The Roman Republic was undoubtedly the most remarkable state in history. A handful of villagers settled among the swamps and hills, and their descendants conquered the entire known world at the time. Holland's book provides a vivid picture of the republic at the zenith of its greatness, which ultimately stood at the beginning of its fall and transformation into an imperial dictatorship. It captures the era of Julius Caesar, whose obsession with glory led him to the banks of the Rubicon, the era of Cicero, the passionate and eloquent defender of freedom, and Spartacus, the slave who dared to confront a superpower. The Romans are two thousand years distant from us, yet their ambitions and desires, self-sacrifice and massacres, everyday life, entertainment, and politics seem to be mirrored in our modern society. The book is unexpectedly relevant for another reason: contemporary United States is, after Rome, the second republic in the position of a world superpower without a single competitor.
