Like most people, I knew who Antony and Cleopatra were before I started this book. In the introduction Adrian Goldsworthy notes that they are two out of a handful of people that are still remembered by many over 2,000 years after they lived. I was familiar with the history surrounding their lives based on other books I have read about the time period. Those books however were focused on Julius Caesar or Augustus. So I was interested in seeing how Goldsworthy would present the story with the focus on Antony and Cleopatra.
Goldsworthy did a good job of providing a better understanding of the Ptolemy dynasty than I had previously grasped. Goldsworthy also does a good job outlining the major events in the life of Antony. There doesn’t seem to be much discussion about Cleopatra from the time she met Caesar unless Antony is there.
At times the book seemed overly repetitive. It felt like there were far more variations of the following sentence than needed. “Cleopatra had become ruler of an expanded realm through Antony’s generosity. If he lost the war then she too might lose all that she had gained.”
If you are looking to gain a greater understanding of Antony and Cleopatra there is plenty to learn in this book.
Overall I enjoyed this book and would rate it 3 out of 5 stars.
“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to them we call them ordinary things.”
Hans Christian Andersen
“Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes: it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something else is taken. Society acquires new arts and loses old instincts.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
