Conn Iggulden taught English for seven years before becoming a full-time writer. He lives in Hertfordshire, England and is the writer of the brilliant Emperor series that is a must for all reader's who love tales of Ancient Rome. After reading the first forty pages of this book I was so drawn into it that I had to force myself to put it down, otherwise I would have finished it too quickly. This is a book to savour not to gulp down. It recounts the life of the most famous Roman who ever lived, Julius Caesar. It is an epic tale of an extremely ambitious man who wanted to live his destiny to the full. The book gives the reader the spectacle of gladiatorial combat, the smell and feel of the streets of the greatest city of the known world right through to the intrigues of a senate that at times was as corrupt as a festering sore on an open wound. The Gates of Rome tells the story of an ambitious young man facing a time in the history of Rome when citizen will fight citizen and the Republic is shaken to the core and Julius Caesar will be at the centre of it.