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This one\u2019s a long post, so I\u2019ll need to break it into two posts.<\/p>\nThis one\u2019s a long post, so I\u2019ll need to break it into two posts.<\/p>\n
Two of the most powerful non-fictional books I\u2019ve ever read are Citizen Solders<\/a> by the late Stephen Ambrose<\/a> – the book was incidentally one of the inspirations for Saving Private Ryan<\/a> – and the other, The First Man in Rome<\/a> by Colleen McCullough<\/a>.<\/p>\n I remember that my first encounter to the Romans of old came from abridged historical novels in my dad\u2019s collection that I read when in lower primary. It wasn\u2019t long thereafter that I was introduced to the Asterix <\/a>comic books and how a small village of Gauls continued to resisted the might of Gaius Julius Caesar<\/a>. Now, of course all that was fiction, but it was a colorful introduction for my young inquiring mind then to read up further on this ancient civilization, and that reading interest has continued two decades since.<\/p>\n I first read The First Man in Rome<\/a> in 1991. I didn\u2019t buy the book from recommendation or reviews, but really because it concerned a time of history I love reading about, and at nearly 1100 pages, it would have been a lasting read. The book has been classified as historical fiction, but it\u2019s so well researched and the characters all historically-based that I count it more non-fiction than fiction.<\/p>\n The book was the first of seven in the series, each one of them equally thick. The First Man in Rome started the saga with a retelling of Julius Caesar\u2019s uncle, Gaius Marius<\/a>: his political and military triumphs, and alliance and friendship with his protege Lucius Cornelius Sulla<\/a>. The book ended with the birth of Julius Caesar, and the start of Marius\u2019 disagreements with Sulla, which in the overall arc of history was the first rumblings of the earthquake that eventually led to the Roman Republic\u2019s downfall.<\/p>\n This book even had its own several dozen-pages glossary in which the author explained the several terms of reference, historical footnotes, and her justifications regarding the dramatization of several characters and events in the book\u2019s timeline. I still have my nearly 16 year old copy of this book now, though it\u2019s become all brown from weather and age, with well-thumbed through pages.<\/p>\n (Continued in the next entry!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This one\u2019s a long post, so I\u2019ll need to break it into two posts. Two of the most powerful non-fictional books I\u2019ve ever read are Citizen Solders by the late Stephen Ambrose – the book was incidentally one of the<\/p>\n