I finished up Tom Holland’s Rubicon: The Last Days of the Republic. It was a good read and helped to make more clear to me a number of the key elements in the history of the Roman republic. That said, I did find a few of the references unhelpful and anachronistic, such as Holland’s puzzling references to “Big Business” in Rome, as if the Romans had invented the modern business corporation, to which Holland is evidently hostile. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I do recommend that readers who want the facts and the narrative to stick go through the timeline of historical events at the end first and then make a simple list of the names and important characteristics of historical persons as they go through the book.
