Immersing Myself into Ancient Rome

It all began a couple of months ago when I started watching a documentary series on the Roman civilization on Netflix. I don’t remember the name of the documentary, but watching it made me realize I know next to nothing about ancient Roman history.

Coincidentally, Snubnose had picked up Antony & Cleopatra from the local library that weekend. On skimming through the book, it definitely looked more authentic than what I was watching and so I switched from TV series to book and never went bank.

Antony & Cleopatra

Caesar is dead, and Rome is divided. Lepidus has retreated to Africa, Antony rules the opulent East, and Octavian claims the West. Though this tense truce holds civil war at bay, Rome seems ripe for an emperor — a true Julian heir to lay claim to Caesar’s legacy. With the bearing of a hero, and the riches of the East at his disposal, Antony seems poised to take the prize. His rival, Octavian, seems a less convincing candidate: the slight, golden-haired boy is as controlled as Antony is indulgent and as cool-headed and clear-eyed as Antony is impulsive. Indeed, the two are well matched only in ambition.
~ Synopsis from goodreads

This book is the seventh book in Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series. Also, it is generally considered the weakest of her books. Now I can only imagine how good the other books must be, because in my opinion, this book is terrific.

Yes, it does start off a little slow and clunky, and it takes time getting used to the huge numbers of secondary characters that populate the book. But once the focus of the book shifts to Antony and Octavian, and the conflict between the two, I was completely engrossed.

McCullough goes in-depth into the personalities of all the key players, allowing us to understand exactly how Marc Antony’s fall came about.

And of course, there is the ever enigmatic Cleopatra. When I was a kid, I used to love reading (and watching) the love story of Antony & Cleopatra. At that age, I was more inclined towards the romantic versions of the story. But now, I appreciate McCullough’s realism so much better. In fact, their love story seems all the more poignant when I came to understand the reasons why their downfall was inevitable.

Cleopatra is not the only woman of importance in this book. Octavian’s wife (Livia), and sister (Octavia) also are given a lot of prominence. And I loved reading about how all these women directly or indirectly influenced the politics of the time.

In fact, overall this was a book I loved. The only unsatisfactory thing about it was that McCullough refers to all the places by their old names and I just couldn’t figure out their locations in modern times. I could really have used an index or map to better guide me and help me understand these locations (especially since there are so many other details about invasions to these places, their geography, and so on).

That’s my only quibble with this book.

Cleopatra’s Daughter

Selene’s legendary parents are gone. Her country taken, she has been brought to the city of Rome in chains, with only her twin brother, Alexander, to remind her of home and all she once had. Living under the watchful eyes of the ruling family, Selene and her brother must quickly learn how to be Roman – and how to be useful to Caesar. She puts her artistry to work, in the hope of staying alive and being allowed to return to Egypt. Before long, however, she is distracted by the young and handsome heir to the empire.
~ Synopsis from goodreads

I loved Antony & Cleopatra so much, I wanted more, and so I decided to read Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran.

Big mistake. The difference in styles between the two books was really stark. Moran’s writing style is simple and direct. Normally a good thing, but in this case, it felt too simple after reading McCullough’s elegant prose.

Additionally, the characters in the book are described very differently from Antony & Cleopatra. All the characters seemed to be reduced to their stereotypes.

Plus, the focus on all the young people in the book, with Cleopatra’s daughter as the narrator, gave this book a YA vibe, which didn’t quite work for me (especially after the seriousness of Antony & Cleopatra).

After plugging on for over a week, and not enjoying any bit of it, I DNF’ed this book (my first DNF of the year). And I am totally okay with it.

Maybe another time this book will work for me.

For now, I am going to try to get my hands on the rest of the books in the Masters of Rome series and/or continue watching the Netflix documentary.

I am hungry for more on the ancient Romans.

Do you have any favorite books about ancient Rome? Do share with me in the comments. I’d love some recommendations.