Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic

"Shakespeare and the fall of the Roman Republic introduces Shakespeare as a historian of ancient Rome. In Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare shows Rome's transition from Republic to Empire. Why did Rome degenerate into an autocracy? Alternating between ruthless competition, Stoicism, Epicureanism and self-indulgent fantasies, Rome as Shakespeare sees it is inevitably bound for civil war."--Page 4, cover.