I enjoyed the first half of the novel. But when the Marius-Sulla civil war kicked in, I lost all respect for it. Iggulden admits in his closing historical remarks that he took great liberties with the historical record and proceeds to summarize the real history. He abandoned the history almost entirely, and the reader is left with an alternate history that only vaguely relates to what really happened. It's a crime. 
 One of the worst examples is, (view spoiler)[we find out at the end of the novel that Julius' best friend growing up is really Brutus! What? Julius was 15 when Brutus was born! (hide spoiler)] 
 I can tolerate some deviation from the historical record; it's all a matter of degree. I cannot tolerate what Iggulden has done here. I've enjoyed his Conqueror series, but I won't read any more of his novels. It's a shame, because I've been looking forward to his upcoming series about the Wars of the Roses. But I can't trust him.