“The First Man in Rome”, by Colleen McCullough

896 pages, William Morrow & Company, ISBN-13: 978-0688093686

Colleen McCullough’s The First Man in Rome is a magnificent, towering portrait of the men (and, to a lesser extent, the women) who unknowingly brought about the destruction of the Roman Republic while trying to save it. With an enchanting eye for detail (her description of the great lengths Romans will go to even while at war in order to protect the secret of a prized snail population is delightful), McCullough breathes life into some of Rome’s most famous and infamous characters. Gaius Marius is a provincial military man, a “hayseed with no Greek” in the eyes of most patrician Romans, desperate to prove himself because he knows, with every fiber of his bull-like being, that he is the best man in Rome. Protecting a dirty little secret that it has been foretold that Marius will be consul seven times – an unprecedented feat, given that you had to wait ten years between terms in office – and will become the Third Founder of Rome, Marius has the military brains and the vast fortune, but not the upbringing to rise to his destined station.

All that changes when the head of the impoverished-yet-impeccably noble Caesar clan, Julius (no not that Julius; he comes later in the series) offers an alliance with Marius: marriage for cash. In one fell swoop, allied with the Caesars (descended directly from Venus herself), Marius is on the rise. Also rising, from even greater depths, is the wolf-like Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Of almost as noble of birth as the Caesars, Sulla is even more destitute, forced to share his bed with women who love him desperately. Too creepy to be called sinister, depraved but not quite evil, Sulla is only too willing to use poison to achieve what ends he may. Sulla is one of McCullough’s great characters, and he far more complex than Marius.

Eventually, Marius and Sulla go to war in Africa against Rome's rival, Jugurtha, and victories there lead to Marius' command of the Roman armies against the horrifying Germans who storm out of the distant north. More than a mere military history, although McCullough has a gift for describing the horrors of battle without too much gore, The First Man in Rome also throws the reader into the middle of Senate intrigue. Led by Scaurus, the Princeps Senatus, the Roman patricians do not sit idly by as Marius rises to power. Throwing even more heft into this novel is the powerful cast of female characters. Roman society did not officially honor its women with votes, elected office, or titles, but it is clear to all and sundry that Roman women are players to be reckoned with, and this side of the story is what elevates McCullouch's efforts above and beyond so many other novels about Rome.

One advantage McCullough uses to her advantage in this, the first novel in her Masters of Rome series, is that there are relatively limited surviving historical records of this time period. We have much more extant history from later years. McCullough uses this freedom to flesh out her characters and her story as she will, and the result is wonderful. A detailed glossary, maps, and even sketches of the main characters all provide the details necessary for this time period. A must for any fan of historical fiction or of the Roman world (And to think, my mother found this on the FREE table at MediaPlay!)

“Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes and the Fall of Old Mexico”, by Hugh Thomas

812 pages, Simon & Schuster, ISBN-13: 978-0671705183

It is hard to exaggerate the quality of this magnum opus of research over what is, probably, the most incredible adventure and the most unlikely achievement in the history of humankind. Years of searching in all possible sources, as well as a lucid, vivid, and objective writing, allow us to go with Cortes and his followers into this hallucinating episode. Thomas begins by depicting the world of the Aztecs and their empire before the arrival of the Spaniards, and then he does the same with the Spain of the Reconquista, the ascent of Charles V (Charles I of Spain), as well as with the first Spanish communities in the Caribbean. Thomas also recounts the stories of the first two expeditions: one by Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, and the other by Juan de Grijalva, which successfully threw light on that unknown world, as alien as another planet. The mystery and the glimpse of fabulous riches excited the ambition of several Conquistadores, in particular Diego Velazquez, the Governor of Cuba.

Meanwhile, the first contacts – sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent – between the inhabitants of the coast and the foreign visitors, and the notice of them, start filling Montezuma with sheer terror, as they seem to coincide with ancient prophecies about the return of Quetzalcoatl (the Plumed Serpent god, told to be “white and bearded”). Most reports agree that, at the time, Montezuma was lonely, depressive, and faint-hearted. An excessive knowledge of his people's myths and traditions paralyzed the emperor. Was it the arrival of the end of the Fifth Sun, and so the end of the Mexica civilization? There you have a case of self-fulfilled prophecies. Several high-ranking nobles, including Montezuma’s brother Cuitlahuac, are decided to resist the invaders by all means, but Montezuma chooses to contemporize, sending them exquisite presents on condition that they go away. This, of course, only makes the Spaniards salivate with greed for more. On his side, Cortes himself faces rebellion and intrigue, which he confronts with his habitual audacity, cunning, and even cruelty. By the way, the famous ships were never burned, but dismantled in order to take advantage of wood, nails, etc.

At the same time, he forges a fragile alliance with several tribes, especially the Tlaxcaltecans, who long to get rid of the blood-thirsty Aztec regime. Cortes and his allies advance towards Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) and everything happens: the first pacific occupation of the city, Montezuma’s reclusion, Narvaez's arrival to detain Cortes, Alvarado's stupid and tragic mistake in the Templo Mayor massacre, the Sad Night, exile in Tlaxcala, the arrival of reinforcements, the final assault on Tenochtitlan, and the first years of the New Spain.

Although the cast of characters is full of interesting ones, Cortes towers above all of them, by far. Hero or villain? Both and none. It's kind of silly to try to apply modern sensibilities to people of this time. The Spaniards were cruel and imperialistic; so were the Aztecs. Cortes is the prototype of the audacious man. Time and again the reader is amazed at the courage, cold blood, lucidity, and mental strength of this man with no previous military training or experience. Leader, boss, strategist and consummate politician, Cortes achieves the unthinkable. Even if one takes into account his incredible luck in finding numerous and willing allies, it's hard to think anyone else would have been successful. It is, of course, a very sad story: for all the Aztecs' savagery, their final fate is horrible to look at. This is a major work of history, fully documented and well written. It is adventure at its best, and it was real.

“Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great”, by A. B. Bosworth

352 pages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN-13: 978-0521343206

My dad bought this book from my one Christmas through the History Book Club, and I credit it with being one my many early tomes that launched my love of history. A.B. Bosworth, a Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Western Australia, is one of the leading scholars of late classical and early hellenistic Greek history. He is known particularly for his research on Alexander the Great and the historian Arrian of Nicomedia. This book is not a biography of Alexander's life – Bosworth rightly calls that “undesirable to attempt and impossible to achieve” – but rather a history of his short reign as King of Macedonia. It is one of the best and certainly among the most balanced studies of the great conqueror, which is why it is so widely used in universities around the world.

Alexander the Great is, of course, one of history’s most ambitious and colorful individuals, and he was recognized as such even in antiquity. People have for centuries attempted to find out what he was really like, often creating a personality for him out of thin air or without any caution in using the surviving sources; as a result it is possible to find many dubious “histories” of his reign or “psychoanalytical studies” of the man himself. Bosworth focuses hard on the ancient evidence as it survives and bases his study on that, making footnote references to modern works as appropriate. His grasp of the ancient sources and of modern studies is staggering, and he has a gift for sifting through the masses of conflicting theories and getting down to the core questions: “What do the sources tell us?” “What do we really know about Alexander?” We find that many things about him remain hopelessly obscure, which is precisely why he continues to intrigue us. Bosworth shows that the history of Alexander's reign can be handled in a very balanced and sober way without losing any of the drama, intrigue and fascination that characterize it. We are treated to the best of both worlds in his study.

This book is excellent both for the specialist who needs to reacquaint himself with the broader view of the period, and for the general reader who wishes to learn the basic facts about Alexander's achievements and legacy. Bosworth appeals to both by dividing the book into two parts: a chronological, narrative survey of the period beginning with the legacy of Philip II and ending with the aftermath of Alexander’s death, and a series of thematic chapters which tackle various aspects of Alexander's rule (for example, “Financial Administration”, “Alexander and the Army”, and “The Divinity of Alexander”). The general reader may gain a good knowledge of the chronological spread of the period without having to go into the thematic sections at all, while those who are interested in learning more about the wider context of Alexander's rule can do so in the second part of the book. Either way the reader will come away with a strong grasp of the basic facts and controversies surrounding Alexander’s reign, as well as an appreciation for his extraordinary impact on Western history generally. This is a wonderful book dealing with a fascinating period.