“Caesar: Let the Dice Fly”, by Colleen McCullough

664 pages, William Morrow & Company, ISBN-13: 978-0688093723

Caesar: Let the Dice Fly by Colleen McCullough is the fifth book in her “Masters of Rome” series and spans the years 54 to 48 BC. The series has a thesis (first introduced in 1939 by Sir Ronald Syme in his epic historical treatise “The Roman Revolution”): as Rome became more powerful within the Mediterranean world, the old ways of doing things – through the deliberation of various interests, mainly aristocratic and mercantile – became impossibly cumbersome. It became more and more difficult to govern an empire with institutions originally designed to administer a city-state. Certain powerful leaders (especially Marius, Sulla, and Caesar) tried to create a state in which they had autocratic power but also preserved the externals of the old ways. They were opposed by the conservatives (called the optimates by classical historians, though they themselves preferred the title boni or “good men”). The obtuse or simply ignorant resistance of these reactionaries, who are all (except for Cato) presented as degenerate or self-serving, made the creation of an autocracy necessary. The result was the birth of an imperial monarchy, and a radically different organization of power. Each book in the series features a detailed glossary, hand-drawn illustrations of the major characters, and notes by McCullough detailing her reasoning for portraying certain events in certain ways.

The novel opens in 54 BC, with Caesar in the middle of his epochal Gallic campaigns, having just invaded Britannia. The first half of the novel deals broadly with the conclusion of his conquests in Gaul, and the second half narrates the growing sense of unease in Rome concerning Caesar’s intentions, the antagonism of the conservative boni faction towards him, his crossing of the Rubicon, his invasion of Italy and his victory in the Civil War. Some of the pivotal moments include Caesar’s return from Britannia; his narrow escape during the Battle of Gergovia; his great victory at the Siege of Alesia; his final destruction of the Gallic resistance at the Siege of Uxellodunum; the death of Julia and Marcus Licinius Crassus; his falling out with Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and the final collapse of the First Triumvirate system; his failed negotiations concerning his re-election as consul; the opening of the Civil War; the Battles of Dyrrhachium and the of Pharsalus; the flight of Pompey to Ptolemaic Egypt and his assassination there; and the scattering of the boni leadership. That’s all.

McCullough makes no apologies in her historical favorable depiction of Caesar, and she does not brush aside what today we would consider his war crimes – although Caesar, and the people of his day would have laughed at the very concept of a war crime – as war was destroy or be destroyed, no rules, not a game fought by gentlemen and guided by international law. So yes, Caesar in the process of his conquests killed over a million people, enslaved an equal number, cut off hands etc., and was ruthless; in the end, he accomplished what very few in the world have ever been able to accomplish: Peace; the Roman Peace, or Pax Romana, that lasted centuries. Of course, there were rebellions to be put down, but large scale warfare that affected the whole empire was a thing of the past for that time. McCullough provides such depth into the understanding of ancient Rome and the world that surrounded it, that one comes to appreciate Caesar, for all his flaws (and he had several) as – yes I will say it – for his day Caesar was very much a liberal: he was not at all a racist and was very inclusive; he did not look down on people and appreciated men of accomplishment vs birth. Bottom line is that McCullough makes Caesar a real person (of tremendous ambition and intellect) – puts ancient Rome in a light that was truly Rome, not the fabled Rome of gladiators and circuses – but of real men and women of that time.