by Gareth C. Sampson.
Hardback (6.4×9.4 inches). 222 pages. 2026.
Subtitle: Caesar, Antony and the Next Generation of the Third Roman Civil War
An overview of the Caesar versus Pompey campaigns leads into Caesar’s murder and subsequent jockeying for position by a variety of politicians and commanders. Somewhere in all this fascinating interplay resides a good politico-strategic game.
As the alliances solidify and legions get vacuumed into one camp or another, the military maneuvers coalesced into the battles of Forum Gallorum and Mutina. The actual battles are covered (p71 to p108) with all the detail that can be mustered from a variety of sources — minimal as they are for Mutina. As the main armies parted to recover, the political swirl continued with enemies in the Western empire (Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus) joining forces to combat the forces in the Eastern empire (Brutus and Cassius).
One typo: “why there were right to stop” (p38) should probably be “they were…”
The book contains 17 black and white photos and three basic black and white maps that could be much better.
Events of what Sampson calls the Third Roman Civil War prove interesting, in part because of paucity — and sometimes contradictory nature — of sources compared to other aspects of the war to succeed Julius Caesar. The use of excerpts sometimes gets a bit much, but Sampson offers insightful analysis and when necessary, speculation.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
