A fine book about the battle whose outcome created the Roman Empire.
A master historian of the ancient world’s wars turns his attention to the battle that laid the foundations for the Roman Empire and to the war’s leading characters—all the stuff of legend, poetry, and film.
Few historical figures are as written about—by Cicero, Virgil, and Shakespeare, especially—as the major antagonists of the long civil war that culminated in the decisive Battle of Actium on the western shore of Greece in 31 B.C.E., and few historians can bring such a battle alive better than Strauss, a professor of classics at Cornell and author of previous studies of the battles of Troy and Salamis. His subject here is the decadelong civil war that ended at Actium, had its celebrated denouement four years later in the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, and led to the emergence of Octavian as one of the most significant figures in Western history. Making a credible claim that an obscure engagement at the southern Greek town of Methone a half-year before the contest at Actium was the war’s turning point, Strauss sees the intervening period as “six months that shook the world.” A historian of unconcealed opinion, the author foregrounds the importance of the great Greek commander Agrippa, argues that Cleopatra and Julius Caesar were “two of the most brilliant individuals of their age,” and rates Antony more favorably than other historians. Readers will also learn much about the often overlooked and formidable Octavia, sister of Octavian and wife of Antony, Octavian’s great enemy. But the book’s strength lies less in its arguments than in the skill of the narrative. Even though written in sometimes flat prose, it’s the product of deep learning, one that avoids the distractions of scholarly minutiae and moves briskly along. It must now be considered the most up-to-date history of its subject.
A fine book about the battle whose outcome created the Roman Empire.Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982116-67-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist (1900–45) collected his work from WWII in two bestselling volumes, this second published in 1944, a year before Pyle was killed by a sniper’s bullet on Okinawa. In his fine introduction to this new edition, G. Kurt Piehler (History/Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville) celebrates Pyle’s “dense, descriptive style” and his unusual feel for the quotidian GI experience—a personal and human side to war left out of reporting on generals and their strategies. Though Piehler’s reminder about wartime censorship seems beside the point, his biographical context—Pyle was escaping a troubled marriage—is valuable. Kirkus, at the time, noted the hoopla over Pyle (Pulitzer, hugely popular syndicated column, BOMC hype) and decided it was all worth it: “the book doesn’t let the reader down.” Pyle, of course, captures “the human qualities” of men in combat, but he also provides “an extraordinary sense of the scope of the European war fronts, the variety of services involved, the men and their officers.” Despite Piehler’s current argument that Pyle ignored much of the war (particularly the seamier stuff), Kirkus in 1944 marveled at how much he was able to cover. Back then, we thought, “here’s a book that needs no selling.” Nowadays, a firm push might be needed to renew interest in this classic of modern journalism.
Pub Date: April 26, 2001
ISBN: 0-8032-8768-2
Page Count: 513
Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
An erudite guide to the biblical world.
Revelations from the Old Testament.
“The Bible has no rivals when it comes to the art of omission, of not saying what everyone would like to know,” observes Calasso (1941-2021), the acclaimed Italian publisher, translator, and explorer of myth, gods, and sacred ritual. In this probing inquiry into biblical mysteries, the author meditates on the complexities and contradictions of key events and figures. He examines the “enigmatic nature” of original sin in Genesis, an anomaly occurring in no other creation myth; God’s mandate of circumcision for all Jewish men; and theomorphism in the form of Adam: a man created in the image of the god who made him. Among the individuals Calasso attends to in an abundantly populated volume are Saul, the first king of Israel; the handsome shepherd David, his successor; David’s son Solomon, whose relatively peaceful reign allowed him “to look at the world and study it”; Moses, steeped in “law and vengeance,” who incited the slaughter of firstborn sons; and powerful women, including the Queen of Sheba (“very beautiful and probably a witch”), Jezebel, and the “prophetess” Miriam, Moses’ sister. Raging throughout is Yahweh, a vengeful God who demands unquestioned obedience to his commandments. “Yahweh was a god who wanted to defeat other gods,” Calasso writes. “I am a jealous God,” Yahweh proclaims, “who punishes the children for the sins of their fathers, as far as the third and fourth generations.” Conflicts seemed endless: During the reigns of Saul and David, “war was constant, war without and war within.” Terse exchanges between David and Yahweh were, above all, “military decisions.” David’s 40-year reign was “harrowing and glorious,” marked by recurring battles with the Philistines. Calasso makes palpable schisms and rivalries, persecutions and retributions, holocausts and sacrifices as tribal groups battled one another to form “a single entity”—the people of Israel.
An erudite guide to the biblical world.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-60189-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
