Christopher Mackay's Report

Christopher Mackay, modern historian, has written a large number of works regarding the Roman republic, including 'Ancient Rome: A military and political history', and the 'Breakdown of the Roman republic', whilst managing to depict the collapse of the republic. Whilst he covers events that happened thousands of years ago, with his works being published in the 2000's, his works can still be highly regarded, due to his reputable education, studying at University of Michigan and Harvard university. Mackay views the first triumvirate as 'incorrect and misleading', giving the audience an insight into lack of unity, in which the title suggests. Unlike ancient historians, such as Plutarch and Suetonius who merely tell the story of the First Triumvirate, …show more content…
Despite claiming that the First triumvirate was legally inferior to the second triumvirate, due to it being an 'informal, private arrangement', he still views the alliance as highly significant and powerful for the time, going so far as to label it as 'invincible' and 'sufficient for complete domination'. Mackay's purpose in writing these books was to educate his audience, and therefore, his books will have less bias and opinion based information and interpretations. Sources he used to formulate his own narrative include Caesar's self-serving accounts, which he claims presents a 'flattering picture of himself', however still form the depiction of the Roman leader. He also used ancient sources, using the historians, Appian, Plutarch, Cassius Dio, and Suetonius, to retell how the triumvirate came into power. Mackay also uses other modern historians to formulate his evaluation of the triumvirate, such as 'Aspects of Roman history' by Alston, and 'The Roman Empire' by Wells, which can provide a modernistic interpretation of the existing ancient sources, upon which Mackay built on to come to his own