In this short volume, the British historian, Charles Merivale, describes the long conflict by which the rule of one man replaced the Roman Republic. Here we meet that ineffectual has-been Pompeius, the resourceful military and political genius, Julius Caesar, unbending Cato, brave, dissolute Marcus Antonius, grandiloquent, doomed Cicero, peerless Cleopatra and, almost the sole survivor, crafty, cold, and sagacious young Octavius.