Rating: 
Summary: I loved every page...
Review: of this book. But I love reading about Julius Caesar from the point of view of Colleen McCollough always. In my opinion, I thought this was the best book of the series to date. My favorite women are Aurelia and Servilia. If I had lived back then, I would have probably been a Caesar groupie as well, based on Miss McCollough's portrayal of him. This book gives you insight into the women in Caesar's life, although that's not the whole book. There is still plenty of intrigue and politics and delightful portrayals of various characters, Cato, Cicero, Cassius, Clodius to name a few. If you want to learn about Caesar's rome, then this series is for you. Read on!
Rating:
Summary: If we only all read the history
Review: Oh, my God!!! If I didn't know better, I would say I am in our contemporary times in Washington D.C. Clashes in political forum as well as sexual escapes seem to show that times have not changed. Vivid characters clearly put you in one camp or another. There is no in between because as such men are despised by all. The book is excellent and despite my great interest in the military affairs of the Roman Empire, this book along with its precedessors enlightens me that we, Americans, are not any different from the Great Romans. Background changes but characters never.
Rating:
Summary: A good portrayal of Caesar's rise to power.
Review: The author seeks to detail Julius Caesar's rise to power
whilst concentrating on the roles possibly played by the
women in his life. The later goal is successfully achieved
unobtrusively and rounds out the characters in believable
manner.The political intrigues of the declining Roman
Republic are clearly conveyed. A must for anyone who has studied
this period of Roman history, or wishes to learn about it in
an easy reading format.
I look forward to the next in the series.
Rating:
Summary: A magnificent addiction!
Review: The four books in the Masters of Rome series by colleen McCullough are insidious. You buy the Hard cover to read it as soon as it comes out...then you buy the paperbacks as well so you can have them as you travel...then you end up with the books on tape so you can listen in the car. Better history than the history I read for my degree. Better novels than most others. I literally cannot wait for the next in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding sequel to Fortunes Favorites
Review: This 4th novel in her series on the demise of the roman republic is well researched and fun to read. Although there isn't enough on his military conquests, we expect more about the conquest of Gaul in her next novel
Rating:
Summary: An inclusive look into the daily lives of romans
Review: This author has done her research. The description of early
Rome rings true. I am eagerly looking forward to her next
book.
Rating:
Summary: best of the series...so far
Review: This is the best of McCullough's Masters of Rome series so far. It helps if you've studied Roman History, taken Latin, and aren't prudish - sex is very much a part of life in this Rome. Definitely not a book for casual entertainment purposes.
Rating:
Summary: yet another success: wonderful!
Review: THis is the episode of Caesar's career that he spent mostly intriguing in Rome: it is about how politics were run then, who the personalities were, and all the ways in which he enjoyed and used women. It is a matter of taste, but I enjoyed it as much as the earlier volumes. While the author goes a bit too much in the everyday detail at times, this is an absolutely superb place to learn about ancient Rome in the twilight of the Republic. Caesar is the sun around which all the characters orbit as he takes the reigns of power into his hands to do things that no one imagined possible. It is a portrait of genius, at times a bit too superhuman, but then he is unequalled in so many ways by anyone in the modern world. He has not yet made his greatest military conquests, but is positioning himself, which is a political struggle against a bizarre spectrum of natural enemies. The portrait of roman society also gains wonderful detail, in particular the role of religion in everyday affairs. Caesar becomes a priest, but as a source of power and as a way to stabilize his finances, which are perpetually in disarray. There are some hilarious episodes with the Vestal Virgins, forced circumcisions, and arcane battle between members of aristocratic families. Also, McCulough does not shy from giving an iconoclastic interpretation of Cicero as a vacillating and cowardly prig, however brilliant his self-aggrandising writings were; he in many ways is the most interesting character of this volume. Warmly recommended as among the best historical novels you can find and certainly one of the most distinguished series ever written about Rome. McCullogh has again done her homework and you can tell it is a work of love.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing historical read, characters are alive and real.
Review: This is the fourth book in the series about the events leading up to and including the ascension of the most famous Ceasar and Julias to ever live. The first books started out as a journal of sorts that relived the history of the the first non patrician, First man of Rome, Gaius Marius, who would turn out to be Ceasars uncle and unwittingly his mentor. The fourth book starts to read like an engrossing novel soaked in history and cultural facts that fulfills the need to know what life was like for the high born romans.
The only bad things about the books are they don't come out fast enough, and they end far to soon. I'm impressed by the hand made maps that Ms. McCullough pains over but they are not large enough to really be of much use in orienting yourself with the Ancient City of Rome. One of the other reviews here mentioned the fact that the characters were largely masculine in makeup, I think that is an interesting outcropping of Ms McCullough's history of Rome that the women, although feminine and beguiling are an intrecate part of this story. Ceasars mother is probably one the strongest women characters ever written. Her growth over the four books is an amazingly woven characterization of strength and beauty of spirit. At times I think of the character like its' someone I know, at 40 still not married I would love to meet her.
Isn't this one of the greatest compliments that you could give a writer, that you respect and would love to meet one her central female characters in a book about one of the most famous men in history
Rating: 
Summary: Et Tu Colleen?
Review: Wonderful book detailing the continued rise and rise of Gaius Julius Caesar, who comes across as a type of Machiavelli at times, and at other times a 'teflon don'of ancient Rome. Great insight into how roman women lived, a forgotten part of history.A good follow up to the previous books in the series.
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