How the First Roman Triumvirate was Formed

In 60 BCE, two years after he had returned to Rome, Pompey was frustrated that the Senate had noy formally ratified the eastern settlement, instead procrastinating by confirming it piece by piece, not en bloc. And, as any general then had to do, he was looking for land on which to settle his ex-soldiers. Marcus Licinius Crassus, who has finally led Roman troops to victory against Spartacus and was reputedly the richest man in Rome, had recently taken up the  case of a struggling company of state contractors. They had bid far too much for the tax rights of the province of Asia, and Crassus was trying to get them permission to renegotiate the price. Julius Caesar, the least experienced and least wealthy of the three wanted to secure election to the consulship of 59 BCE and major military command to follow, not merely the policing duties against brigands in Italy that the senate had in mind for him. Mutual support seemed the best way to achieve these various aims. So, in an entirely unofficial deal, they pooled resources, power, contracts and ambition to get what they wanted in the short term - and in the longer. - SPQR by Mary Beard

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

The expansion of Roman power raised big debates and paradoxes about Rome's place in the world, about what counted as 'Roman' when so much of the Mediterranean was under Roman control and about where the boundary between barbarian and civilization now lay, and which side of the boundary Rome was on. When, for example, at the end of the third century BCE the Roman authorities welcomed the Great Mother goddess from the highlands of what is now Turkey and solemnly installed her in a temple on the Palatine, complete with her retinue of self-castrated. self-flagellating, long-haired priests - how Roman was that?  

From Mary Beard's SPQR: A History pf Ancient Rome

Currently Reading

Currently reading SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard. SPQR takes its title from a famous Roman catchphrase, Senatus Populus Que Romanus, "the Senate, and People of Rome." The book is about "how Rome grew and sustained its position for so long, not about how it declined and fell." 

The books begins in 63 BCE with the the rebellion of Catiline who wanted to assassinate all Roman elected officials and burn the city to the ground, burning all records of all debts in the process. The book  ends in 232 CE when the emperor Caracalla made every free inhabitant of the Roman Empire a Roman citizen.

Enjoying the book so far and will hope to put a dent into it on the flights home from Las Vegas,