I love nonfiction and I'm very keen to learn more regarding more ancient history. The Romans is a hotly debated subject in the world of history and this was a wonderful book to add to already large catalogue regarding the subject. Very interesting.

I am endlessly amazed at the amount of detail uncovered from events that took place more than 2,000 years ago. Mike Duncan managed to piece together an entire narrative, introducing us to the main players in a society whose climb to greatness seemed to be its undoing.

I've read a lot about this period of history, but Duncan's unique approach gave me a different perspective on the unraveling of the empire. While academic, in the sense that this is not light reading, Duncan's writing style is enjoyable and engaging. This is absolutely not a dry, textbook kind of read.

We here in the U.S. often draw parallels between our nation and the Roman Empire. Those parallels are certainly here in this story. Duncan does not point them out to us, but you don't have to look hard to find them.

The most disheartening and disturbing aspect, to me, is how little politics - and people - have changed. We like to think we've evolved, grown, become more enlightened in our thoughts. To some degree, yes, we have. But, in reading this, it's all too easy to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

"The Storm Before the Storm" is a very readable popular history of the late days of the Roman republic, ending before Julius Caesar's rise to power. I had listened to some of Mike Duncan's podcast on Roman history and found the book to be quite interesting as well. Duncan does an excellent job introducing the reader to some of the prominent characters of the time, as well as explaining in simple terms the politics and conflicts of the day. I was unfamiliar with this period of Roman history, so I learned a lot. I can certainly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys history.

An Excellent Book! So much is already written about the period of the roman revolution and Julius Caesar. This book deals with the equally violent and revolutionary period before it. The time of the brothers Gracci and of Marius and Sulla has long been neglected; mostly because documentation for the period is not as effusive as the time of Caesar. Only Colleen Mccullough's great Masters of Rome fiction series and the various media adaptations of Spartacus's story touch it famously, until now. This book wonderfully and expertly fills the gap. With a fantastic narrative flow it gives a great historical account. This book is awesome and I highly recommend it.

This book is just so readable. For an historical non-fiction book meant to be read by the masses there is no higher praise. If you like the authors podcasts you will love this book and if you loved the book but haven't heard his podcasts then you really should give them a listen. He has the unique, coveted ability to educate and entertain at the same time. This book and the podcast it grew out of (The History of Rome) are both in-depth, thoroughly researched accounts of a really interesting and exciting time. Roman history is far from new territory and he tells the stories you've heard but he also tells a few that you haven't and is so engaging through-out. I would recommend this to Roman History fans, Mike Duncan fans and anyone who loves popular history and reading to learn.
I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting and fairly in-depth look at the social and political disruptions that led to the downfall of the Roman Republic, The Storm Before the Storm is a worthwhile read. Starting in the mid-100s, Mike Duncan details the breakdowns in government, including major issues with corruption, power struggles, and infighting within the government. Romans were weary of wars and the demands said wars placed on their coffers, and the Republic soon found itself on the brink of disaster. This book was a new look at the fall of the Republic and could be a good supplemental text to history class studying the subject. The Storm Before the Storm was right up my alley, and I'm glad I took the time to read this book. This book gets 3.5 stars from me, but I've rounded up to 4 stars since fractions aren't an option.

I received this ARC courtesy of the publisher via Net Galley.

Another book filling one of the blind spots in my Roman knowledge, this time the period from the fall of Carthage to the rise of Caesar. The introduction suggests parallels with modern America, but mercifully we are left to draw our own conclusions, rather than being smacked around the head with them. Though they're not hard to find when you consider, for instance, the 133 BC Lex Agraria, which proposed to help the landless poor by evicting the rich from public land they were occupying illegally in the first place. The rich, of course, considered this the most impertinent theft, their representative resorting to unprecedented obstructions to halt it. And equally predictably, any fightback against those obstructions, itself being necessarily unprecedented, they painted as nascent tyranny. Of course, back then they didn't have Murdoch or Cambridge Analytica to convince the poor to vote and demonstrate against their own interests, so the measure did eventually pass. Ah, progress.
(I mean, yes, the figurehead and his supporters were then murdered, those responsible were let off by the authorities, and the reforms were systematically undermined. But they did pass)

And this is the repeated theme: the failure modes of democracy. The rule of law shades into oligarchy, aided by legislative capture, and politics increasingly becomes a fight between different monied interests - though in many ways more sops were given to the poor then than now. Yes, purely to buy their allegiance, but compared to the new gospel of endless austerity, it still seems positively proto-Keynesian. And as the bad blood builds over the generations, the rival factions are increasingly concerned less with any positive aim than simply screwing the other lot, destroying either their person or their legacy, leaving intact only that which seems entirely unassailable while the whole scene shades darker year by year. And each time someone outrages the norms of the political scene, you can see why - because this stuff does matter, because it seems so crazy to let the rules dictate a loss when you can bully a win - but it also makes the next outrage that little bit easier, until everything collapses and the Empire rises.

Still, that's the general, and this is equally a book about specifics, even if many of those specifics are themselves generals. Names I vaguely knew - Marius, Jugurtha, the Gracchi - now finally have people attached. Unknown unknowns such as the Social War are now known knowns. It's maybe light on the fruitier details one generally hopes for in a Roman history (though I did appreciate the ingeniously gruesome method for maximising your return when a bounty is the weight of the target's head in gold), but Duncan makes up for that with a knack for capturing character (I particularly liked the characterisation of Mithridates' preparations for ruling as "a seven year training montage"). And Sulla especially is a fascinating individual; upturns and basically takes over the Republic, institutes a prototypical reign of terror, is declared Dictator with an unprecedented lack of expiry date...and after a couple of years in charge is OK lads, sorted the state out for you, I'm off to my country pad to get pissed. If only his settlement had survived his death, one wonders if that example might have made for a less bloody history than the Caesars' did.

(Netgalley ARC)

The late Roman Republic is one of the most studied and most familiar periods of history. Even the average American - famously ignorant of history - could probably tell you what happened to Julius Caesar or the name of Cleopatra's lover (thanks in no small part to Shakespeare's plays). But there's surprisingly little attention paid to the period before Caesar, the events that set the stage for the fall of the Republic. Mike Duncan, host of the excellent History of Rome Podcast, takes a stab, writing the first book focused exclusively on the period 130-80 BC I have seen. It's a smart move, not just for a first-time author trying to make a name for himself, but also because it will introduce readers to an important part of Rome's history.

As Duncan argues in the introduction, the 50 years between 130-80 BC helped set the stage for the collapse of the Republic. Domestically, the polarization between conservatives (optimates) and populists (populares) prevented the Republic from undertaking necessary reforms. The Gracchi brothers, two senators who attempted to push redistributive land reform, were ultimately murdered for their efforts. Duncan then chronicles the rising tensions on the Italian peninsula as Italians became increasingly forceful in their demands for citizenship. The Senate eventually caved and granted Italians citizenship (but tried to dilute their voting rights through gerrymandering). Meanwhile, Rome faced a variety of threats on its periphery from tribes and former client states, including in Numidia and Gaul. Roman diplomacy and military force finally quelled these threats after years of fighting. However, Rome was then wracked by civil war as two of its top generals, Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, fought for the right to lead Rome's armies east against King Mithridates of Pontus. The Senate had appointed Sulla, but the popularly elected Tribune maneuvered to get Marius - darling of the populares - appointed instead. Sulla marched his army on Rome, declared himself dictator, and, after years of civil war, attempted to reform Roman law to enshrine the position of the optimates.

Just as in his podcast, Duncan's writing is clear, accessible, and even sometimes funny. This is a complicated period of Roman history, but Duncan provides enough background for readers to follow along. It might have been helpful to have included a dramatis personae listing all of the major players, but Duncan does enough to distinguish the various Latin names from each other.

The issues Rome dealt with during this period - class conflict, populism, gerrymandering, inequality, polarization, breaking political norms - should be familiar to Americans in the 2010s. Duncan himself notes the commonalities in the introduction to this book, but I actually thought that comparison would have been more effective in an epilogue, after the reader had gained a better understanding of the Roman history. This type of historical comparison could have been really interesting, but as is it just seems more like a way to catch the reader's attention than a sustained analysis. Likewise, Duncan does provide an effective summary of how the problems of 130-80 BC ultimately led to the collapse of the Republic, but he never quite provides a definitive analysis of why Rome took such a turn for the worse during this period. He mentions a few possible reasons, such as the failure of land reform, but I would have liked a more succinct explanation.

Definitely recommended for readers interested in Roman history.

[Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review]

A amazing informative dramatic retelling of the fall of the Roman Empire. Ducan gives us a vivid picture of the vibrant, diverse, chaotic but ultimately doomed Empire. He does not rehash the old theories, but provides a multifaceted complex explanation for why the western empire eventually collapse. Whilst using copious amounts of primary sources, Duncan is master of bring the inherent drama to the fore.

Mike Duncan successfully brings the same high level of narrative craftsmanship from his renowned podcasts over to the printed word, and is able to untangle yet another tumultuous period of history and its various feuding factions and warring personalities into an easily readable chronicle that can be (and most definitely will be) enjoyed by history enthusiasts.

This is a solid popular history of the generation and a half before the First Triumvirate--the period from the Gracchi brothers to the death of Sulla, which is usually simplified in popular forms or skipped in order to get to Julius Caesar or Augustus. Instead, this is an easily digestible account of the Lex Agraria, the changes to the Roman military, the Roman involvement in the breaking down of the Hellenistic kingdoms in Asia Minor, ramifications of limiting or increasing voting, the triggers that spark slave revolts and the debates over rolling out full citizenship to Italian friends and allies. Duncan knows his sources, and will explain how something is a charitable reading of someone's motives, or likely propaganda (as when the only detailed account of an event comes from Sulla's memoirs).