While The First Man in Rome (1990) is Marius's book, and The Grass Crown (1991) is Sula's book, Fortune's Favorites is Caesar's book. This is the Caesar whom Shakespeare will immortalize sixteen hundred years later, and McCullough paints him in detail. We first saw him in The Grass Crown as an unwilling Flamen Dialis, the high priest of Jupiter, given that stultifying and restrictive office by the now-mad Gaius Marius in his blood-soaked seventh consulate. As Flamen Dialis, Caesar is hemmed in by "shibboleths" and religious prescriptions that will make it impossible for him to achieve greatness, as he, at a young age, knows he must — and as Gaius Marius knew, as well, from the Syrian sibyl Martha. In the latest novel Caesar breaks free of the flaminate, though, essentially by winning a battle of wills with Sulla. In Caesar, Sulla sees one who is as great, as willful...