Book
Fortune’s Favourites
First published 1993
Italy and Rome, 83 BCE. Sulla returns from the war against Mithridates with a veteran army and defeats the government that has ruled in his absence. As dictator, he uses proscriptions, confiscations and constitutional reform to destroy enemies and restore senatorial authority on his own terms. The young Julius Caesar, connected by marriage to the defeated Marian faction, must decide whether submission, exile or calculated defiance offers the best chance of survival.
After Sulla withdraws from power, three younger men exploit the political order he leaves behind. Pompey converts private armies into public command, Marcus Licinius Crassus turns wealth and patronage into authority, and Caesar begins the patient ascent that will make him their rival. The revolt led by Spartacus exposes Rome’s dependence on slavery and gives Crassus and Pompey another opportunity to transform military victory into political power.
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