Caesar, Cicero & Cleopatra

What Really Happened?

Fiction - Historical - Personage
408 Pages
Reviewed on 11/23/2014
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Ray Simmons for Readers' Favorite

Caesar, Cicero & Cleopatra is a great historical novel. I like reading about ancient Rome and comparing it with America. I also like reading interesting books about exceptional people. Caesar certainly qualifies as exceptional and Arthur J. Paone brings Caesar and his contemporaries to life in this novel. We get an inside look at the thinking of the great man, based on real historical research. Make no doubt about it, Caesar, Cicero & Cleopatra is about Caesar. However, we get a glimpse into the lives of Cleopatra, Cicero, and other people of that era, mostly through Caesar's eyes. Arthur J. Paone has done his research and his perceptions of iconic characters like Pompey, Cleopatra, Cicero, and others who have come down to us through history books rings true yet fresh.

Arthur J. Paone seems a natural at writing about the Romans and I hope he writes other books about Rome. I found the characters in Caesar, Cicero & Cleopatra to be realistically portrayed without all the overly dramatic passages that you usually find in books of this genre. I like Arthur J. Paone's style and I hope to see it again as he teaches us and entertains us about the life and people of ancient Rome or any other era he is knowledgeable about. Mr. Paone has that rare gift of being able to make history come alive for the reader and in Caesar, Cicero & Cleopatra he brings the ancient world to us and lets us visit it for a while.

Maria Beltran

Caesar, Cicero & Cleopatra: What Really Happened? is a historical fiction novel that focuses on the last years of Gaius Julius Caesar, especially his relationship with Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and Cicero. Arthur J. Paone starts his story when Rome is in the middle of Sulla’s reign of terror. As Sulla systematically kills his enemies and suspected opponents and confiscates their properties, eighteen-year-old Julius Caesar, then already married, went into hiding with his wife. He will ultimately come back to Rome and become its dictator. In his attempt to bring order in unruly Egypt, he falls in love with Cleopatra, co-ruler of Egypt who is fighting for her throne against her brother and sister. Going back to Rome, Julius Caesar is faced with the dangerous business of ruling his empire. Cicero, with the connivance of the other Roman senators, is determined to put an end to Julius Caesar’s rule.

Reading a book about the life and exploits of Gaius Julius Caesar can be a daunting task, but this is not the case with Caesar, Cicero & Cleopatra. This is because author Arthur J. Paone focuses on the last days of the life of this remarkable Roman dictator and his relationship with the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and Roman scholar and senator Cicero. With countless books written about Julius Caesar, it is difficult to be original but Mr. Paone certainly succeeds in telling his story from a unique perspective. Instead of the reader being bombarded by hundreds of personalities as in many books about the Roman dictator, Caesar, Cicero & Cleopatra is relatively easy to follow because the theme is clear and consistent. It is also remarkable how the scenes are vividly described so that I can almost imagine Caesar on top of his white horse during one of his many great battles. This is a book that shows him as a real human being in spite of his extraordinary life. I recommend this to readers of all ages.