Early History: Roman Empire

Historical Novels and Detective Stories

• Robert Graves: I, Claudius (and its sequel Claudius the God). By far the best historical novel on this subject ever written. The BBC television series was even better! The premise is that these are the long-hidden memoirs of the Emperor Claudius, who was supposed to have been a knucklehead, according to Gibbon and others -- but this sets the record straight. The villains, especially Augustus's wife Livia, are first rate. Its basis is in Suetonius's Twelve Caesars, a contemporary scandal chronicle that is also well worth reading, strikingly 'modern' in its approach.
  
  
• Robert Graves: Count Belisarius. This is about one of the greatest generals of all time, who led the armies of the Emperor Justinian (of Constantinople, but I am putting this book here under Rome rather than Greece) during the Dark Ages. The politics and scheming, as in I, Claudius, make this book -- and the whore/empress Theodora is worthy of Livia's mantle.
  
  
• Gore Vidal: Julian. A very nice book in the Graves manner about Julian the Apostate, a nephew of Constantine the Great (who established Christianity as the official religion), who tried to restore pagan worship -- a noble but lost cause. Nice scheming among the major characters, as is typical of any of these 'Byzantine' books (that's where the term came from). A person of importance really had to have his/her wits about them to survive all that intellectual treachery. Unlike modern Arkansas politics, one's physical continuance was at risk too.
  
  
• Steven Saylor: The Roma sub Rosa series, starring Gordianus the Finder. An excellent historical series set in Ancient Rome at the time of Sulla, Cicero, Caesar, Pompey, Crassus, Marc Antony, etc. etc. etc. -- obviously a cast of famous and not-so-famous real people mixed with fictional personages (very reminiscent in its complex re-encounters and interweaving of a number of recurring characters of McAuliffe's great Commissions of Augustus Mandrell series). Corruption and politics galore, sex, skulduggery, greed, backstabbing -- all very convincingly spiced with accurate historical details. Funny, too: "Judges, I do not point the finger of guilt -- I point at the guilty finger!" (You will have to read The Venus Throw to appreciate this obscene reference, which ranks with "If the glove don't fit, you must acquit" phrase for courtroom rhetoric at its most ridiculous.) This is great stuff, if not at the literary heights of Robert Graves at his best.
  The series so far consists of: Roman Blood, The House of the Vestals (short stories), Arms of Nemesis, Catalina's Riddle, The Venus Throw, and A Murder on the Appian Way.
  
  
• Lindsay Davis -- Edile Marcus Didius Falco in the court of Vespasian; Rome's answer to Archie Goodwin; good dirty fun, but not as deeply researched as the previous entries -- this series comes across as very modern (and that's fine). There are many books in this series, starting with Venus in Copper, then Shadows in Bronze, Silver Pigs, The Iron Hand of Mars, Poseidon's Gold, etc. (Do you detect a metallic theme?). These books are quite fun, if lightweight, and more adventure than detection.
  
  
• Richard Ben Sapir: The Far Arena. A very unusual novel about a Roman Gladiator who was found frozen in an ice floe and revived by modern scientists; as the premier gladiator of ancient Rome, he is in effect a killing machine, and the way he reacts to modern society is both funny and terrifying (e.g., the way he takes down the Olympic Gold Medalist fencing champion).

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