Thanks to Steve for the shout-out in this video (which happens at 11:14)

The comment he's referring to comes from this video...

...in which I said:

I'm actually a big fan of this series myself, although I've long known from your comments that you are not a huge fan.  There's no denying it has it's faults.  The dialogue is not great.  But I was 14 when I first encountered this series, and this was my first time learning about the story of Marius and Sulla and all the rest of them.  I think when you're first encountering these characters and these stories for the first time, the book is a lot more interesting.  And back in the early 90s, before the Internet, I don't know if there was another way I would have encountered these stories.  My school library didn't have any detailed histories on Marius.  Although the plot is all over the place, I think there is an attempt to dramatize history here--the way Marius and Sulla go (in McCullough's version at least) from best friends to bitter rivals struck me as fascinating when I read it.