| The First Man in Rome | 
 enlarge | Author: Colleen Mccullough
Publisher: Avon
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  139 reviews
Sales Rank: 206064
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1104
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.8
ISBN: 0380710811
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780380710812
ASIN: 0380710811
Publication Date: August 1, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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Book Description
When the world cowered before the legions of Rome, two extraordinary men dreamed of personal glory: the military genius and wealthy rural "upstart" Marius, and Sulla, penniless and debauched but of aristocratic birth. Men of exceptional vision, courage, cunning, and ruthless ambition, separately they faced the insurmountable opposition of powerful, vindictive foes. Yet allied they could answer the treachery of rivals, lovers, enemy generals, and senatorial vipers with intricate and merciless machinations of their own -- to achieve in the end a bloody and splendid foretold destiny ... and win the most coveted honor the Republic could bestow.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 134 more reviews...
 A true epic September 6, 2008
This is one of those books that is slow to begin, bogged down with long names and heavy politics, but absolutely brimming with wonderful scenes and credible dialogue. If you can get past the first chapter, you will be well rewarded by being transported to ancient Rome. Colleen McCullough's genius is in recreating a time and place two thousand years in the past and actually making it interesting! If you enjoy Roman politics or history, you will probably become a huge fan of this series.
get some perspective August 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For those who feel the politics of today are bound to destroy the world: read this first book in McCullough's Roman Republic series and get some perspective! Everything old is new again? You bet! A friend in the military said this was recommended reading from an Army strategics trainer due to the detailed maneuvers of the Roman Army. I am a pacifist but I was completely engaged with the Army maneuvers as well as the political intrigue and personalities inhabiting these ancient names. I heard McCullough, at a book reading many years ago, describe her process for this series: she spent 13 years researching by reading as many texts & letters surviving from this era in the original languages. That way she could get a better feel for the people who wrote them, catching the nuance of how they described people, places and events. We reap the benefit of her passion! Don't be intimidated by the long Latin names; you get used to seeing them & so long as you're not trying to read it aloud, it's not too hard. If you do wish to get the actual pronunciations, she provides phonetic information in the appendices.
 Anything I can't finish gets 1 star July 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Rather boring. I was excited about the story line but was dissapointed by the actual writing. All I remember about this book is "this person marries that person and gets some money. Then there is some battle and something about some mushrooms." For such a long book there is a surprising lack of detail or drama. I got within 50 pages of the end and ask myself "why bother?"
 a larger-than-life, fascinating novel... July 18, 2008
Halfway through this book, I found myself with eyes full of dark circles. That's when I realized that I haven't had a full night's sleep since picking up this novel. Which in turn made me wonder at my reluctance towards reading another Colleen McCullough book - my last experience with the author (eons ago) was a less than tasteful story about a nurse and a bunch of recuperating soldiers during God-knows-what-war, 'cause I hardly remember anything about it (except that I vowed then never to read any of her work again). So, yeah, I'm a bit surprised to find that I immensely enjoyed The First Man in Rome (the dynamics of one of her novels ending in my pile of books to read, despite my dramatic avowal, need not be belabored here...suffice to say, "never" is such a strong word.)
Granted, not every part of this story was that engrossing. There were entries about political machinations, intrigues, and warfare that proved too convoluted for my poor imagination that I just skimmed through it (case in point: Sulla's account of the history and movement of the Germanic tribes...that was all ho-hum for me). And the latter personas in the story (Glaucia, Saturninus, etc.) were not that compelling compared to those in the time of Marius' growing fame - indeed, the ending parts of the novel felt like a last-ditch effort by the author to maintain the drama, never mind that this is entrenched in historical fact.
Other than that, McCullough's depiction of this period of the Roman Republic was so vivid and gripping - it showed an all-too human side of the Romans, from the live organism that is the Senate, with all its arrogance and flair for histrionics, to the women behind the men, and even down to the enemies of the State - every character of note was given life under McCullough's succinct prose: dialogues with unflappable honesty oftentimes coupled with unexpected humor. Rutilius Rufus' ready wit, Marius' charisma and shrewdness, Sulla's bouts between altruism and ruthlessness, and even Scaurus' reluctantly likable character who gives praise where praise is due, are just some of the figures that give verve to a largely Roman Italy. I don't know how McCullough did it, but this gargantuan scope of a story is a guaranteed page-turner.
Lengthy and heavy, but a good read. June 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
McCullough surely has done her research on this book with nearly a 100 page glossary including a Latin pronunciation guide. If you like classical history and you also like novels, this book is for you. "The First Man in Rome" is entertaining, funny at the right times, and emotional. I do believe, especially considering the size of the book, that there could have been more character development especially of the women. As soon as a female character became interesting in the story, not a word of her would come for many pages. Only after a lengthy story of a battle would one hear again how the ladies were doing and sometimes they were only mentioned through letters between the male characters. One part I could have done without was Sulla's homosexual interests in young boys which was portrayed in a funny, seemingly positive way. However, that subject thankfully wasn't dwelt upon too long, and the story moved along to more bearable topics.
All in all, McCullough did a splendid job writing "The First Man in Rome". Her descriptions of everything from Roman warfare, customs and traditions to interior design and even apparel were fabulously interesting. A long, fun read; this is a book you won't put down too soon.
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