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.
Amazon.com editorial Reviews :
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.
Review
Roma resurrects the world's greatest city state, but also puts human flesh on the bones of history and installs a beating heart sizzling with passion. Fans of Steven Saylor will savor this novel; fans of ancient Rome will thrill to Saylor's in-depth understanding of Roman lifeways and be dazzled by the speed and sureness of the story....The shades of nobles, plebes, tribunes, and emperors past surely are united in giving him a thumbs up. -- Kilian Melloy, Edge/Boston, March 1, 2007
Livy meets Michener in this sprawling, episodic 1000-year novel of the rise of ancient Rome from its first settlement to the assassination of Julius Caesar....Saylor's gift for dramatic narrative brings alive familiar tales from Roman history... touching and compelling. -- Kirkus, February 1, 2007
May Steven Saylor's Roman empire never fall.
A modern master of historical fiction, Saylor has built his reputation on an ongoing series of ancient-world mysteries that have cumulatively and poignantly traced the collapse of the Roman republic. Now the well-regarded author stretches to even more epic goals for Roma, a sprawling novel that uses two families to tell the history of Rome from its beginnings in 1000 B.C. as a stop on the salt trade route to the founding of the empire.
In content and scope, Roma calls to mind James Michener's best-selling string of mammoth popular histories...In literary tone, however, and in its attempt to posit a plausible truth beneath Rome's well-worn myths, it invites comparison to such landmarks of the genre as Mary Renault's The King Must Die.
Writing in a spare, elegant style shorn of excess description, Saylor convincingly transports us into the ancient world...What Saylor has produced is not just the history of Rome, but the history of history -- of the way fact is buried by myth and of the way societies cling to traditions even when the meanings behind them are lost to memory...by the end, those stories have cohered into one, enthralling whole.
Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. -- USA Today, March 6, 2007 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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