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Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome (Paperback)

by Steven Saylor (Author)

3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product Details

Paperback: 592 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition edition (Mar 4 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312377622
ISBN-13: 978-0312377625
Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13.7 x 4.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 499 g

Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #99,635 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Author of the critically acclaimed Roma Sub Rosa series of historical mysteries, Saylor (The Judgment of Caesar) breaks out on an epic scale in this sprawling novel tracing Rome's extraordinary development over five centuries, as seen through the eyes of succeeding generations of one of its founding families. Skipping over several generations at a time, Saylor puts the Potitii family descendants at the side of Romulus and Remus at the official founding of the city; of Scipio Africanus during the Punic Wars; of the legendary reformers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus during the turbulent second-century B.C.; and of Julius and Augustus Caesar as the Republic ebbs into Empire. Solidly anchored in fact and vividly imagined, this long book moves at a sprightly clip and features some vibrant personages. One of the most memorable is Pinaria, a Vestal Virgin who loses her innocence to a enigmatic slave, and secondaries such as the deformed giant Cacus who terrorizes the early Roman settlement. Linked by blood and by a gold amulet (in the shape of a winged phallus) that is passed from generation to generation, the Potitii family gets to see some fascinating things. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Spanning a thousand years, and following the shifting fortunes of two families though the ages, this is the epic saga of Rome, the city and its people. Weaving history, legend, and new archaeological discoveries into a spellbinding narrative, critically acclaimed novelist Steven Saylor gives new life to the drama of the city's first thousand years - from the founding of the city by the ill-fated twins Romulus and Remus, through Rome's astonishing ascent to become the capitol of the most powerful empire in history. Roma recounts the tragedy of the hero-traitor Coriolanus, the capture of the city by the Gauls, the invasion of Hannibal, the bitter political struggles of the patricians and plebeians, and the ultimate death of Rome's republic with the triumph, and assassination, of Julius Caesar. Witnessing this history, and sometimes playing key roles, are the descendents of two of Rome's first families, the Potitius and Pinarius clans: One is the confidant of Romulus. One is born a slave and tempts a Vestal virgin to break her vows. One becomes a mass murderer. And one becomes the heir of Julius Caesar. Linking the generations is a mysterious talisman as ancient as the city itself. Epic in every sense of the word, Roma is a panoramic historical saga and Saylor's finest achievement to date.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, rewarding collaboration of history-telling and myth-making, Sep 27 2007

By	Tyler J. Smith (McMaster University, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome (Hardcover)

Steven Saylor, best known for his historical fiction series Roma Sub Rosa, took on a challenging enterprise in his epic-length ROMA: The Novel of Ancient Rome, where he weaves myth with fact and history with fiction. Saylor's story lasts a thousand years, involves three or four family trees, and introduces a myriad of supporting characters. ROMA begins with Rome's pre-history as a tribal riverside rest stop and culminates with the dissolution of the republic under Julius Caesar and the rise of his nephew, the emperor Augustus.

The details of the story are inspired by, and largely faithful to, the accounts left by several of Rome's own historians: Livy, Plutarch, Ovid, Virgil, and Polybius. As you may have already guessed, Saylor's history is a much lighter read than the annals of our first-century friends. In the opinion of this reviewer, herein lies the book's greatest merit. One can read it, as I did, from cover to cover in the space of a weekend, and fortunately, the book is sufficiently gripping to facilitate the desire to actually do so. By the conclusion, I enjoyed a smug sense of self-satisfaction for having acquainted myself with so much history, rather than empty pages in a novel. In this spirit of appreciation, let me point out two (inescapable?) weaknesses of the book:

1. With a thousand years of history to cover, life-stories must be told in a few pages, and as soon as the reader feels any attachment to a character, we find the character dead and the narrative quickly advancing by 50 or 100 years. As a result, character development is reduced to a simple and recurring pattern: (a) coming of age, (b) a flurry of violence and/or a political fiasco and/or a sexual tryst in which the next generation is conceived, and (c) death. In an attempt to salve this disconnect, Saylor has introduced into his story a golden heirloom (a winged phallus to be worn about the neck) shrouded in mystery and intrigue, passed down through the generations from the first episode in the book until the last. (Speaking of phalli, Saylor has included a healthy dose of gratuitous sex and very nearly reduces certain characters to walking diaries writ full of lust.)

2. Integrating the genre of "novel" with "history" can be a challenging task, and the awkwardness of the fusion shows up frequently in the book with strained and artificial dialogues that go something like this:

"Claudia! How have you been my friend?"

"I couldn't have been better. I just came from the Temple on the Capitoline."

"The Temple on the Capitoline? Tell me, what has been happening in Rome during the last 75 years?"

"Of course, I'd be happy to! Well, while your great-grandfather Publius Flaccus strove to convince the Senate to accept Lucius Germanicus' civil reforms, the Parthians were secretly mobilizing an . . ."

Despite these two inconveniences--the first of which is unavoidable in a project of this nature and the second of which is awkward, but bearable--Saylor's book does an admirable job of "making history exciting" and deserves the widespread recognition it is receiving. Who knows? Maybe it will encourage some lucky souls to read Virgil and Livy for themselves, or fill in certain blanks for a reader later exposed to Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar." At the very least, it will leave its readers with an introduction to and new appreciation for one of antiquity's most important civilizations.

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