More ancient history. I'm in the mood for it at the moment. This is a huge sweep of classical history, going from Homer up to Hadrian. It's tough going and quite long but very readable. Unfortunately, with covering such about 900 years of history, it doesn't really dwell on particular events or characters, which is a shame. I could have done with more on Sparta and Alexander and Julius Caesar!

Despite the effort of the author to not idealize democracy or freedom by framing it to its context, this book left me a taste of idealism and romanticism I cannot bear.

Well, I suppose I got what I asked for: a sprawling history of nearly 1000 years. I’m sure taking 14 pages of notes had something to do with it, but tackling this beast felt like a chore, especially when I was away from it. I relished the wild stories of depraved emperors, but lumbered through the subtle shifts of power and alterations of the legal system. Ultimately, I did get what I wanted: a better understanding of when and where famous Greek and Roman figures existed, how they related to one another, and what the political climate was like in their day. I now feel better equipped to read St. Augustine’s essays, Shakespeare’s historical plays, or even (eventually) Gibbons’ behemoth Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. However, Fox’s prose stumbled over itself pretty frequently. The flow of writing and the layout of the information left something to be desired. (The chapters themselves worked ok, but the chaos within each chapter was irritating.) Deficiencies are inevitable in such a Herculean task (pun intended) but I wish it could have been executed with clear and organized prose peppered with illuminating observations and clever turns of phrase.

There are parts that are brilliant. Others glide over huge parts of history like the reader obviously knows all about it. Lane Fox spends a lot of time on the fall of the Republic, the Civil Wars (Julius, Mark Antony, Octavian, etc) then spends only a few chapters on the whole post Octavian/Augustus period. Even less time is spent on Trajan and Hadrian. But overall it's a good book on classical world. The reader needs to have a base and an overall view of who is who and did what because Lane Fox assumes that the reader knows stuff and takes a few short cuts that can leave the more neophyte reader a bit dazed and confused.

For school. I read this ENTIRE BOOK though, so I feel like I've earned the right to add this to my shelves.