Customer Reviews

Augustus

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Jones does a good job of painting a portrait of Augustus from Julius Caesar's death to Augustus's own death. What Jones reveals is that Augustus was a wise ruler who tried to conceal his absolute power by putting on the trappings of a Republic, a man who prevented people from worshipping him while he was alive to prevent resentment from the nobles. Jones also shows how Augustus played a part in the great boom of literature and art during his reign (Livy, Horace, Virgil, and Ovid all lived during Augustus's reign). Although his cautious nature prevented him from being a great military leader like his adoptive father, he nonetheless ended many civil wars that plagued the empire before his arrival.

True, this book wasn't an actual biography about Augustus as it was an insight into life during the age of Augustus. While reading this book I realized it wasn't a biography of Rome's first Emperor, but I kept reading it because I wanted to know more about Rome during the reign of Augustus. I wasn't actually interested in the man himself. This book was very informative on everything I was interested in about Rome: society, religion, economy, military, the arts, and justice. It doesn't seem to try to give a biography of Augustus at all. This is not a good read for those interested in Augustus. But it's a great guide on someone wanting information on Rome during Augustus's time.

I am an absolute fanatic for history, particularly of the ancient and medieval time period. However, there are some books that, however interesting the subject COULD be, simply squeeze all the juice and sparkle out of history. This is one of them. It is bland, tedious, a maze of dry facts and endlessly reiterated names, which leaves you scarcely the wiser about what Augustus did, except for the summarizing paragraphs. I have seldom encountered a book so dreadful, boring, and impossible to read. If you love history, do not, I repeat, do not, waste your time trying to read this grey and flavorless droning.