Vita Brevis - Ruth Downie

   2016; 366 pages.  Book 7 (out of 8) in the “Medicus” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Cozy Mystery; Rome; Historical Fiction.  Overall Rating: 8*/10.

 

    Heads up, Imperial Rome!  Gaius Ruso has arrived!  He’s brought his wife Tilla, and 7-month-old daughter Mara, along with him.  And not much else, other than a bunch of medical equipment, since Ruso is a Medicus (“Doctor”) by trade, and just recently discharged from serving in a Roman legion.

 

    The first thing to do, of course, is to open up a practice and get some money coming in.  He hopes his former military superior, Publius Accius, who’s somewhere in Rome, will put in a good word for him.  Open some doors.

 

    Well, speaking of opening doors, one just did.  Kleitos, a doctor here in Rome just left town unexpectedly, leaving a whole bunch of patients in the lurch and a fully furnished, doctor’s residence.  What a perfect opportunity for Ruso!  He’s moving in today, along with his family.

 

    He plans to set up quickly, and start seeing Kleitos’s patients immediately.  Oh, and he needs to get someone to remove that barrel sitting on the front porch.  It’s sealed, so who knows what’s in it, but it’s stinking to high Olympus.

 

What’s To Like...

    Vita Brevis is the seventh book in Ruth Downie’s (completed) Roman historical fiction “Medicus” series.  I’ve read the first six books, but that was ten years ago.  The series is set in 123 CE, at the height of the Roman empire, although I think this is the first one where Ruso actually sets foot in the capital city.

 

    The mystery angle starts almost immediately; the reeking barrel is left on Kleitos’s porch on page 4, with Ruso making his entrance shortly thereafter.  The chapters are short: there are 76 of them covering 366 pages.  There’s a “Cast of Characters” section at the start of the book, which I found really helpful, due to my 10-year hiatus from this series.

 

    As expected, a relatively simple mystery (what’s in the stinking barrel?) quickly becomes more complex.  Where did Kleitos go, and why?  Why do thugs keep knocking on Ruso’s/Kleitos’s door asking for payment for “services rendered”?  Can Ruso and his former boss patch things up?  Why didn't Kleitos label his potions bottles?

 

    One of the things I love about this series is Ruth Downie’s skill at setting the story in a believable historical epoch.  One example: all cities had “dung carts” in those days.  Horses and donkeys make great beasts of burden as transportation on the streets of Rome, but in a city this size, they generate a lot of poop on a daily basis.

 

    I thought the author’s handling of the sensitive issue of slaver was also deftly done.  The fate of being a slave was a dicey affair.  It all depended on the master.  Slaves also came in all colors., and many of them eventually garnered enough money to buy their freedom.  The medical scenes were also skillfully rendered.   Herbs and potions were of course commonly prescribed, but sometimes surgery was necessary.

 

    The ending is well thought-out.  It’s not filled with thrills & spills, but that's okay.  Instead it's a product of Ruso's deductive reasoning.  And his ingestion of poppies.

 

Kewlest New Word…

Bodge (n.): something that is completed quickly and carelessly.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 1,098 ratings and 96 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.13*/5, based on 1,456 ratings and 157 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “And how is your wife enjoying Rome?”

    “She’s very busy with the baby,” said Ruso.

    “Oh, dear, yes.  I heard something about that.”

    “Parenthood is a marvelous thing,” Ruso assured him.  “You should try it yourself.”

    “I’m glad to hear it,” Metellus told him.  “Especially after the rumors.”

    Ruso said, “It never pays to listen to rumors.”

    “Actually, I find it pays rather well.”  (loc. 437)

 

    “Horatia was only one opportunity among many.”

    “That’s all he thought of her?”

    “Don’t be silly, Ruso.  Daughters of rich families are part of the business.  They’re born knowing that.  It’s their duty to contribute, and since they can’t do much else, the least they can do is provide helpful alliances and grandchildren.  Not everyone can marry for love and live on beans like you do.”  (loc. 4348)

 

Kindle Details…

    Vita Brevis presently sells for $9.99 at Amazon, as do the other seven books in the series.  Ruth Downie also has a short story, The Bear and the Wolf, and a novella, Prima Facie, both set in the Roman Empire for your Kindle, priced at $0.99 and $2.99 respectively. 

 

Across the room, Mara put her toes in her mouth and sucked them.  (loc. 1371)

    The profanity is sparse in Vita Brevis, so little of it that I forgot to keep count.  I’m sure there were less than ten instances in the entire book.

 

    The quibbles are negligible.  The only one I can think of is subjective: Ruso can be dense at times.  You might solve the mysteries and the crimes before he does.  Heck, it took him, and Tilla, an unbelievable amount of time to determine why that barrel on the front porch smells so rotten, and why someone wants payment for delivering it to Kleitos's house.

 

    Overall, the plusses far outweigh the minuses in Vita Brevis, and it was nice to read a cozy mystery where the author pays just as much attention to developing the mystery as she does to the "coziness".  There’s one more book in this series, Memento Mori, so I gotta hit the used-book stores to find a copy since I can’t remember the last time I saw Ruth Downie’s e-books discounted at Amazon.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  Early on, Ruso scrapes up enough money to buy him a trio of slaves.  Two of them evolve into important characters in the story; but the third simply runs away the first chance he gets.  We aren’t even told his name.  I kept waiting for this plot thread to make an impact on the storyline, but it never does.  I’m hoping he shows up in the final book.

Justinian's Empire - Nick Holmes

    2024; 367 pages.  Book 4 (out of 4, but eventually 6) in “The Fall of the Roman Empire” series.  Full Title: Justinian’s Empire – Triumph and Tragedy.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Ancient History; Rome; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    I learned the date in my World History class: The Roman Empire collapsed in 476 CE when the Goths sacked Rome.

 

    Except, at the risk of splitting hairs, that wasn’t its total end.  Yes, the Western Roman Empire was no more.  But the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital of Constantinople, was doing relatively well, at least as long as it was happy to simply maintain its present borders.

 

    True, those pesky Persians kept raiding along its eastern borders; buying-&-selling was throttled by the smallest currency one could use in a solid gold coin; and worst of all, the populace was bitterly divided over whether Jesus was both human-&-divine, or just plain old divine.  But those issues are nothing that a dynamic Emperor can’t fix.

 

    Unfortunately, the present one, Anastasius, is a bit underqualified.  I sure hope the next Emperor is better.

 

What’s To Like...

    Nick Holmes divides Justinian’s Empire into four parts, namely:

    Part 1. New Rome, New Romans:  pg. 26, 12 sections.

    Part 2. The Peasant and the Prostitute: pg. 86, 12 sections.

    Part 3. The Age of Conquest: pg. 147, 15 sections.

    Part 4. Apocalypse Now:  pg. 254, 20 sections.

Those 59 sections cover 367 pages of text, which averages out to about 6 pages per chapter, and means there's always a good place to stop reading for the night.

 

    The book covers the years from 468 CE, the year that Vandal-controlled Carthage destroyed a Roman armada trying to retake the city, to 565 CE, the year the (Eastern) Roman Emperor Justinian died.  The bulk of Justinian’s Empire is devoted to Justinian and his “can-do-anything” military leader, Belisarius.  They’re both introduced around page 100 (+/- 10 pages) and are the main focus throughout the rest of the book.

 

    I loved the degree of detail that author Nick Holmes imparts to this critical time in World History.  The “gold coin” dilemma was solved by the introduction of low-value copper coins called “follis” which were so important to the daily paying of workers’ wages.  I was surprised to learn of the “Late Antique Little Ice Age” in 536 CE, and the devastating Plague in 541 CE, both of which killed millions of people worldwide, with civilizations having no way to defend against their effect.  And I smirked when about the “Nika riots” which prove that athletic games provoking hooligans to urban violence is nothing new.

 

    Justinian is generally hailed as a hero by modern historians.  Nick Holmes assesses this over the last couple of chapters, giving reasons whether the Emperor's various military and economic campaigns were worth it in the end.  In any event, Justinian’s reign was arguably the high-water mark of the Eastern Roman Empire.  The next book reportedly focuses on the efforts of subsequent emperors to maintain that level of glory.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Slanging Match (n.) : a heated argument or quarrel where people insult each other.

Others: Monophysites (n.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 88 ratings and 5 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.45/5 based on 31 ratings and 3 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Basilicus was a man who, over the last 1,500 years, has received not one kind word from any chronicler or historian.  He was universally detested in the sixth century and he still is.  Indeed, it was truly remarkable that he attained the position of emperor at all, and once he did, he did everything possible to lose it.  His first foolish action was to promote the lover of his beautiful wife, Zenonis.  Unknown to him, but known to everyone else, she was having a passionate affair with a senator called Armatus.  (pg. 44)

 

    Chosroes marched fast into the Roman interior.  None of our sources say whether Antioch was his aim right from the beginning.  But he was certainly going in the right direction to reach the empire’s second most important city.  He avoided the city of Callinicum, where Belisarius had suffered his only defeat, and stopped instead at the town of Sura.  Procopius says he chose Sura because as he passed it, his horse neighed and stamped the ground, which the magi (Persian priests) thought showed it would easily fall.  But the magi made a mistake.  The first Persian assault was beaten back with heavy losses.  (pg. 258)

 

Kindle Details…

   Justinian’s Empire presently sells for $5.99 at Amazon.  Book One in the series, The Roman Revolution is on sale for just $0.99 right now, and Books 2 and 3 cost  $5.99 apiece.  An earlier work of the author, The Byzantine World War is available for $2.99.

 

“The rich Goth wants to be Roman but only the poor Roman wants to be a Goth.”  (pg. 204)

    As was true in the previous book, there is zero profanity and/or adult situations in Justinian’s Empire.  One of the Empresses is mentioned as previously being a prostitute, but I count that as a historical fact.  Heck, similar situations exist in present-day politics, and for the most part elicit yawns.

 

    I only caught one typo.  On page 106, Theodora’s “premature death” is given as occurring in 448 CE, which is certainly premature since that was before she was born.  As the Timeline section in the back of the book notes, the correct year is 548 CE.

 

    The direct links to Footnotes work very smoothly, but when Maps and Illustrations are referenced in the text, they are not set up with active links.  That was also true in the previous book.

 

    Enough nitpicking.  I found Justinian’s Empire to be another great entry in Nick Holmes’ “The Fall of the Roman Empire” series.  It isn’t easy chronicling the events in a world that almost no one, including me, knows much about, and do it in a coherent manner.  Justinian’s Empire succeeds wonderfully in that regard.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  Finding any historical records of the events covered in Justinian’s Empire apparently is quite the challenge.  Nick Holmes’ favorite source is a Greek historian named Procopius, whose “official” account, titled History of the Wars, is filled with oodles of praise for Justinian, Belisarius, and their spouses, all of whom presumably loved this adulation.

    But Procopius wrote a second chronicle of the same events, titled it Secret History, which presented these four characters in a much less favorable light, and which was not made public until they had all died, presumably to avoid retaliation.

    Discretion truly is the better part of valor.

Rome and Attila - Nick Holmes

    2024; 281 pages.  Book 3 (out of 3, but eventually 6) in “The Fall of the Roman Empire” series.  Full Title: Rome and Attila: Rome’s Greatest Enemy.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Ancient History; Rome; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    Quick, what person and/or barbarian tribe were most responsible for the collapse of the western Roman empire?

 

    Well, I remember from my college history class a Germanic leader named Alaric, and he and his Visigoths did a brutal sack of Rome.  But that was in 410 CE, and I was taught that Rome fell in 476 C, long after Alaric was dead.  So something doesn’t quite add up.

 

    The guy who deposed the last emperor of Rome in 476 was named Odoacer.  He declared himself king of Italy, and he was a barbarian.  But he was the leader of the pitiful remains of the Roman army when he took over, which is misleading since those Roman legions were mostly made up of Germanic mercenaries.

 

    A case could be made for the Vandals under the leadership of Gaiseric.  They conquered Carthage in 439 CE, cutting off vital grain shipments and tax revenues to Rome.  That was a devastating blow, but Gaiseric never set foot in Rome.

 

    Nick Holmes proposes a different candidate: Attila the Hun, even though he also never set foot in Rome, died in 453 CE, and never claimed the throne.  Let’s see what kind of case can be made for Attila and his Huns.

 

What’s To Like...

    Rome and Attila, Book 3 in a projected 6-volume series, focuses on the short-but-critical historical time period 410-476 CE, although it also recaps the events of 360-410 CE, which were spotlighted in Book 2.  This book is divided into four parts, namely:

    Part 1. The Origin of Our Destruction:  pg. 23, 8 sections

    Part 2. The False Dawn: pg. 68, 8 sections

    Part 3. The Scourge of God: pg. 111, 11 sections

    Part 4. The Last Days of the Empire:  pg. 205, 8 sections

 

    I enjoyed learning about all sorts of movers and shakers in the decline of the Roman Empire.  Attila receives the primary focus; all of Part 3 is devoted to his life and its impact on both halves of the Roman Empire.  A lot of other players are also introduced, including Ataulf, Valentinian III, Aetius, Theodoric, Ricimer, Marjorian, and the already-mentioned trio Alaric, Gaiseric, and Odoacer. A number of influential women are also introduced to the reader, including Galla Placidia, Hypatia, Honoria (see below), Kreka, Aelia Pulcheria, and Aelia Eudocia.  Galla Placidia is a particularly memorable.

 

    I was impressed with the way Nick Holmes juggles the various kingdoms and tribes and their activities and migrations.  The reader has to keep track of Western Roman Emperors, Eastern Roman Emperors, Persians, Huns, White Huns, Visigoths, usurpers, Vandals, and all sorts of Germanic tribes, each carrying out their own agenda.  Yet somehow it never became confusing.

 

    I also liked the way other influences are presented in explaining the Rome’s collapse.  Climate change caused the Huns to pull up stakes and move en masse eastward.  The Huns used mercenaries as well, and therefore were dependent on Roman tribute to keep their position of power.  The Persian Empire was being beset by other Hunnic hordes, so they became keen on maintaining friendly relations with Constantinople.

 

    The occasional “aside” sections were also great.  When Rome fell, what happened to the legionnaires stationed in the hinterlands?  Who were the Huns, where did they come from, and why did they disappear so quickly upon Attila’s death?  How did the lives of ordinary citizens change after law and order collapsed throughout the western Empire?  The interludes addressing these questions were both fascinating and informative.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 23 ratings and 0 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.53/5 based on 17 ratings and 2 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    [Constantine] and his son, Julian, were taken prisoner and beheaded.  Their heads were then sent to Ravenna where they were put on spears and displayed amid a growing collection of such trophies, including the head of the unfortunate Stilicho.

    With Constantine III and his son, Constans, eliminated, the imperial roll call reduced to four emperors, with the remaining usurpers Maximus in Hispania and Priscus Attalus with Ataulf’s Goths.  But almost immediately there was yet another rebellion in Gaul, this time led by a Gallo-Roman called Jovinus.  In these dark years, usurpers appeared and disappeared a bit like moles in a game of whack-a-mole.  (loc. 833)

 

    Women continued to dominate Roman politics that year for Valentinians III’s sister, Honoria, booked her place in history in a most spectacular and bizarre fashion by appealing to Attila to save her from a marriage arranged by her brother.  He wanted her to marry a Roman senator called Herculanus, whose key attributes were inherited money and a lack of ambition.  Honoria’s response was that he might be called Herculanus, but he did not exactly look like Hercules.  (loc. 1912)

 

Kindle Details…

    Rome and Attila is free for a limited time right now, but normally sells for $3.99, which is the same price as the first two books in the series, The Roman Revolution and The Fall of Rome.  An earlier work of the author, The Byzantine World War is available for just $0.99.

 

He was just as scheming and back-stabbing as any good Roman.  (loc. 1151)

    There are a couple things to quibble about in Rome and Attila, but cussing isn’t one of them.  There is none, nor is there any other R-rated stuff.

 

    The footnotes worked superbly.  For the most part they were used to cite the sources for various quotes used.  There were ten very useful maps, but their links in the text didn’t work.  A  number of the 18 photographs included are positively stunning (such as the Theodosian walls built to defend Constantinople), but I don’t recall any links in the text to them.  Not to fear though, working links to all of these can be found in the front of the book, right after the Table of Contents, and all the photos are grouped together immediately after Chapter 21.

 

    As mentioned earlier, Part 1 covers events already covered in the previous book, often using word-for-word repetition.  I anticipate some reviewers criticizing this “double-dipping” (it encompasses 60 pages or so), but I found it a helpful segue.  Certainly if there’s any appreciable time gap between reading the previous book and this one, Part 1 will put your memory “in sync” again.

 

    I’ve read all three “Fall of the Roman Empire” and have thoroughly enjoyed each one.  I was happy to hear that the projected length of the series has increased from four books to six.  I’m particularly intrigued about what the subject matter of Book 4 will be.  The remnants of the Western Roman Empire falling into a prolonged abyss called the Dark Ages?  The Eastern Roman Empire learning to get along without its European sibling?  Or is the focus equally divided between both halves of the kingdom?  I eagerly await finding out.

 

    9 Stars.  One last quibble, this one concerning the book’s cover.  I normally don’t critique such things in a book review, but take another look at the image above.  Doesn’t it seem like “Rome’s Greatest Enemy” is referring to Nick Holmes?   Once it is seen, it cannot be unseen.

The Fall of Rome - Nick Holmes

    2023; 268 pages.  Book 2 (out of 2, so far) in “The Fall of the Roman Empire” series.  Full Title: The Fall of Rome – End of a Superpower.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Ancient History; Rome; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    I read recently a great book titled The Roman Revolution, (reviewed here) which is part of a planned 4-volume series collectively examining and explaining The Fall of the Roman Empire.  That book ended on a relatively optimistic note, despite Rome having endured some empire-threatening crises, thanks to several strong 3^rd- and 4^th-century Roman emperors, including Aurelian, Diocletian, and most notably Constantine.  If they didn't succeed in restoring the Roman empire to its full former glory, then at least they got it on the right track.

 

    Alas, their efforts came to naught, at least for the western half of the empire.  Something unthinkable took place in the early 5^th-century, a disaster such as hadn’t occurred for 800 years.  The capital city of Rome was sacked.

 

    How did this happen?  How did the Roman legions, and the Roman leadership—both the military and the government—collapse so fast and so completely?  Well, the reasons are complex and complicated, and various historians have offered various explanations, including: too many barbarians, too many Christians, and even too many baths.

 

    Nick Holmes makes a detailed and updated examination of these various possible causes (well, not the “too many baths” hypothesis, but that’s okay.), proposes several new ones, and gives a fresh perspective on how everything led to a new world order.  The book is appropriately titled The Fall of Rome.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Fall of Rome covers the history of Rome from 330 CE to 410 CE, a relatively short time span compared to the first book, which covered about a millennium.  But these 80 years are probably the most critical ones of Rome’s existence, and unfortunately do not turn out well.  Ineffectual leaders abound, and those that do show promise are weakened by jealous rivals (both political and religious) and external forces far beyond their control (such as climate and tribal migrations).

 

    The book is divided into 30 chapters covering 268 pages of text.  The first couple chapters overlap the closing section of the first book and focus on the emperor Constantine and his sons and three other heirs.  The internecine fight-to-the-death that follows immediately shatters the unity of the realm.  Nick Holmes then turns the spotlight on several important figures in 4^th-century Roman history, including Julian the Apostate, Theodosius, Stilicho, and Alaric.  I found Julian the Apostate a particularly fascinating “what if” study, since he had strong leadership qualities.  Alas, he was also pro-pagan, and the Roman Empire was becoming increasingly Christianized.

 

    By the dawn of the 5^th-century, it looks like the fate of the western empire will depend on the success of either Stilicho or Alaric, and sadly for the city of Rome, history chooses the latter.  Alaric cares not a whit about the thousand years of Rome dominating the world, as can be seen in the second excerpt, below.

 

    Things build to a historically-exciting climax: Alaric’s sack of Rome in 410 CE.  The city itself is ravaged, yet not destroyed, but it’s role as the capital of an extensive empire is over.  In the final chapters Nick Holmes gives an update about the Eastern Roman Empire, which is somehow doing relatively well; then closes by recounting the various theories about the causes of Rome’s collapse, and his honest evaluation of each one.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 271 ratings and 19 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.24/5 based on 188 ratings and 12 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    The immediate threat the Huns presented in the fourth century was not a Hunnic invasion of Europe (this would come later in the mid-fifth century, led by Attila) but, like a ripple spreading across a lake, the domino effect they created by pushing the Germanic tribes west into the Roman Empire.  Bishop Ambrose of Milan summed this up with impressive clarity: “The Huns fell upon the Alans, the Alans upon the Goths, the Goths upon the Romans, and this is not yet the end.”  (loc. 1367)

 

    The Romans were holding out, hoping a relief force from Ravenna or the army based at Ticinum would move south.  But no help came.  Honorius and Olympius were too worried about their own precarious position to save Rome.  In desperation, a group of senators sought an audience with Alaric.  When they said the people of Rome would fight just like their ancestors, Alaric laughed.  They asked him what he wanted.  He said all their gold and possessions, as well as freedom of the slaves.  When they asked him what he would give them, he said, “Your lives.”  (loc. 2840)

 

Kindle Details…

    Right now, The Fall of Rome sells for $3.99 at Amazon.  Book 1, The Roman Revolution, currently sells for the same amount.  Nick Holmes offers a third e-book at Amazon, also in the History genre, The Byzantine World War; which you can pick up for only $0.99.

 

Valens would go down in history as the man who sent the empire into a death spiral at the Battle of Adrianople in 378.  (loc. 1603)

    It’s really hard to find anything to gripe about in The Fall of Rome.  There were only two cusswords in the whole book, one was utilized by the author, and the other, an f-bomb, was apparently in some graffiti scrawled on the wall of a brothel in Pompeii.  I’m not sure how one determines the Latin word for that bit of profanity, but I bet there’s an interesting anecdote there.

 

    I only spotted one typo: mains/main, so the editing was superb.  And be aware that Nick Holmes is an British author, hence the book is written in English, not American.  For us Yanks, that means you’ll see some strange spellings that are not misspellings, and an odd idiom or two.  The word “rooky” was new to me; I’m still not quite sure if it’s British slang or simply their spelling of our “rookie”.

 

    Finally, if you’re of the “My Deity, right or wrong” persuasion, you’ll probably not like the religious intolerance shown by the Christian leaders here.  Spiritual bigotry towards pagans was a common practice, and if there weren't any unbelievers around to persecute,  Christians of the Nicene sect were more than willing to persecute Christians of the Arian sect.  The net result was a further fragmentation of the Empire.

 

    Overall, I found The Fall of Rome to be a fine follow-up to The Roman Revolution, and I’m eagerly waiting for the next book in the series to be published.  Thus far I’m fascinated by Nick Holmes' presentation of the historical data concerning the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and am impressed by the conclusions he draws therefrom.

 

    9 Stars.  Nick Holmes the author should not be confused with Nick Holmes the lead singer in the British gothic metal band Paradise Lost, whom I had the privilege of seeing in concert many years ago, as an opening act for the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish.  And a freaking great concert it was, too!

The Roman Revolution - Nick Holmes

    2022; 245 pages.  Book 1 (out of 2) in “The Fall of the Roman Empire” series.  Full Title: The Roman Revolution: Crisis and Christianity in Ancient Rome.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : World History; Rome; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    Quick, think back to that World History class when you were in Junior High, High School or college.  What year marked the end of the Roman Empire, according to your instructor?

 

    I was taught it happened in 476 CE, when the German warlord Odoacer forced the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, to abdicate and installed his own lackey on the throne.

 

    But that was just the end of the Western Roman Empire.  The Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital city of Constantinople, was still doing fine, and decided not to go retake the city of Rome from the barbarians.  So you could say 330 CE was the end for Rome, as justified in the second excerpt, below.

 

    The Eastern Roman Empire, later renamed the Byzantine Empire, survived another millennium, until the Ottomans finally destroyed it in 1453 CE.  So that’s another possible answer.

 

    Nick Holmes proposes a different date, 718 CE, and plans to present his case for that year in a four-volume series chronicling Rome’s demise.  The first volume covers the rise of Rome’s fortunes, and presages the debacle coming in 476 CE.  Its title is The Roman Revolution.

 

What’s To Like...

    After a brief overview via an Introduction, Nick Holmes divides The Roman Revolution into five parts (Title, Year Start, Kindle %), namely:

    Republic:  ~ 500-1000 BCE  (5%)

    Empire: 44 BCE  (18%)

    Decline: ~ 170 CE  (27%)

    Crisis: 248 CE  (36%)

    Revolution: 268 CE  (52%)

 

    Those titles give you a hint of what was going on.  Nobody is sure just exactly when Rome was founded, but they had a couple kings to begin with, then switched to being a Republic.  Julius Caesar’s death marks the start of the Empire.  The Decline is a gradual phenomenon and is due to Germanic invaders and a pandemic plague.  Crisis sees another plague, more invading Germans, weak emperors, Persians tearing up the eastern border of the Empire, and climate change messing up the food supply.  Revolution sees a couple strong emperors, most notably Constantine and Diocletian, revitalizing the empire, at least temporarily.  The text wraps up with Constantine’s death in 337 CE.

 

    The book is written in English, not American, so you get spellings such as armoured, outmanoeuvred, artefacts, jewellery, despatched, and judgement.  Spellchecker nixed all but one of those words (artefacts), but frankly, if you’re from America, it reads just fine.

 

    I liked the “tone” of Nick Holmes’s text.  The Roman Empire is neither presented as a glorious ideal, nor as a cruel tyranny.  There are reasons why it thrived among other peoples (such as the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians) and why, as all empires must, it eventually declined and fell.

 

    I also appreciated the author’s efforts to demythologize Roman history.  The wolf-suckled twins, Romulus and Remus, never existed.  Caesar never said, “Et tu, Brute” (Shakespeare did).  Constantine’s “vision of the cross” was a story invented later on by others.  And the degree of persecution of the early Christians in the empire varied from place-to-place and time-to-time, and was most likely, in most cases, overstated.

 

    It was fun to see some of the pagan religions—Druids, Mithras, Zoroastrianism, et al.—get some ink.  The footnotes worked flawlessly, which is a notable feat in Kindle e-books.  There are also some useful and interesting maps and images, about a dozen or so of each.  They worked almost as smoothly as the footnotes, although occasionally the link would drop me off at, say, image #1, when it was supposed to be redirecting to, say, image #12.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 406 ratings and 22 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.34/5 based on 248 ratings and 15 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    There was no survival of fundamentalist Gallic beliefs that could seriously undermine Roman rule.  The best example is that of the Druids, who had always been the most powerful religious and cultural challenge to the Romans, but in Gaul they simply melted away.  By the first century AD, it was simply not cool to be a Druid any more.  But it was cool to be a Roman.  (loc. 724)

 

    [Constantine] turned to the cheering people.  They fell silent.  Then he addressed them.  He declared he would now dedicate this new city.  Henceforth it would no longer be called Byzantium but Constantinopolis, ‘Constantine’s City’.

    The date was 11 May 330.  Little could the thousands of people gathered in the Forum of Constantine, including Constantine himself, have realised that for centuries to come this date would be seen as a historic turning point, the marking of a new era.  For it is now seen as the beginning of the second age of the Roman Empire.  The age when power passed from Rome to Constantinople.  (loc. 2577)

 

Kindle Details…

    Right now, The Roman Revolution sells for $2.99 at Amazon.  Book 2, The Fall of Rome, goes for the same amount.  Nick Holmes offers a third e-book at Amazon, also in the History genre, The Byzantine World War; you can pick it up for a mere $0.99.

 

“Monarchy degenerates into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into savage violence and chaos.” [Polybius] (loc. 286)

    As you’d expect from a nonfiction History tome, profanity is almost nonexistent – just a single “hell”, in the whole book.  Surprisingly, this was the author’s own utterance, not a quote of someone else’s vocabulary.  I only spotted one typo: Mark Anony/Anthony, which means the editor did a great job.

 

    The “Christians” in the book’s subtitle don’t show up until about 76% (chapter 36 out of 41), and frankly, unlike what you may have been taught in school, get very little blame here for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.  However, there’s more than a century to go before the 476 CE Doomsday, so it’s possible they’ll shoulder more of the blame in Book 2.

 

    The Roman Revolution was an educational and enjoyable read for me, but it helps that I'm a lifelong history buff.  I was amazed that Nick Holmes could condense a millennium’s worth of history into 245 pages and still make it feel like a comprehensive treatise.

 

    I’ve got the Book 2 in this series on my Kindle and am looking forward to reading about the next one hundred years of Roman history, which I was taught ends in disaster for the capital city.  I have not picked up Books 3 and 4 yet, which are briefly previewed in the “Find Out More” section in the back of The Roman Revolution.  But that’s because they haven’t been published yet.

 

    9 Stars.  We’ll wrap this up on a lighter note taken from The Roman Revolution.  The acronym SPQR has long been associated with the Roman Empire.  You’ve been taught it stands for “Senatus Populusque Romanus”, Latin for “the Roman Senate and People”.  But modern Italians will jokingly tell you that it means “Sono pazzi questi Romani”, which translates into “They’re crazy, these Romans’.

The Sacrilege - John Maddox Roberts

   1992; 204 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book 3 (out of 13) in the “SPQR” series.  Genres : Murder-Mystery, Historical Fiction; Rome.  Overall Rating: 8*/10.

 

    These are busy times for Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger (hereafter we'll just call him “Decius”).  He’s just arrived back home in Rome after a stint with the Roman army in Gaul, and thanks to some family string-pulling, he’s now a Senator.  But that’s not why he’s busy; new Senators are expected to show up for sessions, cheer and clap when appropriate, and otherwise keep their mouths shut.

 

    But when a Patrician friend is murdered, people look to Decius to find out who did it, since he’s known to have a flair for asking questions and poking his nose into things.  This will tie up Decius for a while, since no one can think of anybody who’d want to kill the Patrician.

 

    Then there’s that scandal at the recent “Rite of Bona Dea”.  The secret ceremony is off-limits to all males, yet Clodius, who Decius is not on good terms with, somehow wormed his way into it and has now fled the scene, since the penalty for such an infraction is death.  Again, People Decius is expected to look into the matter.  It’s going to be a challenge since Clodius is in hiding and all the women are sworn to secrecy about the ritual.

 

    On top of all that, someone just tried to poison Decius, via a furtive sprinkling of a white powder on his pastry.  How in Jove’s name will Decius solve all these mysteries, especially the one where he was the target?  Can things get any busier?

 

    Yes, they can.  And they do.  When more bodies are found.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Sacrilege is set in the city of Rome in the year 693 via Roman reckoning, or 70 BC via our dating.  It is an era chock full of notable Romans.  Julius Caesar is a youngster on the rise, Cicero and Cato are at the height of their Senatorial careers, and Pompey and his mighty army are camped just outside the walls of Rome, waiting for the Senate to ask him to lead a glorious parade celebrating his recent victories.

 

    The storyline is equal parts murder-mystery, historical fiction, and action-intrigue.  This is a turbulent time in the world – the Roman Republic is threatened by those who wish to turn it into a dictatorship, or even something new and bizarre - a triumvirate.  The ordinary citizens would much prefer to keep it a republic, but there are several nobles who are both powerful ambitious, and would love to rule as Emperor over the whole civilized world.

 

    The story is told in the first-person POV, Decius’s.  This is the book that introduces Hermes, a young slave who will also grow to be a friend that’s both insolent to, trusted by Decius.  I’m not reading the series in order, so it was neat to see how and when Hermes came in.

 

    I always enjoy the historical angle of the book in this series.  John Maddox Roberts uses a slew of Latin words in the text, and the 12-page glossary in the back comes in very handy.  I was surprised to learn the Romans had things like greenhouses and wigs, employed the use of fortune-tellers and Etruscan soothsayers, and even asked philosophical questions such as: “would men stop lying just because they’re dead?”

 

    The ending is good, with an ample amount of thrills-&-spills, including a requisite chase scene, and some always-appreciated plot twists.  Not everyone gets their just desserts, in fact almost no one does.  The plans and schemes of just about everybody, including Decius, fall through.  I loved it.

 

Excerpts...

    “Come here, boy, let’s have a look at you.”  The lad complied.  He appeared to be about sixteen, of moderate growth and wiry.  His face was narrow and foxy, with a long, thin nose that provided far too little distance between his eyes, which were an alarming shade of green.  His dense, curly hair grew to a sharp peak over his brow.  His whole look was shifty and villainous, with a touch of surly arrogance.  I liked him instantly.  (pg. 9)

 

    “Am I to understand that you have taken upon yourself one of your inimitable investigations?”

    “It helps pass the time,” I said.

    He grew very serious.  “Decius, my friend, I have known many men who courted death for the sake of glory.  Others do the same in pursuit of wealth, power or revenge.  You are the only man I know who does so as a sort of intellectual exercise.”

    “Every man finds his pleasures where he will,” I said, quoting an old saying I had often seen carved on tombstones.  (pg. 102)

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Recondite (adj.) : esoteric, abstruse, obscure.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.3*/5, based on 44 ratings.

    Goodreads: 4.07*/5, based on 1,079 ratings and 45 reviews

 

“It is always inadvisable to take liberties with the diet of professional killers.”  (pg. 65 )

    There are several nits to pick, none of which are show-stoppers.  For a 204-page book, you meet a lot of people, many of which have compound names, so a Cast of Characters would’ve been quite useful.  I was surprised to find a couple typos – danger/dagger, plaze/plaza, god/good – in this published paperback version.  Perhaps Avon Books needed a better editor; but then again, maybe these errors are all cleaned up in later editions.

 

    I only noted three instances of cussing – two poops and a penis – in the whole book.  There are a couple brief and subtle references to homosexuality (Decius refers to it as the “Greek” way), but they really play no part in the tale.  Homophobes and prudes can pretty much read in peace.

 

    The titular “Sacrilege”, while certainly a factor in the story, is not the main plotline; the four murders are.  Finally, there’s a deus ex machina near the end that conveniently documents all the reasons for the murders.  Without this godsend, Decius would not have solved anything, let alone have any proof.

 

    But that’s okay.  I read John Maddox Roberts stories mostly for the historical fiction and action-adventure, and within those genres, The Sacrilege is one fine novel.  I’ve got one more book from this series on my TBR shelf, which I'm looking forward to.  After that, I’ll either have to hit the used-book stores while braving the pandemic or hope that John Maddox Roberts occasionally discounts the Kindle versions.

 

    8 Stars.  The Sacrilege was my fourth SPQR book, and John Maddox Roberts has yet to disappoint.  If you like murder-mysteries set in ancient Rome, this is definitely a series to get into.