Table of Contents
List of illustrations ix
Acknowledgements x
1 Introduction 1
Aims 1
Sources 3
Background 11
2 Sulla and Pompey, 82-79 25
Armies at the gates of Rome 25
The king of the Knights 28
Murder and robbery 30
Dictatorship and reform 33
Did Sulla know his political ABC? 37
Cui bono? The emergence of Marcus Tullius Cicero 40
3 Pompey and Crassus, 78-70 44
The revolt of Lepidus 44
Rebels and a magic fawn 45
The return of the king 50
Spartacus 53
Voices raised in protest: the tribunes stir 55
Holding Rome hostage? 57
The consulship of Crassus and Pompey,70 58
4 The key players, 69-64 62
Getting the job done: the lex Gabinia 62
The revenge of the knights: the lex Manilia 67
Crassus the Censor and the rise of Caesar 72
Storming the citadel 79
5 Cicero, 'the people's consul', 63 86
'Keeping Rome safe and sound': the Catilinarian Conspiracy 86
Examining the evidence 100
6 Friends against the world, 62-59 105
A land fit for a hero 105
The Bona Dea affair 110
The First Triumvirate 115
Watching the skies 122
7 The road to Luca, 58-56 132
'Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world': Clodius, 58 132
Sic transit gloriosus: the exile of Cicero 136
'Inexperienced in this sort of warfare': Pompey and Clodius 139
Breaking up and making up, 57-56 145
8 Disintegration, 55-52 151
The consulship of Pompey and Crassus, 55 151
The road to Carrhae, 53 154
To the Appian Way, 54-53 159
The sole consulship, 52 164
9 The die is cast, 51-48 170
No Surrender, 51-50 170
To the Rubicon 175
From Spain to Pharsalus, April 49-August 48 181
'A dead Man does not bite' 187
10 The Ides of March, 44 190
The Alexandrine War, October 48-June 47 190
'Veni, vidi, vici', June 47-June 46 193
Caesar the reformer, July 46-October 45 197
'Caesar had to suffer Caesar's fate', October 45-15 March 44 201
11 Antony and Octavian, 44-42 208
Burying Caesar 208
The Sudden son 214
Enemy of the state 218
From Philippics to Philippi 222
12 Antony and Cleopatra, 42-30 228
The boy who lived 228
Bestriding the narrow world 231
'A Slight, unmeritable man': three become two 235
The last Pharaoh? 239
The phantom battle 241
Asp and aftermath 246
13 From son of Caesar to Augustus, 30-18 249
The homecoming king? 249
A regular guy: the 'First Settlement' 252
Wars without glory 256
If at first you don't succeed: the 'Second Settlement' 257
The right-hand man 262
Local trouble and glory without a war 265
14 The first family, 18-2 269
Procreation for the nation: fathering the fatherland 269
Augustus the priest 273
Commander-in-chief 275
First among equals: Emperor and Senate 278
Making plans for Gaius: the succession 283
15 Father of the Fatherland, 2-AD 14 290
'How sharper than a serpent's tooth': the Julias versus the Julian laws 290
The red Danube and Hermann the German 297
The stepson also rises 299
16 Society 303
The economy 303
The ring of the lords: senators 305
Knights 308
Common people 310
Et cetera: women, slaves and freedmen 311
17 Religion 315
Traditional cults 315
Immigrant gods 318
Defender of the faith 319
18 Propaganda 324
Pet poets? 324
Architecture and morality 334
19 Urbi: running the city 344
Public spaces 344
Living spaces 349
Fire and water, law and order 350
Bread and circuses 352
20 Orbi: running the empire 356
Wider still and wider 356
Power, corruption and lies 357
Publicans and sinners 363
A question of class 365
Timeline 369
Glossary 378
Bibliography and further reading 388
Index 395
