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The Collapse of Rome: Marius, Sulla and the First Civil War Paperback – July 8, 2020

by Gareth Sampson (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 89 ratings
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Full of fascinating famous characters from Marius to Sulla and Pompey, this narrates and analyzes a crucial period in Rome's history.

By the early first century BC, the Roman Republic had already carved itself a massive empire and was easily the most powerful state in the Mediterranean. Roman armies had marched victoriously over enemies far and wide, but the Roman heartland was soon to feel the tramp of armies on campaign as the Republic was convulsed by civil war and rival warlords vied for supremacy, sounding the first death knell of the Republican system. At the center of the conflict was the rivalry between Marius, victor of the Jugurthine and Northern wars, and his former subordinate, Sulla. But, as Gareth Sampson points out in this new analysis, the situation was much more complex than the traditional view portrays it and the scope of the First Civil War both wider and longer.

This narrative and analysis of a critical and bloody period in Roman history is an ideal sequel to the author's Crisis of Rome (and a prequel to his first book, The Defeat of Rome).
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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pen and Sword Military
  4. Publication date
    July 8, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1526781913
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1526781918
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"These events were of great important in setting the stage for the final generation of the Republic, and with The Collapse of Rome, Sampson helps throw fresh light on them, making this a valuable read for anyone interested in Roman History."
The NYMAS Review

About the Author

After a successful career in corporate finance, Dr. Gareth Sampson returned to the study of ancient Rome and gained his PhD from the University of Manchester, where he currently teaches ancient history. He has made a detailed study of early Roman political history and in particular the political office of the tribunate of the plebs. He is currently engaged in a study of the power struggles and the civil warfare of the late Republic and its expansionist policies in the east.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pen and Sword Military; Reprint edition (July 8, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1526781913
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1526781918
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.14 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 89 ratings

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Gareth C. Sampson

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
89 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Brian E. Wright
5.0 out of 5 stars After an excellent introductory chapter
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2016
Verified Purchase
I found the book very helpful in gaining an appreciation of the events and issues dominating this chaotic twenty-year period. After an excellent introductory chapter, I did find myself getting bogged down in the minutiae of innumerable battles and controversies over the historical record. Thankfully, the author does a good job of summarizing the essential points in each chapter and making clear their significance. This allowed me to bypass some of the detail and concentrate on the analysis of the events. There is some repetition throughout, but I found this a virtue in reinforcing the important elements of the author's argument. The final chapter is a clear, concise overview of the era and its significance in setting the stage for the coming of Caesar.
11 people found this helpful
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Kenneth C. Hohhof
4.0 out of 5 stars The period covered by this book was confusing, with ...
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2017
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The period covered by this book was confusing, with Marius and his supporters, Sulla and his supporters, the Senate and their supporters going to war with each other back and forth for 30 years. Not to mention the several rebellions of the non-Roman Italians. "You can't tell the players without a scorecard" and this book does an OK job of it.
But only OK. Maybe the situation back then was so confused that nobody could explain it, but I am still not entirely sure I could say exactly what happened after reading the book.
One thing the author did not emphasize was the "Marian Reform" where Roman armies had ceased being militia called to arms for service during a crisis, and had become long-term soldiers loyal to their legions (and their commanders, instead of loyal to Rome). This change made it possible for generals to lead their armies against Rome and other armies, and should have been discussed in more detail.
Still, an informative book dealing with the years of crisis leading up to Julius Caesar and the end of the Republic. Worth reading.
17 people found this helpful
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Fred
3.0 out of 5 stars A previously working republic falls apart.
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2016
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This is a hard book to read because you have to know a lot about how the Roman Republic worked and while I had a good idea about what happened in the Punic Wars and the time Julius Caesar and later, I was weak on this area. Bone up on the Roman Republic and its institutions and offices before you start this book and it will flow better. The other problem is that the period of time this book deals with is poorly documented. Most Roman sources are lost or partly lost which puts the author in a tough position in trying to figure out what really happened and why it happened. This book will help you understand how things got to the way they were just before Julius Caesar's entry on to the scene and why the Republic was doomed. I was hoping to get a better idea of who Marius and Sulla were, what they did and why, but alas that is still pretty vague in my mind and perhaps incapable of full resolution. In light of the problems our American Republic is having, this is not comforting.
24 people found this helpful
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Jared L. Gibbs
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a good well thought out and organized book
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2015
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This is a good well thought out and organized book, not to complex, I suspect my 15 yr old son would have no problems with it, but my only complaint is the title is misleading, Marius is dead fairly early in the book, and Sulla was only a peripheral figure for large portions of the book, while it was a series of continual wars or a long civil war, as the author presents, this was not a civil war between Sulla and Marius, it was a civil war between ideals, in many wars like the US civil war.
10 people found this helpful
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C. Murphy
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2020
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Wonderful analysis of a very unstable and significant time that is often neglected in the shadow of Caesar
One person found this helpful
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patrick
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2018
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Some long passages from writers of the time included but perhaps this was necessary give the need to speculate in the absence of better and more complete sources, such as on the death of Sertorius and other chronological issues. We'll worth reading though, my impression of Marius and Sulla has changed, both seemed as power hungry as the other and each fought for personal glory.
8 people found this helpful
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Michael Herndon
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2015
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Excellent book about the struggle between Marius, Sulla & the closing days of the Roman republic.
2 people found this helpful
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Neil Myers
3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven.
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2019
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Content is fascinating, but this book is clumsily written. Looks like a hasty thesis that's been rushed into
publication before it's really ready..
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Top reviews from other countries

EBC
5.0 out of 5 stars Fine book. A must read for admirers of Brutus ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2017
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Fine book. A must read for admirers of Brutus who wished to restore a Republic which no longer existed. Caesar was right: Brutus wrong. This book covers events in the ten years before Caesar's birth through to his 20th year. A time of protracted civil war and revolt confirming that the system of governance had failed. Utterly.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The destruction of the Roman Model.
Reviewed in Australia on March 19, 2024
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Fascinating,troubling insight into how an apparently stable political system can be completely destroyed by a thousand incremental cuts to its complex fabric. So easily transferable to what’s happening in USA today !
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JPS
4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly a good and comprehensive overview
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2013
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I was initially a bit worried when first seeing the title of the book and could not help wondering whether its title - "the Collapse of Rome" - was not a bit "far-fetched" to describe the first Roman Civil War. This was especially the case since we know that Rome went on for centuries and that a numerous civil wars would follow. In fact, this title is not overblown, and the author, who seems to have worked on this period (91-70 BC) for his PhD, explains why.

I did not need to worry for the author has done a very convincing job to explain and justify the book's title, showing to what extent the collapse was political, economic and financial, and moral. Just about all the most sacred laws of the Republic was breached during the period, with mobs raised by one side lynching the leaders of the other side, or Roman soldiers mutinying and murdering their commanding officers. A step further was taken when Roman troops were actually marched on Rome, with the city being attacked, besieged and taken over several times during the period, and the opposition being purged and persecuted.

Another good feature of this book is that it does present the period and its multiple events as a whole, showing, in particular, how the various issues were intertwined and interacted. For instance the so-called "Social War" that opposed Rome and its Italian allies was a direct consequence of conquering an Empire, with the allies wanting, among other things, equal rights and an equal share to the spoils they had fought for. The clashes between Marius and Sylla, which are sometimes narrowly defined as the First Civil War cannot in fact be entirely dissociated from the Social War. In particular, Marius played on his Italian connections to recruit whereas Sylla belonged to the "blue blooded" Patricians who would have been the less favourable to such an increase in the numbers of Roman citizens and had the most to lose from it. Even the wars in Asia against Mithridates are clearly linked to events taking place in Rome, with the Pontic King choosing to attack and conquer Asia, Macedonia and Greece when Rome was distracted by its internal conflicts.

Although good and comprehensive, this overview does have a couple of problems. One is that the author tends to be repetitive. While this can be annoying at times, it also means that the book contains some padding that could have been avoiding and would have made the style more crisp and the story telling more entertaining. Another feature is the author's overabundant use of source quotations. In the second half of the book, this even, at times, comes at the expense of his comments, with these tending to paraphrase the source quotations. Also problematic, although understandable, is the author's repeated mentions that he will not describe in detail this or that piece (the Wars against Mithridates and against Sertorius, in particular), simply because there are other Pen and Sword volumes dealing with them. The price to pay for this, at times, and especially for the story of Sertorius in Spain, is that the narrative ends up by being a collection of battles about which the reader learns about through the quotations of the main sources.

As a result, and while good, this book is worth four stars, but not five.
4 people found this helpful
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B
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2017
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This should be a very interesting book about a fascinating but rather neglected period of Roman history. The author's scholarship and his mastery of his sources is very impressive. His command of English, however, isn't. His writing is turgid and often ungrammatical. The book itself is more of a chronicle of events rather than a coherent narrative. There are also mistakes in the Latin but these may just be typos.
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Mr. J. A. Nisbet
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent. Deals with a complex rarely undertaken many faceted ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2015
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Excellent. Deals with a complex rarely undertaken many faceted subject with conflicting , and hard to assimilate rare source material very well. More please
2 people found this helpful
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