle Ages, with a particular focus on the transitional period between those two eras, an historical sub-field also known as Late Antiquity. Ward-Perkins is a fellow and tutor in history at Trinity College, Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Clark</span> Australian historian working in England

Sir Christopher Munro Clark is an Australian historian living in the United Kingdom and Germany. He is the twenty-second Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge. In the 2015 Birthday Honours, he was knighted for his services to Anglo-German relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vic Gatrell</span> British historian

Vic Gatrell is a British historian. He is a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Charlotte Higgins, is a British writer and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Reynolds (historian)</span> British historian

David Reynolds, is a British historian. He is Emeritus Professor of International History at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.

Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' association with 145 centres in more than 100 countries. The President of English PEN is Margaret Busby, succeeding Philippe Sands in April 2023. The Director is Daniel Gorman. The Chair is Ruth Borthwick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toby Wilkinson</span> English Egyptologist and academic (born 1969)

Toby Alexander Howard Wilkinson, is an English Egyptologist and academic. After studying Egyptology at the University of Cambridge, he was Lady Wallis Budge Research Fellow in Egyptology at Christ's College, Cambridge and then a research fellow at the University of Durham. He became a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge in 2003. He was Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Lincoln from 2017 to 2021, and then Vice Chancellor of Fiji National University from January 2021 to December 2021. Since 2022, he has been Fellow for Development at Clare College, Cambridge.

Mark Thompson is a British historian. The most recent of his four books is Birth Certificate: The Story of Danilo Kis (2013), which was described by Adam Thirlwell, in a lead review in the Times Literary Supplement, as "a great biography of the work as much as the life".

<i>Return of a King</i> 2013 book by William Dalrymple

Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, written by the Scottish historian William Dalrymple and published in 2013, is an account of the First Anglo-Afghan War from 1839 to 1842.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Olusoga</span> British historian and television presenter (born 1970)

David Adetayo Olusoga is a British historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and filmmaker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. He has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contributed to The One Show and The Guardian.

Edward Wilson-Lee is an English literature academic at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and a specialist in the literature and the history of the book in the early modern period.

Black and British: A Forgotten History is a four-part BBC Television documentary series, written and presented by David Olusoga and first broadcast in November 2016, and a book of the same title written by Olusoga to accompany the series.

References

  1. Elizabeth Speller (25 August 2003). "First among equals, the Roman way". The Observer. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  2. Raimund Schulz (2016). "Römische Geschichte, als sei man dabei". Buchjournal. Damals (in German). Vol. 48, no. 1. p. 54.
  3. Nash, Melinda 'Rubicon' by Tom Holland Houston Chronicle. February 3, 2016
  4. Dietrich, William 'Rubicon' takes swift, compelling course Seattle Times. February 3, 2016
  5. Owchar, Nick Revealing a Rome less known Los Angeles Times. February 3, 2016
  6. The colossi who battled to rule Rome Washington Times. February 3, 2016