Boris Johnson was a long-term mistake

Included was Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of the more incisive intellects to grace the human stage. He was singled out by Mark Antony for his condemnations of Antony in the Roman Senate (in a series of speeches titled The Philippics). Cicero's chief objection to Antony was political. Antony was Julius Caesar's second in command. It was Caesar, with his crossing of the Rubicon, and the resulting civil wars, who brought about the end of the Roman Republic. Cicero, although not one of the sixty senators who assassinated Caesar, supported the Republic, the earlier administrative system for Rome.

According to the historian Plutarch, Antony spent his teenage years wandering through Rome with his brothers and friends gambling, drinking, and becoming involved in scandalous love affairs, which are among the accusations endorsed by Cicero.

Boris notes that it is claimed by some that Octavian argued with Mark Antony for two days to keep Cicero off the proscription list. But Johnson adds "there seems no reason to believe it". It was expedient for Octavian to be on the side of Antony (p.68). According to Plutarch, Antony's soldiers slew Cicero, then cut off his head. On Antony's instructions his hands, which had penned the Philippics against Antony, were cut off as well; these were nailed and displayed along with his head in the Forum. Boris adds a more objectional sequel, one that is not widely known, of the treatment of Cicero's head by one of Antony's ex-wives. She pulled out the tongue in the severed head and spat in Cicero's face. This writer is far from sure on where Johnson obtained this information. His book has no references

Mark Antony who was responsible for the Eastern part of the Empire was defeated, along with Cleopatra, in 31 BC in the battle of Actium. From then on, Octavian was sole ruler; from 27 BC on, he called himself Augustus ("the exalted one").

Boris started his attacks on the European Union with the battle of Teutoburg: follows almost immediately with describing the signing of the treaty of union in October 2004 in Rome as a "shindig" (p.29). The deriding of Europe continues throughout his book:

· "The grain market in ancient Rome was as rigged as anything in the common agricultural Policy "(p.136);

· The emperor Domitian ordering all vineyards in Provence "to be grubbed up….an agricultural intervention common place in Europe over the last 50 years." (p.138).

· Romans decided that there should be no growing wine north of the alps: "anticipates the mad control freakery of the EU's wine regime." (p.161).

· The inhabitants of the then empire "wanted to become Roman in a way that they never wanted to become European." (p.179).

· The legions abandoned Britannia in 410 BC. Britain's "dark ages began" although the last emperor of the west did not flee until 476 BC. The country's early exclusion "gave us a series of complexes about membership in the European Union." (p.209).

Johnson completes his history of Rome with two issues. One is on the advent of Christianity and the parallels between the divinity of Augustus and that of Jesus Christ. The other was Islam. Augustus, heir to a deified Julius Caesar, was titled son of God, Divi Filius. Virgil and Horace both stated Augustus to be divine. Johnson also draws parallels with several of the bible stories on the slaughter of the innocents, the coming of the saviour, and the virgin birth, all of which also occurred in the history of Ancient Rome. He describes them as "not entirely coincidences. They can't be." (p.81).

The final issue was Islam. That last chapter, "And then came the Muslims", is strongly anti-Muslim, and would have only distant connections with Rome and no connection with the European Union.