As I’ve said before I’m going to be studying some Roman history sometime. I’ve got two books on my shelf that I haven’t read yet on Roman history: Rome and Carthage: the Punic Wars 264 BC to 146 BC, and Rome at War with Rome: Civil War and Rebellion 67-69 AD. As I said I haven’t read either of them yet. But they will be read soon, hopefully.
Two subjects in Roman history I want to study are the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, and also the life of Caesar Augustus, (Octavian.) Unfortunately many of the books on Caesar Augustus that I’ve found are very long, such as Augustus: the Life of Rome’s First Emperor, (432 pages,) and Augustus: First Emperor of Rome, (624 pages.) How long does a history book have to be?! Fortunately, there is one book on Caesar Augustus that isn’t so long: Augustus Caesar: A Life from Beginning to End, from hourly history.
As was said earlier I also want to study the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey. There are two books of particular interest: the Civil War by Julius Caesar himself, and Warlords of Republican Rome: Caesar versus Pompey by Nic Fields. There’s also the Storm Before the Storm: the Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic by Mike Duncan, I believe. Those books should offer some good insights into the times and causes of the Roman Republic’s downfall. Again, not sure the rise of the Roman Empire was really a bad thing. After all, that provided the climate for the coming of Jesus Christ. And so out of madness and strife came the Prince of Peace. Interesting. Also you had the Roman roads and the common Greek language of the empire. That was also a good thing for the spreading of the gospel. So maybe God used the fall of Pompey and the rise of Julius Caesar to good effect. That’s kind of the way He works in history.
TeawiththeDukeofWellington 