My feelings ran rampant as I read this book. I started this chunkster on January 1 and I finally ended it today. I loved the action parts - it is set during a Roman Civil War - which were very violent. This heavily-researched tome with multiple Roman names became overwhelming at times. There were moments when I found myself not looking forward to reading because the characters were numerous, but factual, and that is not like me. I think instead of a series of six; it should consist of twelve books. Ms. McCullough is one of my favorite authors and she had a wonderful talent with words. I will continue reading books of the Rome series. I think it was the time of my life that didn't mesh with reading it. Going back to teaching after a short winter break presented new obstacles that I didn't have in the old year.

The last of her series of 6 books on the final century of the Roman Republic. I can’t recommend this series highly enough! She stays very close to the documented history but she adds her insights into the character’s motivations, health and personalities based on that history. So she makes Roman history understandable. There are a lot of life lessons to be learned here.

The penultimate novel of the series focuses on Caesar's relationship with Cleopatra, the famous assassination on 15 March 44 BC, and the subsequent events.
My favorite part of the novel was definitely Gaius Octavius (later knows as Augustus). I loved his cold-blooded approach and his determination to punish every one of Caesar's assassins. His intelligence and innate talent to play the political games quickly turned him into my absolute favorite character of the series.
In fact, I had a similar attachment to Caesar in the previous books in the series. He was depicted as a genius military leader and a very skillful politician. His interactions with the secondary characters were also wonderfully recreated. In this novel however, I had a feeling that he was lacking some of his character's depth. He was somehow simpler, less interesting. Perhaps this was due to the introduction of some additional characters, who took away some of his glory. In any case, his assassination did not affect me the way I was expecting it would.
On the other hand, Cato the Younger's death was sad. He was so dramatic and over the top. His arguments with basically every other characters were so fun to read, and his departure took away some of the book's amusement.
Additionally, it was very entertaining to finally read about Cleopatra. The Egyptian queen and in fact the whole Egyptian culture of the time were vividly described, and it was interesting to make the comparison between the Roman and the Egyptian way of running the states. Cleopatra was overall not very likable in my opinion, but this probably made sense given that she believed she's equal to the Gods.
Anyway, on to the last book of the series, which will focus on the rise of the Empire.

I felt like my best friend departed as I read this book

6 mega volumes down and 1 to go in this series. I thought it was an odd choice to place Caesar's death 2/3 of the way into the novel, with a solid 200-300 pages left over to deal with the fallout. Even so, I was Roman history nerding out as usual.

A great story teller, she rekindled my love for Roman history.
Helpful but not necessary to have read the other books in the series and/or to be somewhat familiar with the major figures of this time (Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus).

In The October Horse, McCullough intended to wrap up her series on the dissolution of the Roman Republic with the death of two of Julius Caesar's assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. First, the title is rather misleading in that Caesar and Cleopatra's relationship is rather minor. However, the October horse is a Roman tradition that takes a page to explain, making it a rather opaque reference to Caesar.

During the Roman Republic, the war campaign season ended in October (when the seasons made it too difficult to fight, all sides went home and returned to hostilities in the spring). At this point, the Romans traditionally ran a final chariot race with the four best warhorses from that campaign. The right-hand horse of the winning team got sacrificed afterwards. So the title encapsulates McCullough's main thesis: that Julius Caesar, the Roman's best warhorse, is sacrificed. Since the Romans themselves had lost the intent in the mists of their history, I'm not sure what point McCullough makes about Caesar's sacrifice.

By this point in the series, Caesar has strode across the Roman stage like a Colossus, vastly admirable even though his temper, his womanizing, and his autocratic behavior shouldn't be. Readers identify with the common Roman people and the women whom Caesar charmed. Caesar is brilliant, decisive, and flamboyant. His enemies obdurate, dense, and justifiably jealous. Even though McCullough builds a consistent case for Caesar's ambition to be the First Man in Rome, but never its king, readers might be forgiven for thinking that Caesar should have been.

Most of the broad outlines of Caesar's last days are well known, but The October Horse fills in the details, including his extended effort to reconcile opponents, including Cicero. That appeals to me as the strongest evidence that he didn't seek a throne.

I rather felt sorry for Caesar, who never had close friendships. For all his genius in warfare, engineering, law, oratory, rhetoric and poetry, languages, and lovemaking, in the end he died at the hands of his closest associates who largely owed their status to him.

How much my life has changed since I first started "First man in Rome", and it wasn't even that long ago. I wish desperately that I could say it was in a good way, but well, I'm not lucky enough to say that. I don't have Ceasar's luck as it turns out.

Colleen Mccullough though. Her intellect, her knowledge of history, her bringing characters to life, her drawings, her writing! What beauty! What joy! Her books has been a staple of my life these past few months which has been....difficult, to say the least. I only have one book to go, which I'm not sure if I'm gonna read any time soon mostly because I'm saving it for the future.

A pity this series isn't very well known, but it is what it is.

Not quite as good as the rest of the series, yet still excellent.

And so Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series comes to an end. Or at least that’s what the author says in the afterword. Apparently later she changed her mind and wrote a half-length seventh volume. This story begins with Julius Caesar in Alexandria and ends on the battlefield at Philippi, so it covers a lot of ground in its 1000+ pages. As one might expect from any work of such a length, some parts are more quickly paced than others. The extended lead-up to March 15, 44 BCE in particular inspired a sense of “less blabbin’ more stabbin.’” But overall the book is on par with the other entries in the set. McCullough does an entertaining job of filling in the lacunae in the historical record with well-constructed fiction.

This is the sixth novel in McCullough's Masters of Rome series, which has been quite a ride. McCullough's prose isn't particularly distinguished, and I've sometimes felt some judicious, nay extensive, cutting would have done wonders for the pacing of these doorstop novels. And the epic scope of these novels begets confusion--it's hard to keep track of her host of minor recurring characters with these mind-numbing Roman names.

Yet I give the series high marks nevertheless--some of the books I rated as high as five stars. In her "Author's Afterword" McCullough says that the historical novel "is an excellent way to explore a different time" that is, if "the writer can resist the temptation to visit his own modern attitudes, ethics, morals and ideals upon the period and its characters." And this is where McCullough excels as few other historical novelists do. I've read any number of novels set in Roman times by authors such as Robert Graves, Robert Harris, Lindsey Davis, Steven Saylor and Gillian Bradshaw. Not one of them came close to McCullough in creating an Ancient Rome that felt so textured, so at once modern and alien to modern mores. Not even Graves who is by far the superior stylist. Because of this series, when a classicist friend of mine told me she only wanted "dignitas" I knew exactly what she meant.

The other thing McCullough is notable for are her characterizations and take on history, which is very different than say, the take in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Everyone in this series is held up to Caesar as a measuring stick and found wanting to the degree they opposed him. McCullough's tyrannicides are petty, cowardly men motivated by spite and envy--not patriotism and love of liberty. Her Cassius left me cold, and her Brutus struck me as pathetic. Their lack of moral grandeur makes it hard to feel moved by their tragic fate. McCullough's Cato is a nearly insane fanatic, her Cicero a pompous poser. McCullough's Cleopatra, whose historical brilliance is suggested by her linguistic gifts--alluded to in the novel--comes across as rather dim here. McCullough's Mark Anthony is a thug without any redeeming quality. And her Octavian, although McCullough gives him his due as a master politician, is absolutely chilling. For me the novel crawled after Caesar's death two-thirds in, because it was hard to care anymore--and all through the other novels, there were characters to care about besides Caesar. There was an exception in the closing third of the book--the women's protest under Hortensia, where she demands that if the triumvirate is going to tax women, they better give them the vote. She's awesome. I loved that scene! All too brief though, and so much after the assassination is mired in political and military minutia rather than the human drama behind the history. In a fictional sense, I prefer Shakespeare's conception, while conceding McCullough probably presents a more historically accurate picture. Probably--although at times I suspect she's more than a little in love with her Caesar--and after all, the history of these times were largely written by the victors.

The tedium in the last third, the lack of connection with other characters once Caesar is gone, makes The October Horse the weakest book in the series thus far and makes me want to skip the last book in the series, Anthony and Cleopatra. McCullough says in her "Afterword" she planned to stop with The October Horse, and I think this is where I'll stop too, at least for now. I can't imagine wanting to spend time with her Anthony and her Cleopatra--even though I can't at all regret making my way through the thousands of pages of her Republican Rome.

The best historical fiction treatment of the turbulent times from the life of Sulla to the ascension of Octavius. One of the best historical fiction series ever, but be prepared to read all of the books once you start, because you won't be able to put them down.