The Assassination Of Julius Caesar- M. Parenti

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Finally found a copy of The Assassination Of Julius Caesar: A People's History Of Ancient Rome, a great history of the Roman Republic by Michael Parenti. Taking a cue from Howard Zinn's masterpiece A People's History Of The United States Parenti rips apart the smug assumptions of ancient and modern historians and their politically motivated apologies for the violence meted out by Rome's ruling class against foreign populations and their own people. Parenti also shows the hypocrisy of these champions of the status quo when they condemn Caesar and other reformers as demagogues and tyrants when the evidence shows that the Populares ( the senatorial reform faction ) acted in accordance of Rome's laws and that it was the Optimates ( conservatives ) that were breaking them- waging illegal wars, stealing public lands, overcharging the plebians for grain provided by the government ( and which was supposed to be free! ), etc, etc, etc.
Parenti also skewers the relationship between historians of our modern era and our own ruling class- how they prop up the status quo by pointing out the " mistakes" of the past whenever the common people won a victory against their oppressors.
Parenti is a leftist author with a big axe to grind. Fortunately this axe is swung in the right direction for once.
"... the rich rob the poor under the cover of law. We plunder the rich under the cover of our own courage." - Captain " Black Sam" Bellamy ( executed for piracy, 1717).

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