Antony and Cleopatra

Starred review from August 16, 2010
Readers who recognize Goldsworthy (How Rome Fell) as Britain's most prolific and perhaps finest popular historian of Roman times will find him once again at his best. Shakespeare and Hollywood portray Antony and Cleopatra as star-crossed lovers, but historians understand that Antony (83–30 B.C.E.) was Julius Caesar's right-hand man, ruthless and ambitious. Cleopatra (69–30 B.C.E.) was not Egyptian but Greek, descended from Ptolemy, whose family had ruled Egypt for three centuries. She became Caesar's mistress in 48 B.C.E. In the Roman civil war that followed Caesar's assassination four years later, Antony shared power with Caesar's adopted son, Octavian (later emperor Augustus), until they quarreled. Antony and Cleopatra first met in 41 B.C.E. and ruled Egypt together for three years until Octavian's invading armies approached, at which point they both committed suicide. Unlike many competing authors, Goldsworthy never disguises the scanty evidence for many historical events. Some of his best passages review surviving documents, discuss their biases, draw parallels from his vast knowledge of Roman history, and recount what probably happened unless, as he often admits in this thoughtful, deeply satisfying work, even speculation is impossible. Maps.

September 1, 2010

Goldsworthy follows up his admirable life of Julius Caesar (Caesar: Life of a Colossus) with a joint biography of two of Caesar's proteges. The record shows that Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, and Mark Antony, the Roman triumvir, didn't meet till 41 B.C.E., well into their busy lives, when she was 28 and he 43, although some (this reviewer included) may suspect that they encountered each other earlier during Cleopatra's visits to Caesar in Rome. Both from elite, cosmopolitan families of the Mediterranean world, Antony and Cleopatra made an ill-fated alliance, political and romantic, against the forces of Caesar's heir Octavian/Augustus. Goldsworthy credits the eventual victory of the unsoldierly Octavian to his PR savvy and his general, Agrippa, who outclassed Antony as a military leader. VERDICT Because Goldsworthy must retell the history of the civil wars of the first century B.C.E., his book could easily be called Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra. With limited source material, he constructs a plausible portrait of two practical romantics whose storied love followed the path of political advantage. Unlike Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra, Goldsworthy's book is not packaged to attract readers of bodice rippers, but these two titles are probably more alike than different: good serious books, though not necessarily for scholars or specialists.--Stewart Desmond, New York

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2010
A classicist on the ascent, Goldsworthy previously wrote Caesar (2006), to which this title is a natural sequel. It can be seen as a corrective to Diana Prestons Cleopatra and Antony (2009), which strove to give the Egyptian queen top billing in ancient historys most famous romance. Affection there may have been between Cleopatra and Caesars right-hand man, but love was a political instrument in Cleopatras relationship to Caesar and, after his assassination, to Marcus Antonius. Goldsworthy stresses Cleopatras twin goals of keeping her throne (to which Caesar restored her) and warding off Egypts annexation by the Roman Empire. As for Antony, Goldsworthy, reminding readers of contemporary hostility to him, depicts a personality to counter the condemnations left by Cicero and Augustan propaganda. Still, Antony does not come off well in Goldsworthys estimation of him as a mediocre general and a self-interested power seeker. Narrating his and Cleopatras parts in the tumultuous end of the Roman Republic, Goldsworthy skillfully integrates the partial and partisan source material into an accessible presentation of a classic tale from classical times.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)