ROMA: THE EPIC NOVEL OF ANCIENT ROME [Paperback]

The thing that shocks most modern tourists visiting the site of Pompeii is the ubiquitous winged phallus that adorns almost everything in the city. To the modern sensibility this is something obscene, but to the Romans it was a holy icon representing the generative quality of life itself. This winged phallus plays a central role in Steven Saylor's fabulous new novel, ROMA. This image in the form of a gold amulet passed from generation to generation is the thread that unites the many episodes of this book. (The conclusion that Saylor draws about this icon at the end of the novel is provocative indeed!) ROMA traces the history of Rome from its beginnings as a trading post on the prehistoric salt trail to its peak as the undisputed master of the world during the reign of the emperor Augustus. Although Saylor is one of today's most prominent historians, ROMA is certainly no dry historical treatise. It's a rip-roaring adventure story with lots of suspense and sex and violence. Some of the episodes are horror stories and others are incredibly moving love stories of different kinds of forbidden love.

In his afterword, Saylor states that his major inspiration was the work of the Roman historian known as Livy. Livy also inspired Shakespeare, who took the stories of CORIOLANUS and THE RAPE OF LUCRECE from his histories. The stories of Coriolanus and Lucretia are also included in ROMA. I tried reading Livy about 25 years ago and found it rough going, but after reading ROMA, I'd like to give it another try. In fact, I wish this book had been around before I read Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR and CORIOLANUS. This book adds so much depth of understanding to both those works. For instance, the opening scene of JULIUS CAESAR takes place at the Roman festival of the Lupercalia, in which naked athletes compete in a race through Rome. ROMA explains the origins of the Lupercalia (it started with Romulus and Remus), so that the modern reader can understand why it's important that Caesar's wife gets touched by the runners. ROMA also clarifies the relationships between all the other characters in JULIUS CAESAR. (Cassius and Brutus were brothers-in-law!) Even though there's a LOT of sex in the book (none of it very graphic), I'm giving it to my teenage nephew so that he can read it before his class studies JULIUS CAESAR.

As with all of Saylor's work that takes place in Ancient Rome, ROMA is alive with the details of daily life in Rome that give the book a depth and texture that few authors writing today can rival. One of the more interesting aspects of the book for me is the thread that traces the development of the Roman religion. The religion is officially founded when cousins Potitius and Pinarius (friends of Romulus and Remus) erect the first altar to Hercules (in gratitude for killing the cannibal giant Cacus who menaced their hillside hamlet). They learn to read omens and begin a long line of priests who can predict the outcome of an enterprise by examining the entrails of a sacrificial animal. Later the sect of the Vestal Virgins with their sacred laws given by the Sibyl becomes part of Roman life and still later other foreign deities and their rites are imported from conquered territories. These foreign deities include the "Great Mother" Cybele with her eunuch priests and Bacchus, whose rites are celebrated with drunken orgies.

ROMA is a thrilling emotional roller coaster ride that also offers intellectual and philosophical depth. I loved this extremely textured work and feel privileged to have been among the first people to read a book that I believe will be beloved by millions. Five stars.

Some of you might have noticed by now that I am fairly well addicted to history, whether it be in the form of fiction or fact. And I've got a very soft spot for ancient Rome. Maybe it's the sheer spectacle of it, or that I can see so much of our modern world echoed in those long ago times.

Author Steven Saylor takes a step away from his long running series, Roma Sub Rosa, about Gordianus the Finder, and tells the story of Rome itself, or as it was known to those who live there, Roma. Saylor uses the device of an item being passed down through the many generations of a family, and their adventures, both good and bad.

Starting nearly a thousand years before the time of Augustus, there is a spot where the salt traders from the coast cross a river at a shallow ford, using a nearby island for a place to camp. One such group has the tribe's most knowledgable leader, Larth, his daughter Lara, and a young man, Po. They're bringing a load of salt to trade in the mountains for tools made of iron, a very valuable commodity. On this trip, they encounter a young ironworker, and this leads to a murder and atonement, but also a child. To this child, Lara gives an amulet, shaped like a winged phallus, derived from a vision that she saw in a fire.

Generations pass, and now the nameless ford on the river has a settlement. After all, it's easier to go partway to trade, and the tribe has figured out that providing a place to sleep and eat is good as well. But all of this is about to end when a monster, Cacus, comes to inhabit the cave in the cliffs, and brings ghastly death with him. Lara's descendant, and holder of the amulet, Potitia, has a startling encounter with what could be a god, and a legend is created...

Another hundred or so years passes, and now there are two families that hold the priesthood to honor the god Hercules, Pinarius and Potitius. The river now has a name, the Tiber, and the hillsides have more people living there. Two homeless, orphaned twins, Romulus and Remus, are half-wild youths, full of violence and a fierce devotion and rivalry between them. So too does Pinarius and Potitius, and it all comes to a terrifying day of murder...

The ford has a name, Ruma, or Roma. There have been Kings in Roma since, and the latest one, Tarquinius the Proud, is making the population a bit upset, especially when one of his sons rapes a married woman of high standing, who commits suicide in despair. Out go the kings, and now Roma has a new form of government, by a group of men instead of just one. But it isn't all easy, as we see through the eyes of Titus Potitius, and his friend, Gnaeus, who has even grander schemes in mind...

Now time is moving more quickly, with breaks becoming shorter, and the characters not quite so involved. Roma struggles with new ideas, and an evolving nature as the amount of land that they control grows ever wider. One of the more interesting stories is that of Pinaria the Vestal, and the invasion of the Gauls, and why the geese of Juno got such an unusual festival of their own.

After this story, the tales become short and not nearly as personal. The names of the important players become more recognizable as Scipio, Hannibal, Sulla the Dictator and Julius Caesar along with Antony and Cleopatra, take the stage. To be honest, I didn't find the last third of the book that interesting, but that's not to knock the book.

And oddly, it works. I usually stay away from multigenerational sagas that take place in a single book -- they're much too choppy and shallow for me in depth and content. But here, while the stories are rather episodic, there is enough there to follow and belive the stories. Yes, Saylor uses the high points of Roman legend and lore, and the players are not much more than observers at times, but it was such an enthralling read that I found myself nearly gulping down the stories whole.

Saylor's writing style is rather succinct and he doesn't give much time over to theory or rhapsodizing. People laugh, cry, plot, make love and war, and for much of the book, survive. I found this to be intriguing book, and enjoyed how the author managed to form some of the myths and legends that still linger to this day. The Lupercalia, a fertility festival that occurs in February, was one that made me laugh, especially when you start thinking about another festival in February.

Saylor has included maps at the start of each chapter that show the evolution of Rome, and an afterword that talks about how he came about to write this, and his sources, especially Livy. Those who are interested in learning more will have a new list to try, and some new authors to seek out.

Fans of Saylor's previous work, the Gordianus novels, will enjoy with one, along with those who have read Colleen McCullough's work, The Masters of Rome series. If your only knowledge of Rome comes from the HBO series or I, Claudius go on ahead and give this one a read, you won't be disappointed. It's also a good introduction to the heady, complex world of ancient Rome, and I can happily recommend this one.

Four and a half stars, rounded up to five.

Steven Saylor's fascination with Ancient Rome began in childhood. A history graduate and former newspaper and magazine editor, he lives in Berkeley, California and has a huge number of fans of the Sub Rosa series he has written featuring Gordianus the Finder.

For avid readers of Saylor's books, this one will be well worth waiting for, although those who are expecting it to be another Gordianus the Finder mystery novel may be a little disappointed as the author has discarded with the Finder's services for this volume.

In Steven`s own words he says "This book marks a departure from my Roma Sub Rosa series. I wanted to try my hand at a truly epic novel, and to explore the remarkable ten centuries that came before the time of Gladiator, HBO's Rome, and my own books. This is the story of how the Romans created the greatest city on earth -- the story of how Rome became Rome.

The book takes in a thousand years, and follows the changes in fortune of two families through the ages. This is a beautifully written book about the city of Rome and its people. It reminds me very much of Sarum by Edward Rutherford, one of my all time favourite novels. Roma brings to life the first thousand years of a city that is arguably the most famous in all of history. From its founding by the twins Romulus and Remus through to the city becoming the focal point of the most powerful empire of all time. Everything is there, the book recounts the capture of the city by the Gauls, the invasion of Hannibal. Bitter struggles between patricians and plebeians. The strength and weaknesses of the senate and the ultimate demise of Rome's republic with the assassination of Julius Caesar.

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