Gods of war. Conn Iggulden. 2006.

It looked as if it would be war. The strife between Pompey, the dictator of Rome, and the young general fresh from his triumphant conquests of Gaul and Britain, had come to a head. Julius Caesar, with all his generals and his four veteran legions, had crossed the Rubicon and was marching towards Rome.

But to fight against your own people will never be easy. So even when Caesar, accompanied by Brutus, Mark Antony and Octavian, rode triumphantly back into Rome, his path to success would be challenging. His powerful speeches to the Senate and to the people made him sure of his role, sure of his rightfulness for command, sure that power was his alone.

But the power he could achieve in Romeitself was not repeated across the Empire - and in Spain, in Africa, in Greece, in all of Asia Minor, there were legions loyal to Pompey and the Roman state. Would the friends who had fought at his side for so long continue to do so? How could Caesar succeed agains such odds?