The Last Assassin

Starred review from September 15, 2020
A thrilling account of the vengeful manhunt for Julius Caesar's assassins. Most readers' knowledge of the assassination in 44 B.C.E. ends with the bloody deed, but Stothard brings its aftermath to pulsing life. The last assassin of the title is Cassius Parmensis, the last of Caesar's killers to suffer the vengeance of Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew and successor. The author chronicles the development of the assassination plot, forged by men opposed to Caesar's grab for absolute power, then his murder and the ensuing brutal civil war. Several characters, notably assassins Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius, have been memorialized by Shakespeare and may be familiar to readers, as will the orator Cicero, Octavian's occasional ally Mark Antony, and Cleopatra. But other assassins get their moments as well: their lives, philosophies, and harrowing deaths, some on the battlefields of civil war, some by suicide, some slaughtered by Octavian's henchmen. Stothard, former editor of the Times Literary Supplement, excels in bringing the ancient past to life. Here he is on the Roman festival of Lupercalia: "The men wore mud and goatskin loin cloths. The women bared their legs for the whips of the runners....It was a festival of breathlessness and nightmare, sex and myth, demons kept at bay by winter flowers." The author vividly shows Octavian destroyed communities thought to be friendly to the assassins' cause, seizing their valuable land and reapportioning it to his soldiers, slaughtering many, and sending others away as permanent refugees. One of Stothard's accomplishments is to sustain the suspense of the hunt, even though readers know the outcome. Those assassins who could flee dispersed to the furthest reaches of the Roman world, but Octavian, "judge, jury and relentless pursuer," ensured that they all died. Stothard writes as if he lives and breathes the air of this tumultuous time. His readers will feel, for a brief time, that they are there as well. A deep immersion in a bloody era of ancient Rome, perfect for readers of Mary Beard and Tom Holland.

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