For a train journey recently I bought a copy of 'Caesar' by Colleen McCullough, well known for 'The Thorn Birds'. I thought that it was a rather creditable and very well researched presentation of part of the history on which V comments, so I commend it to you! The general line is the Sallustian one in which there must be some truth, describing an aristocracy corrupted by greed and the availability of imperial loot, with the gossipy elements of Cicero's letters played up to give the characters life. V's sense of Pompey and Caesar as genuinely 'concordes animae' is endorsed. Vercingetorix, the rebellious Gaul, tries to persuade Caesar that the Romans need a king: so Caesar is presented as an imperialist, originally enlightened, eventually forcing on his own people the very values which he had at first considered barbaric. I'd think that this view underplays the 'civilised' monarchism of the Greeks, which must have influenced both Caesar and V, as Cairns points out in 'V's Augustan Epic'. At any rate, McCullough's novel reminded me of how many strong and vivid characters, real source material for a great epic, were involved in the Fall of the Republic. I've missed taking part in Mantovano discussion for a month or two: we've had a tough term at Durham University. May I wish everyone a pleasant Year 2000? - Martin Hughes
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