Ancient Rome Fiction

The Roman historian Tacitus was a successful politician who eventually became governor of the province of Asia. He is thought to have died around AD 120 and benefitted from the patronage of the Flavian emperors. The Histories, of which only just over four out of 14 books survive, covers the years following the assassination of the Emperor Nero: Rome was plunged into further civil war with the Year of the Four Emperors (AD 69), which culminated in the accession of Vespasian, the first of the Flavians.

It is the time of Saturnalia, the most highly-anticipated festival across the whole of the Roman Empire. In the ancient city of Rome, citizens and slaves are preparing to honour the gods and to enjoy a time of freedom and revelry among family and friends. Saturnalia truly is the best of days for all!

454 AD. Northern Italy. Dux Ambrosius Aurelianus has served the Roman Empire with distinction. His bucellarii, a small band of irregular soldiers, have helped to bring a fragile peace to the beleaguered empire in the west. But, with the empire now at peace, his master, Flavius Aetius, decides to chain up his dogs of war. Ambrosius and his men are left to idle away their days in a rural backwater, but Ambrosius’ boredom is brutally swept aside when old rivals seize the opportunity to destroy him.

While her father is in hiding after attempts on his life, 12-year-old Cleopatra records in her diary how she fears for her own safety and hopes to survive to become queen of Egypt some day.

Appian of Alexander was a Greek historian who lived at the height of the Roman Empire during the first half of the 2nd century AD, having been born around AD 95 and died about AD 165. Very little is known about him beyond what he reveals about himself, along with the fact that he lived in Alexandria. He was a Roman citizen and held several senior-level public offices, both in Alexandria and in Rome.

“Mr. Wilder has brought to his character the warmth which was totally lacking in the Caesar of schoolbooks and Shakespeare, and in his hero’s destruction there is the true catharsis.”—Edward Weeks, Atlantic First published in 1948, The Ides of March is a brilliant epistolary novel of the...

A “superb” (The Guardian) novel about two sisters fighting for survival in Dark Ages Britain that weaves “a dazzling blend of history and fantasy” (BuzzFeed) “Rich in history and folklore . . . Stott is astute on the use of stories to control others and maintain power...

The Annals, Part 2 picks up in the year A.D. 32 with the increasingly menacing and tyrannical behavior of Tiberius. With hundreds murdered or driven to suicide and many more in exile, Tiberius descends steadily into growing lust and debauchery on his private estate on the isle of Capri. Overseas, Rome is victorious in her struggle with Parthia, and as Tiberius is being smothered to death in A.D. 37 by Macro, peace at last comes to the eastern frontier.

This fictional classic describes the factual persecution endured by the early Christians living in the catacombs beneath Rome through the character of Marellus, a captain in the Praetorian Guard and despised Christian. Penned by an anonymous 19th-century author, Martyr of the Catacombs has challenged and encouraged the faithful for over a hundred years.

Before Julius Caesar ruled Rome, his uncle Gaius Marius was the most powerful man in the eternal city. Once a provincial nobody with a ruined family, Marius only had one way to power: the sword. Years later, he writes to his protege Quintus Sertorius, explaining to him how he rose through the ranks of the Roman legion to become the most powerful man in the Republic. He wants to encourage and inspire the young man but gets lost in the retelling of his first experience of war, love, and killing.

Hannibal was a great and skillful general who defeated the Romans at Trebia, Lake Trasimenus, and Cannae, and all but took Rome.

144 AD. Alaric Hengistson, leader of the Ravensworn, revels in his many fear-fuelled names whispered in the hearth flames. Cunning in battle, a ruthless war lord. He sleeps sound in the knowledge that he has been chosen by the Gods for a higher purpose – to rise up against the tyranny of an Empire. For years he has thwarted Rome’s attempts to gain control over the land that has long resisted them. His land. Germania. However the rules are changing, and new deals are struck between the conquering Roman legions and the feuding Germanic tribes. Deals that could prove Alaric’s downfall.

This eagerly awaited fifth book in John Maddox Roberts's Edgar-nominated historical mystery series once again takes the reader back to the Rome of Julius Caesar and the Roman Senator Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger. Decius has won himself a reputation as both an investigator and, most unfortunately, a bit of a playboy. Having been banished by his family for sometimes embarrassing activities to a rather leisurely lifestyle on Rhodes, he is puzzled to be suddenly and unexpectedly summoned home to assist in an investigation.

Explore the captivating history of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful forces the world has ever seen. But this isn’t just the story of conquest or the incredible system of institutions that made it possible. This is the story of the fascinating men and women who gave the empire its characteristic charm. This is also the story of the most important people and events between two crucial events: the rise of Augustus in the first century BC and the final sack of Rome in the late fifth century AD.

Wall of Hadrian, Britannia, AD 367. Tribune Sixtus Victorinus is scouting north of the Wall when he first sees the smoke. Riding south he finds a province in chaos, the local populace in flight, the soldiers absent. Britannia is ablaze, overrun with barbarians and Valentia is the word on everyone’s lips. But no one seems to have the first clue what it means... Victorinus may have let his life run to ruin and drunk his youth away, but now he must forge himself into the soldier he always wanted to be, the hero his children think he is.

From the destruction of the ancient city of Troy; we are taken on a fabulous journey, filled with adventure and romance, to the birth of a new, greater city, and at last to the days of glory in imperial Rome.

The Stolen Women has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher...

Rome, 90 BC. Quintus Sertorius is tired. Weary after eight years of warfare in Greece, the decorated hero longs to reunite with his family and repair their frayed bond. But no sooner has he returned than Rome is thrust into war again. This time, the attackers are their closest allies, the Italian tribes surrounding them. To make matters worse, Sertorius learns his son has joined the legion under the command of a scheming rival looking to exert leverage.

Caecilia has long been torn between her birthplace of Rome and her adopted city of Veii. Yet faced with mounting danger to her husband, children, and Etruscan freedoms, will her call to destroy Rome succeed? Pinna has clawed her way from prostitute to the concubine of the Roman general Camillus. Deeply in love, can she exert her own power to survive the threat of exposure by those who know her sordid past?

In 406 BC, to seal a tenuous truce, the young Roman Caecilia is wedded to Vel Mastarna, an Etruscan nobleman from Veii. Leaving her militaristic homeland, Caecilia is determined to remain true to Roman virtues while living among the sinful Etruscans. But, despite her best intentions, she is seduced by a culture that offers women education, independence, sexual freedom, and an empowering religion.