The Gates of Rome (Emperor) | 
 enlarge | Author: Conn Iggulden
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  114 reviews
Sales Rank: 639
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 640
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.7
ISBN: 0007136900
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780007136902
ASIN: 0007136900
Publication Date: September 1, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
The first volume of a sequence of novels about Julius Caesar, The Gates of Rome is at its best in its scenes of gruelling training in swordplay and dirty fighting. Iggulden's Caesar is more or less fated from the start by his circumstances to be a gifted and cynical player in the great game of Roman senatorial politics--his father is an old-fashioned servant of the public good who dies in a slave revolt. Young Caesar finds himself having to hit the ground running--family alliances throw him onto the losing side in a battle for power between generals Marius and Sulla. One reservation about Iggulden's story is that he simplifies the pushing and shoving of Rome's two most powerful men to a degree that makes Caesar's choices and loyalties too simple--this is a version of Rome in which politics is only about power and never about ideas. Caesar's friendship with his blood-brother Marcus is too redolent with historical irony--Marcus will be his assassin--and Iggulden is a little novelette-ish in his portrayal of young Caesar's affairs of the heart. This is a competent, routine account of material that deserves better than this handling of it. --Roz Kaveney
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| Customer Reviews: Read 109 more reviews...
 More hysterical than historical... January 3, 2009
I enjoy historical fiction and have read quite a lot of books of that genre over the years. The best examples manage to combine an entertaining plot line with historical accuracy when dealing with important historical facts. For me, this book fails on both counts.
Iggulden's plot and writing style are far too simplistic. As for historical accuracy, there are so many glaring errors that I couldn't stop myself from laughing at times. I won't be reading the rest of the series, that's for sure.
I'd suggest you avoid this at all costs and, as an alternative, recommend Colleen McCullough's wonderful "Masters of Rome" series which begins with "The First Man in Rome".
Exhilarating January 1, 2009
The one-star reviews of this book are hilarious - fusty, elitist history buffs working themselves into a lather about the lack of historical accuracy! One wonders why they would even pick the book up when they're obviously more at home with a weighty, "serious" tome on the subject. For those of us who want to be entertained, informed and taken on a rollicking roller coaster ride, The Gates of Rome is just the ticket. No-one in their right mind would mistake it for a history book, yet it is informative and educational about the day to day minutiae of Roman life. The plot reads like the best of thrillers, sweeping the reader along and defying him to put the book down. A must-read - but only for the Plebeians, of course.
 Disappointing overly Fictionalized Biography of Julius Caesar December 11, 2008
As many other reviewers have noted, and as Iggulden himself admitted in the afterword, he took many "liberties" with the facts in this book. Since I don't recall ever reading a book about Julius Caesar's boyhood previously, I was interested in reading it. (It covers age 10 to age 17 or so.)
I had read Iggulden's book about the youth of Genghis Khan and that was a good book in my opinion, very fast paced, interesting, and stayed close to the known facts, as far as I could tell, so that was another reason I wanted to follow with more of his historical fiction.
This book however is so far off the charts historically, & I have to wonder why, when it wouldn't have been that hard to stick with what was true. The facts of Caesar's life were fairly interesting, but apparently Iggulden wanted to have Caesar and Brutus grow up as childhood best friends, so that the later irony would be all the more...ironic? He would have done better to have made this book an entirely fictional book set in that era, about two boys growing up in that tumultous time and aimed in at the YA group, as it does seem to be a book many in that age group would enjoy, as well as many adults. However, I'd hate to recommend it to a young person as a biography of Caesar as a boy, since the facts are so wrong. Its really a shame, the Colleen McCullough books ("Masters of Rome" series) are great, but are also really long, and require stick-to-it-ness, with all the confusing, similar names, and the indepth looks at the political parties, confusing family/clan histories, and military history thrown in.
This book is the opposite, a light, readable historical fiction...if only he'd stuck closer to reality!
 Buy the set! October 22, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is probably the most fictional of the series, as this sets the story of our hero from a young boy. As usual Iggulden blends fact and fiction together in such a way that you dont know which is which to create a real page turner of a book, and in the same time giving you an insite into life 2,000 years ago as if it was today
 Take it for what it is - pure fiction. October 9, 2008
I wouldn't usually pick up a book in this genre but borrowed it on holiday when I had nothing to read. I was left pleasantly surprised but also slightly dissapointed. Surprised that I quite enjoyed the story - although it is just that, a story. Disappointed because I studied classical history and civilisation for 5 years and Iggulden does not follow historical fact although he is more accurate in the personality of the classical society and what they counted as important in life, and death. However, I will suspend belief and read the rest of the series.
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