Ebook Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World, by Diana Preston
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Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World, by Diana Preston
Ebook Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World, by Diana Preston
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From Publishers Weekly
Going beyond the charisma and romance of two of history's greatest lovers, L.A. Times Book Prize–winner Preston (Before the Fallow) vividly puts their lives in the larger political context of their times. Preston explodes the legends, saying Cleopatra was less a seductress than a politically shrewd ruler, and Antony was not a hotheaded megalomaniac. Preston chronicles Cleopatra's life from her royal upbringing to her marriage to the new Roman emperor Julius Caesar, motivated, says Preston, by political ambition. After Caesar's murder, according to Preston, Cleopatra was wise to join political and sexual forces with Antony, who won favor in her eyes for rebelling against Octavian. For his part, Antony remained loyal to Cleopatra, viewing her as a partner with whom he could rule the Roman Empire. Although the tales Preston rehearses are familiar ones, she provides a rich context and speculates that if Antony and Cleopatra had defeated Octavian, then Cleopatra might have ruled in Judea more benignly than Herod. Her reception of Jesus of Nazareth might have been very different than Herod's, and history itself might have been altered. 30 b&w illus., one map. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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About the Author
Diana Preston is an Oxford-trained historian and author of Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima, which won the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and T echnology, Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy, The Boxer Rebellion, A First Rate Tragedy, and The Road to Culloden Moor. With her husband, Michael Preston, she has coauthored A Pirate of Exquisite Mind and Taj Mahal.
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Product details
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Walker & Company (March 31, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802717381
ASIN: B0085SDZGK
Product Dimensions:
6.5 x 1.4 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.6 out of 5 stars
18 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#1,786,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I have just recently got into ancient Rome. I can't believe that I used to think this kind of thing was boring when I was a teenager! If I only knew that the ancient Romans were sleazy, violent, promiscuous, and insane, I might have felt differently. A couple of months ago I was bored and I was looking on HBO for something to watch On Demand. I noticed that they had the entire series of Rome on there, and I remember thinking it looked kind of good. Well, from the first minute I was hooked. I quickly watched the entire series, and wanted to learn all I could about these fascinating people. Some books on this subject can be kind of dry, but definitely not this one. It's hard to believe that this happened two thousand years ago. It reads like the author was there herself. It's amazing how much has survived from that time. All the letters, and monuments, etc. And my favorite person has got to be Marc Antony. (And if you haven't watched "Rome" you need to watch it just for James Purefoy's performance of Marc Antony.)This book is so well researched and written it almost feels like a novel. Everything was so dramatic back then. And I always wonder if these people knew that they would be in all the history books, and be talked about for thousands of years. You can tell that the author loves ancient Rome as much as I do. I was so impressed with her writing that I went out and bought her book on the sinking of the Lusitania. (Which is three times as long as this book was, and I'm only about 1/10th of the way through it).I would recommend this book to everyone. You don't need to be a history scholar to understand it, and it doesn't read like a history textbook from high school, which, unfortunately, a lot of books on this subject do. I really enjoyed it, and I am glad that I bought it, so I can loan it to friends. I look forward to reading more from Diana Preston.
Diana Preston's Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World is a well-told history of this infamous couple. The best parts of the book are the rich descriptions of the luxuries of Cleopatra's court. The days of feasting and debauchery are mind-boggling, even by the standards of today's college students. In one scene, Cleopatra bets that she can throw a meal worth 10 million sesterces, and then achieves this by throwing one of her diamond earrings into the vinegar!I wouldn't say there's anything particularly new or different about this book. In fact, it is really geared toward "popular" audiences (the first page even has a footnote that all dates are BC). If you're unfamiliar with the ancient world, this is a good book to start with. Preston gives a long and thorough "back history" of the Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Egypt. However, if you're a history buff, it might seem like there's too much general history, not enough detail about Antony and Cleopatra. For the latter audience, I suspect Adrian Goldsworthy's new Antony and Cleopatra would be a better bet.
Toga drama galore in "Cleopatra and Antony" by noted Oxford educated history Diana Preston. In 300 pages the author separates the two famous lovers from myth and gives us a portrait of two powerful personalities. Cleopatra was quite a dame! She was the last of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Greeks who had ruled Egypt since the death of Alexander the Great. She spoke seven languages, was well schooled and a good queen of Egypt for almost twenty years. Cleopatra was also a crafty political operative who quashed her younger brother's bid for power and was not adverse to killing opponents. Cleopatra bore a child by Julius Caesar. The boy named Caesaron would be murdered by Octavian's soldiers. Following Caesar's assassination in 44 BC she fled to Egypt. It was in Tarsus she first met by Mark Antony. Antony was a Caesar supporter who helped in the elimination of his assassins including Brutus and Cassius. Antony was a notorious womanizer, drinker and doughty warrior whose courage was real. He comes across as an earthy man who truly loved Cleopatra despite affairs with other women. He had three children by Cleopatra. His rival for Roman dictatorship was Octavian the grandnephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar. Octavian became the first Emperor of Rome following his defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the decisive sea battle of Actium in 31 BC. Antony and Cleopatra chose suicide rather than capture and execution by the victorious Octavian. Antony died with a sword thrust; Cleopatra may have been bitten to death by an asp or cobra but her mode of death is unclear. Preston's book not only details in clear and understandable prose the political affairs of the volatile first century but also opens the door to Egyptian and Roman customs from sexual practices to religious beliefs.Diana Preston is not a specialist in the ancient world but writes for the educated general reader. Her book will both entertain and instruct the reader. An added bonus is the fascinating reconstruction of a bust showing what experts believed was Cleopatra's real life appearance. She was probably plump, hawk-nosed with an olive complexion. She died at only 39 years of age.
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