Rome’s Revolution: Death of the Republic and Birth of the Empire by Richard Alston (review)

Rome’s Revolution emphasizes the role that the soldiers, as well as the informal political networks and connections that predominated in Roman politics, played in the period from the assassination of Julius Caesar to the establishment of the empire. Alston complains in his preface that “conventional accounts of the revolution have become bloodless” (viii) without citing any particular offenders. Unlikely: the proscriptions of the triumvirs, wars civil and foreign, battles fought in venues from the Alps to Armenia, and the assassination of Caesar himself guarantee that blood remains integral to an account of the wars. That said, the violence of the revolution and the role that the soldiers played as both dispensers and arbiters of that violence remain to the fore throughout this work.

Alston begins with the murder of the dictator in 44. He notes that the belief that Caesar felt some special concern about his status as dictator for life lacks merit; in all likelihood, Caesar embarked on his last day with his customary confidence, and the assassination may have been more shocking to him than to most of the senate. A retroactive chapter then covers events from the conflict of Marius and Sulla to Caesar’s civil war with Pompey.

Alston’s real tale begins after the assassination. Alston notes the hostility of Cicero, as opposed to the general neutrality of senators, many of whom supported Antony. He relegates Octavian’s entry into Italy to a flashback as he advances his tale to Mutina and gives a detailed account of the military and political maneuvering that accompanied the campaign. Alston includes Appian’s account (BC 3.68) of the battle in the marshes at Mutina to emphasize the solid professionalism of the combatants. Reports of the victory at Mutina led to celebrations within the city, but the aftermath of the battle demonstrated Antony’s considerable skill as a soldier and politician. He extricated his defeated army without difficulty, brought Lepidus and his troops over to his side, and repositioned himself to become the ally of Octavian, who had demanded his own “seat at the table” from the senate. Alston gives a great deal of the credit to Antony himself: his charm and his political perspicacity, in contrast with the cluelessness of his opponents. Alston also emphasizes the roles that the soldiers played in reconciling Lepidus to Antony and in Octavian’s march on Rome. The union of Antony and Octavian culminated in the establishment of the triumvirate, the clinical brutality of the proscriptions, and the final suppression of the assassins at Philippi. Alston does a particularly good job explaining the financial aspects of the proscriptions as a source of funding for the triumvirs and juxtaposing his accounting to the slaughter’s horrifying effect on the Roman psyche.

The aftermath of Philippi saw Antony in the east, enjoying the pleasures offered by Cleopatra, while Octavian performed the considerably duller task of settling affairs in Italy, including the suppression of Lucius Antonius and the siege of Perusia. Alston gives full weight to the bloody slaughter that followed that city’s surrender. Antony returned from the east to support his brother, but the soldiers of Antony and Octavian persuaded the generals to renew their alliance at Brundisium.

Alston turns next to an account of the triumviral wars, of Octavian’s hard-fought victory over Sextus Pompeius and his incursions into Dalmatia, and Antony’s campaigns in the East against the Parthians. He argues that Antony was for the most part successful, despite a later tradition hostile to the general. Alston goes into some detail on the Donations of Alexandria, Antony’s efforts to legitimize his position in Egypt, and the defeat at Actium. He adds a succinct chapter explaining Octavian’s settlement of affairs in Alexandria and the east after the suicides of Antony and Cleopatra, acknowledging that, in Roman thinking, at least, Octavian had every right...