Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This is the story of Gaius Marius (157-86 BC) a novus homo (new man) from an equestrian family of landowners origin and a military genius and of Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BC) a penniless roman patrician who became partners in the army, Marius as a leader of the invictus roman legions and Sulla as an aprentice and close collaborator and related by marriage with the Julia's sisters.
This book covered the the years 110-100 BC of the Roman history, the conquest of Numidia, the overthrow of King Jughurta, the invasion of Gaul by the german hordes, the defeat of the cimbris and teutons (102-101 BC), the plans of Gaius Marius to establish veteran colonies outside Italy to expand the roman influence, language and culture and to have loyal available men in the new conquered territories in case of revolts or barbarian invasions also give an idea of how the romans legislate, fight and intrigue in the senate to win influence and power to rule in Rome and how the citizenship were divided by classes, nationalities and status.
Once again, Ms. McCullough gives us a wonderful story, an illustrative narrative and a detailed history class.
Rating: 
Summary: Collossal Roman Epic
Review: I loved this entire series, truly a staggering amount of research behind this telling of Rome's passage from republic to tyranny. McCollough fleshes out EVERYTHING in the endless pages of her story, so get ready to disappear into this world, and get ready to know more about ancient Rome than you ever thought you would. Hate to scare anyone off, but the FIRST MAN IN
ROME is not only endlessly entertaining, this is reading that makes you a better person.
Rating: 
Summary: Quit after 20 pages
Review: I love historical fiction and am a student of Roman history, so one would think that this book was tailor-made for me. I had previously read Colleen McCollough's "Caesar" several years ago and had had mixed feelings on it. When I received a copy of "First Man in Rome," I decided to give her another shot. Big mistake.I remembered exactly what turned me off about "Caesar" within about 20 pages. Plain and simple--Ms. McCollough writes what I call "porn for women." I'm not exactly a prude and am willing to cut an author a lot of slack when it comes to describing certain practices that were in vogue during certian points in history. But there is an artful way to do this and to put it bluntly, Ms. McCollough's approach is completely ham-handed and gross--worthy more of a Bob Guccione publication. Don't confuse this stuff with literature or even good historical fiction. It's cheesy romance-schlock. If it's historical fiction you want, try Robert Graves's "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God."
Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: Am I the only person who didn't like this book? I normally love historical books, but this one was incredibly boring. It was a struggle to get through it. That the author did her research is undeniable. The problem is, she seemed to be more concerned with showing off all her research than with writing an interesting story. In a historical novel, this is inexcusable. It read more like a bad textbook than a novel. She did a good job with The Thorn Birds, but this was terrible.
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