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Title: the empire gets started
Review: This is a work of prodigious scholarship which deserves to be read and considered by all who are interested in world politics or the ancient world. Unfortunately Professor Syme seems to be overly influenced by his own times( the 1930"s)in ascribing motives to J Caesar and Octavian Caesar. It's as if they were proto fascists rather than products of an oligarchic system that needed to morph into a government to rule a far flung empire. Does anyone for a moment believe that Brutus, Cassius, Cato or Cicero and the others were capable of ruling the entire Mediterranean world, Europe, Africa and the East? The conspirators who murdered Caesar didn't have a clue on the consequences of their actions. They set into motion events which overwhelmed them and in my view forced Octavian to wipe them out and to prevent nobles like them from ever again ruling without military oversight.
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