โ Scribed by Valerio Massimo Manfredi; Christine Feddersen-Manfredi
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
From the pen of the international bestselling author of The Last Legion comes a new political thriller set during the tempestuous final days of Julius Caesar?s Imperial Rome.
It is March in the year 44 BC. The Roman Empire stretches from modern-day Syria in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Gaius Julius Caesar, Pontifex Maximus, dictator in perpetuity, indomitable military leader who has subjected much of the known world to Roman law, is fifty-six years old. He is at the height of his power; his reign is supreme and his reach immense. Or so it appears. In truth, Caesar is exhausted and ill, trapped in the prison of his own nightmares. His divine missions?to end the bloody season of fratricidal wars, to reconcile warring factions, to singlehandedly save Roman civilization?may be too great for one man.
The tide is turning against Caesar and there are those who conspire against him. They accuse him of being a tyrant. They say that when he dissolved the alliance with Pompey the Great at the river Rubicon, he put an end to liberty within the Republic. Caesar has resisted the attempts of his betrayers to bring him down, still he cannot resist forever. His power is being drained and it seems that nothing can save him, not Publius Sextius?his most loyal centurion and comrade, who is racing toward Rome in an attempt to prevent his assassination?or his devoted wife, Calphurnia; not even the attentions of his lover Servilla.
The soothsayer?s prophecies will out and when the Ides of March have passed, the world will have changed forever.
Authors such as Steven Saylor and John Maddox Roberts have successfully woven novels around the events preceding Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 B.C. by employing suspenseful, whodunit plot lines. By contrast, Manfredi (The Last Legion) simply retells a story familiar to anyone who's read Shakespeare's play. Given the universally known outcome, the insertion of a character, centurion Publius Sextius, who races to reach Rome in time to protect his friend, comes across as a misguided effort to create tension. The translation's anachronistic-sounding colloquial speech (What kills me is the waiting) will jar on some ears, while the focus on action rather than character will disappoint others. Those interested in a solid work of fiction that fleshes out the well-known characters would be better served by Thornton Wilder's far superior book with the same title. (Mar.)
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Valerio Massimo Manfredi is professor of classical archaeology at Luigi Bocconi University in Milan. He has published nine works of fiction, including the 'Alexander' trilogy, which has been translated into 24 languages in 38 countries. He has written and hosted documentaries on the ancient world and has written screenplays for cinema and television.
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