Ah dear. I turn the PC on with the full intention of adding some dross to this website, but instead find myself distracted by a 5 year old computer game.
It all came about because I re-read the excellent Emperor series by Conn Iggulden over Christmas, an historical fiction about the life & times of Julius Caesar. It’s a fantastic series and well worth a read, being very fast paced and where the true history is often more amazing than the improvised fiction. Anyway, it remeinded me that I bought Rome: Total War many years ago and barely got it out of the cellophane. As it gives you the chance to launch your own war of conquest on the world of 2000 years ago, from managing your empire to controlling legions in the field I thought I’d give it a go.
Whoops, hours passed, the family have gone to bed & I’m attempting to subdue Sicily. Eons later and I’m on to Carthage and Northern Africa. Every time I sit in front of the PC, I think ‘just 5 minutes won’t hurt’ and then before I know it it’s 1am and Spain is mine.
So, in the absence of recent dross, here’s a Hamster for you to play with: (you may need to turn off ad-blockers as it’s Flash based).
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I’d not heard of Conn Iggulden before. When my Oldest Son took Latin in high school he was asked to read a Colleen McCollough novel — one of her “Masters of Rome” series. He read enough of it to pass the test; I read and enjoyed it and went on to read several others in the series. The ones I missed chronicle Gaius Marius and Sulla and end with the early career of Julius Caesar.
A lot of people slag off Iggulden in favour of McCollough as she’s apparently more historically accurate. I’ve not read her, but I may have a look down the library and give it a go.
All I’ll say about the accuracy debate is 1. Conn’s a great read and 2. We’ll never know the truth as everyone writes history with their own personal skew & I daresay Caesar pissed off a fair few people on his epic rise…..