The October Horse : A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra

Rating:
Summary: "October Horse" a fine finish
Review: After the bombast of "Caesar," which irritated me on several levels, I didn't expect to like "The October Horse." My first reading didn't give me hope; the book felt rushed, stiff, and crammed full of Colleen McCullough's infamous expositions. I put the book away and decided to try later.

Well, over a year has passed and "later" came this week, when I sat down to re-read "The October Horse" and discovered I liked it better than I thought.

"The October Horse" refers to a ceremonial horse race in Rome, whereby the winning horse was sacrificed to Mars and his head made the prize for either the Subura or Via Sacra to gain. The symbol of the October Horse for the Great Man who comes out of nowhere has been used by McCullough to mark Sulla and Caesar. Never has it been more appropriate in Caesar's case than in this book.

Having crossed the Rubicon, beaten Pompey at Pharsalus, and made plans to deal with the remaining "Republicans," Caesar goes to Egypt and there finds that Pompey has been murdered and the Ptolemaic succession is in danger. The young royals are at each other's throats and the Queen, 21-year-old Cleopatra, is desperate to save herself and her country. To do so, she must conceive a child by another God-Monarch. She and Caesar meet for this purpose, and it is curiously charming--hardly the scene of grand seduction out of movies, but sweet in its depiction of the political reality of the event.

Caesar brings stability to Egypt and impregnates Cleopatra, but matters at home in Rome, Africa and the East all require his attention. Cato has decamped to Utica; the "Republicans", led by Labienus and Metellus Scipio, are marshalling their forces for battle; and Rome has sunk into chaos thanks in part to Mark Antony, Caesar's nephew, assumed heir, and bully-at-heart with plenty of scores to settle.

Of course Caesar puts Antony in his place, restores order to Rome, and defeats the Republicans. And in doing so, he ignites the fuse of jealousy and resentment among the men he's pardoned or helped in their careers, men who owe all to him. Out of this comes the conspiracy to take his life, led by poor Brutus and abetted by Antony. But nothing transpires as they plan, and this is where the story picks up and takes off.

McCullough had introduced Caesar's grandnephew Octavius before, in "Caesar's Women," and here she reveals him as a walking enigma. Calm, controlled, sweet and even-tempered, but with a core of iron, Octavius is the last person that anyone--including Antony--would expect to inherit Caesar's wealth and mantle of power. Yet he does, and his transformation from delicate youth to natural political animal is startling as well as convincing. McCullough succeeds because she doesn't make him naive; Octavian is naturally intelligent, observant, ambitious, and burning to push himself to the edge. Used to being overlooked, Octavian learns to use his frail image as a shield, lowering it by degrees to the dismay of those who take the boy for granted.

Brutus is, and remains, a pitiful character in this story. A businessman unwillingly thrust into the military and political arena, Brutus is pushed into the assassination plot against Caesar by Porcia, his true love, whom he finally marries. His brother-in-law Cassius, whose jealousy of Caesar fills his life with bitterness, is a one-track counterpoint to him, a man who only wants glory and a world without anyone who can steal it from him. And Antony comes off as a lout, a bully, and a fool, one who comes to realize that he is in over his head when it comes to power, but who can't bear to let go of it.

The lesser characters are enthralling. Chief among the portrayals is McCullough's depiction of Cato. Easy to despise, Cato's final months reveal the contradictions within the man, the struggle between his true self and the persona he erected for his own protection and edification. I found myself mourning Cato, something I didn't think possible. Porcia, Cato's daughter, gets her one desire--Brutus--and then slowly goes mad from the stress and grief. Then again, if I had Servilia for a mother-in-law, I'd go insane too. Servilia is the most malign female character I've encountered in historical fiction, and her reaction when she discovers that her son and Porcia are wed is a hair-raiser. Likewise, her letter to Brutus detailing Porcia's suicide will have the reader on edge, deciphering along with Brutus the truth of what Servilia has truly done.

There are chunks of exposition in this book, still, and it slows down the last third until the Battle of Philippi. Then it ends in a rush, with an aftermath between Antony and Octavian that leaves no doubt in whose favor the balance has tipped. This scene is tight and powerful; unfortunately, the conclusion of the book is rather melodramatic. It works, but some tightening of the prose would have really given the reader a chill.

So yes, I liked "The October Horse," and I hope McCullough tries her hand at writing more historical fiction. The "Masters of Rome" series is a good one, and surely she'd be able to find more worthies in Roman history to write about.

Rating:
Summary: Strong, but should have been about Octavian
Review: At first read (as many have noted) this is the weakest book in the series. But on second read, it's one of the strongest. It's a culmination, and then a fresh start. And the fresh start is what salvages the book.

McCullough's subject is obstensibly Rome, but her Caesar worship crowds the rest of Rome off the stage. In an interesting way, maybe this is what the "Liberators" felt--that Caesar had become so powerful, and so fed up with the good old ways, that he was going to transform Rome completely out of recognition. The inheritors of the Famous Families knew that their ancient names wouldn't entitle them to inherit anything at all. A Rome with one man standing above all, that they could tolerate (Marius, Sulla, Pompey). But a Rome with one man changing the very fundamentals of the society--that was too much of a threat. And, in the end, they were right. Octavian's ascendency and the Empire would take power away from the Senate, the Knights, and everyone else who'd considered themselves the traditional masters of Rome.

Caesar's a burnout in this book. His contemporaries are dead (Pompey), exiled (Cato), or avoiding him (Cicero). Unlike Sulla, he has no intention of laying down his dictatorship and partying himself to death. He grimly hangs on, working, working, working. And essentially behaving like a tyrant. This leads to endless plotting among those who simply want to tear him down to salvage their own traditional positions (the Boni) and those who want to tear him down so they can be the Next Caesar (a thorougly nasty Marc Antony). A sense of gloom pervades the first part of the book. We know where this is going. And so does McCullough, who, as another poster said, was in love with Caesar. Unfortunately, the pre-ordained fall of the Perfect Roman lands with a thud. Even the title of the chapter is a cliche--"Fall of a Titan."

Fortunately, McCullough plows on and gives us Octavian, a far more complex figure. I don't even think she herself quite figured out how an 18yr old managed to not only survive, but eventually eclipse his rivals. A cold, icy calculator, sure. But Rome had no shortage of those. It's fascinating to watch as she tries to unravel this guy, to figure out just who and what the young Octavian was. And why Caesar made him his heir. Was Caesar simply thinking like a King (detested word in Rome) and grooming a successor? Or did he see a vision of Rome's future in a very young, very not-Caesar-like Gaius Octavius? It's interesting that we see none of the other Masters of Rome (Marius, Sulla, Pompey) doing the same thing in the other books. A lot of questions here, none very well answered, although the book is the better for that, just as McCullough is at her strongest when presenting those parts of Roman History that are not so well known.

And then...she stops. Octavian's on his way up, the Republic is just barely hanging on, and McCullough just runs out of gas. Why we had to get page after page of Cato trudging across Northern Africa instead of more about Octavian, I don't know. Yes, the Caesar's story has been told many times before. That's because it's a good story. If McCullough had chosen to tell more of it, this would have been a better book.

Oh, yeah, Cleopatra. What a waste. I can only imagine this was to sell more books, since Cleo is really something of a sidelight to Caesar's career. She, and Caesar's downfall could have easily been put into the previous book, leaving more room to focus on Octavian here, just as I wish she'd chosen to give us more Sulla in Fortune's Favorites, rather than the far less interesting Pompey and his dreary Spanish campaign. If Masters of Rome has a glaring weakness, this is it--a tendency to go on at length about people (Aurelia, Mithridates, Spartacus, Cleopatra) who played only minor roles in the history of Rome.

So, in summary, a good book that could have been better. One day, I hope McCullough finally sits down and finishes Octavian's story, and that she take a good, long time doing it. I don't know about the rest of you, but I *like* long books. Provided they're good long books, which Masters of Rome very definitely has provided for so many years.

Rating:
Summary: Misleading
Review: Don't get me wrong, I love Colleen McCullough's writing. She uses meticulous research to write her books, and it shows. The Masters of Rome series is (for the most part) realistic and well-written.

I'm just saying, if you read it, don't expect a novel of Caesar and Cleopatra, is all. I think I saw her enter into the novel a couple of times, but I'm not sure; it was all over so quickly. What's worse is that Cleopatra is translated into novel form half-heartedly at best, and at worst, the reader ends up hating the weak-willed, spiteful little thing. In short, McCullough's passion for Caesar is all-encompassing and blinding, and the other characters end up looking a little, well, dim.

In other words, if you're willing to accept Marcus Antonius as satan and Octavian as a savior, you may like this book. But I think some of the reasoning falls through, and that's why this book falls short of the glory of the rest of the Masters of Rome series.

Rating:
Summary: Not What she planned...
Review: I just spent the past 6 months reading this entire series for the first time.

I am very sad that this wonderful series is over. Ms. McCullough brought The Republic of Rome alive! I have never read anything as detailed and wonderful as these books. I have nothing but more desire to learn about Rome and the events chronicled in her books.

With that said, I was very disappointed with "The October Horse." Like others here have mentioned, this book feels like it was two books smashed into one. God bless her heart Ms. McCullough just ran out of juice to finish this series.

She mentioned that she owed us 2 more volumes of the Masters of Rome series but that she needed a vacation from Rome. Then came this last book which I feel was not what she originally intended to end this series with.

Sadly, I have heard that Ms. McCullough's health has declined and that she is now blind in one eye. I cannot help but feel that her health and desire to give us an end to the series just in case she was unable to do so in the coming years was the main reason for the compression of this book and the rushed feel it has.

I sat in disbelief after finishing the book that we never got to see much of Cleopatra and the war between Octavian and Antony. I had been waiting to see how she handled the events after Caesar's death and I was just completely heart broken that she built the end of the novel up to a point where it just abruptly ends with the reader left hanging. There is no sense of finality for me with this book. I feel like there is another volume in the series coming and I will hold out hope that maybe she will decide to add another one to this overall amazing series.

Rating:
Summary: One more book, please?
Review: I'm a huge fan of McCullough's Rome series. I've been entranced since "The First Man in Rome", which was quite a while ago. I honestly wish this wasn't the end.
Having said that, I found this one a little hard to get through. The dozen principle characters are well drawn and three dimensional, but the 752 other people who populate every corner of the novel kinda muddy the waters. Many seem superfluous, although those with a better classical education than I will no doubt enjoy their presence. There are passages which read so fast, I was left breathless. But there are also several passages where I literally had to back up, get some momentum, re-read a few pages, and hammer my way through.
Caesar, Cato, Octavian, Brutus, Cicero...these portrayals are so vivid they will affect every non-fiction account about this time period I'll ever read.
The worst thing I can say about this book is that now I have the urge to go back to Book One and start over. I hope she'll change her mind and take us through Octavian's life...I've got to go get some history books so I can find out what happens with him, Antony, Cleopatra, Caesarion...

Rating:
Summary: The epic series concludes!
Review: In this, the final book of McCullogh's series on the last decades of the Roman Republic, the last days of Julius Caesar are chronicled along with the first days of his successor, Octavian. For fans of historical fiction, this is a must read, a six volume epic that is part history and part political soap opera.

For those unfamiliar with the series, the hero is definitely Julius Caesar. The first two books - The First Man In Rome and The Grass Crown - serve as an extended prologue, with Caesar born in the first book and in pre-adolesence in the second; nonetheless, the intrigues of Gaius Marius and Sulla keep those books quite interesting. Caesar's rise to power is described in the next three books, and at the beginning of the October Horse, he is at the peak of his power.

For those familiar at all with Roman history, how Caesar dies and even the exact date are well-known. McCullough describes the growing conspiracy and how the various figures are drawn in. The assassination is not the conclusion of the story, however. Instead, we see Caesar's adopted son take over and hunt down the conspirators, a good epilogue to this saga.

The fun part of this story is the intrigues among the various characters: the utopian Caesar, the brutish Antony, the deceptively ruthless Octavian, the weak but idealistic Brutus and many others. McCullough fills in the gaps in the historical record with great drama and makes this novel as great as her previous ones.

This book might be good on its own, but to do it justice, you must read the five predecessors; besides the two mentioned above, there is Fortune's Favorites, Caesar's Women and Caesar. That may seem like a lot of reading, but it's all good. In addition, if you enjoy this book, you can go on to read Robert Graves's books on the early days of the Empire: I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Reading all eight books in sequence would not only give you a great grasp of Roman history, it would also be a blast to read.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as most of the series but still interesting.
Review: McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series is a remarkable achievement. Who can fail to be in awe of McCullough's research, focus, and dedication?

"The October Horse" is essentially the story of Caesar's adventure in Egypt, his subsequent assassination, and the subsequent rise of his designated heir, Octavius Caesar. It is possible to learn a lot of late Republican Roman history by reading this book.

In "the October Horse" McCullough's writing is much less like a novel and much more like a historical summary than the rest of this series. Her prose is less intimate, more detached, and frankly, less clear and direct than her other books. From this standpoint the novel was a disappointment to me. I also felt that McCullough glossed over Julius Caesar's evident megalomania in his latter days. Possibly because McCullough is herself so enamored of Caesar, whom she portrays as virtually a god on earth, she seems to gloss over Caesar's frank undermining of the key institutions of the Roman Republic. Once Caesar became dictator for life, the Republic never recovered and eventually declined into the Imperium.

One strong point of the novel is that it does a pretty good job of portraying Octavius Caesar. By the end of the novel I felt that I knew him, and that I understood how he was able to rise to eventually become Rome's first emperor.

I would have liked the novel better if it had focused more on how the Roman Republic was ultimately destroyed by Caesar and Octavius (and, to be fair, by their enemies including Cato and his "Good Men"). I felt that the novel would have been better had McCullogh engaged in more novelization and less historical summary. Despite these criticisms (which, to be fair, not everyone may agree with) the novel is a good read and certainly constitutes fine historical fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Invitation to a Travel into the Past.
Review: THE OCTOBER HORSE is definitely not up to the standard of the enjoyable earlier books in McCullough's Roman series. In all her Roman novels McCullough has had a crush on Caesar. I can understand that. Students of history do fall in love with people who've been dead for hundreds of years. I've heard that even biographers of Hitler feel some empathy. Surely Caesar was a Hitler prototype if ever there was, but McCullough can find no fault with him. He is a far-seeing "god," his edicts entirely benign. (Oh sure! Just like Mao Tse-Tung's.) Even in the novel, we can smell "tyrant" between the lines in nearly every public act of Caesar's after he became Dictator for Life, and certain of the Liberators must have had genuine patriotic grievances beyond petty jealousy.

Her portrayals of Sulla, Crassus and Pompey in the earlier novels contained some wit, irony and sympathy, and I felt sad when Pompey was murdered. Not here. When the conspirators finally got Caesar three-fifths of the way through it lacked all emotional impact, since in the early pages he had seemed no more alive than a noble statue. Octavian then carries on humorlessly as yet another "noble" tyrant. Much more believable and ironic is Robert Graves' portrayal of Octavian as old emperor Augustus who nostalgically recalls the long-gone Republic.

THE OCTOBER HORSE should be roundly criticized by classical scholars, if any bother to read it. McCullough has done much reading on the Late Republic, but she is prone to spin myths out of imagination. Despite the number of documents from the period, several plot elements rely on guesswork. I know she's a physician, but what made her decide that Octavian suffered from asthma while Cicero, who as a youth also avoided battle, was a coward? McCullough makes Cicero into the eternal nerd. (Maybe, like me, she came to loathe him after wallowing through DE SENECTUTE -- "CONCERNING OLD AGE" -- at the age of 18.)

McCullough may not be too far off the mark with Cleopatra, and her Porcia, Cato's crazy daughter, was actually more interesting than Shakespeare's sweet, wifely Portia. Unfortunately her other portrayals, of Antony, Servilia, and several well-known historical situations, lack dimension and plausibility. Her Antony is a thick-headed brute without any political skills except, she admits, oratory. When she tries to rehabilitate him at the end it doesn't work. She makes some attempt to humanize Brutus, Porcia, Cleopatra and Cato, exploring Cato's repellant character and Brutus's melancholy with dispassionate criticism and a touch of sympathy, although we come away with no real understanding of Brutus or his motivations beyond his fanatic wife's influence on his actions.

McCullough shows an understanding of warfare, politics and mob manipulation, but the novel needs to be more. Because of her uncritical adulation for Caesar, her style, especially in this book, is uneven and awkward. Quite inexcusable is her failure to warn us of the similarities between Rome and our own government's imperialist policies. The best she does is having Octavian inform us that "a world empire...means a new form of government... Caesar saw what had to be done." (Page 853) How nauseating! Where's the irony here, so badly needed? It's time to end this tired series before it goes on to celebrate the violent, debased and corrupt Roman Empire. Read Robert Graves and Lindsey Davis instead. You'll get the picture.

Rating:
Summary: I COULD SEE PAST
Review: This is a very good historical novel full of information, history, places and people. Reading it, I could transfer myself to the past and see it, feel it. What is true and what was close... What difference does it make? Everything was close enough to the truth to enjoy it. It was well consived, well written and very well presented. I can highly recommend it to everyone, who wants an interesting adventure while reading a nice book.

Rating:
Summary: I COULD SEE PAST
Review: This is a very good historical novel full of information, history, places and people. Reading it, I could transfer myself to the past and see it, feel it. What is true and what was close... What difference does it make? Everything was close enough to the truth to enjoy it. It was well consived, well written and very well presented. I can highly recommend it to everyone, who wants an interesting adventure while reading a nice book.