Fiction set in ancient Rome  

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The following article Fiction set in the Roman Empire lists some works set in the Middle and Late Roman Republic and in the (Western) Roman Empire but not those set in the city of Rome or Byzantium.

The article lists works only from the Middle Republic when the city-state of Rome began to expand over Italy.

Contents

Historical novels listed in chronological order

Early and Middle Republic

If you know of works set in the Middle Republic, please expand this section.

  • Roma, published March 6, 2007, by Steven Saylor. The book covers Rome's Republican history from before the founding of the city.<ref>http://www.stevensaylor.com/ Saylor, Steven. "Steven Saylor website". Retrieved May 16, 2007</ref>

No works in English, apart from Saylor's Roma, are known to be set partially or wholly in the Middle Republic before the Punic Wars. Books about Hannibal, such as David Anthony Durham's Pride of Carthage (2005) or Ross Leckie’s Scipio (1997), do feature Romans from the Middle Republic.

  • Traitors’ Legion (Ace G-532,1963) by Jay Scotland, a swashbucker about a disgraced legion, set in Hannibal’s time.
  • Of Merchants & Heroes, published 2008 by Paul Waters. Set at the end of the third century BC, about the life of a fictional Roman called Marcus. In the novel Marcus becomes involved in the war against Philip V of Macedon, which was led by Titus Quinctius Flamininus, who later became Consul and is a major character in the story.

Late Republic

  • The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy (2005) by Michael Curtis Ford. The career of Mithridates VI (134-63 BC)
  • The Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough. Beginning before the birth of Julius Caesar to after his death, it details the self-immolation of the Roman Republic.
  • Spartacus by Howard Fast
  • Spartacus by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
  • The Emperor series, by Conn Iggulden, is more alternate history than fictionalized biography in some respects.
  • Young Caesar (1958) by Rex Warner
  • Imperium by Robert Harris, showing Cicero's rise to the consulship in 63 BC; a fictionalized biography told by his slave, later freedman, Tiro
  • A Pillar of Iron (1965) by Taylor Caldwell, a fictionalized biography of Cicero.
  • Winter Quarters (1956) by Alfred Duggan. Two Gauls in the time of Julius Caesar, one of whom is under a curse from the Mother Goddess, whose worship he finds throughout the Roman world.
  • The Conquered by Naomi Mitchison (1923). Gaul & the Gallic Wars 1st century BC
  • Beric the Briton: A Story of the Roman Invasion (1893) by G. A. Henty
  • Imperial Caesar (1960) also by Rex Warner
  • The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder, about the year culminating in Caesar's assassination.
  • Three's Company (1958) by Alfred Duggan. The career of Lepidus, triumvir with Octavian and Marcus Antonius after the death of Julius Caesar.
  • Marius' Mules (2009) by S.J.A.Turney, a fictionised account of the first year of Caesar's campaigns in Gaul.
  • The Door in the Wall, The Key, The Lock by Benita Kane Jaro

Early/High Empire (27 BC to 190 AD)

The Julio-Claudian Dynasty

  • Let the Emperor Speak: A novel of Caesar Augustus by Allan Massie, Doubleday & Company, Inc., New York, 1987 (First published in Great Britain in 1986 by the Bodley Head as Augustus). Also by this author: Caesar, Anthony, Tiberius, Caligula and Nero's Heirs.

Books about early Christians or the Christ include:

Books about Claudius or set in his reign include:

  • I, Claudius (1934) and its sequel, Claudius the God (1935), by Robert Graves. The classic and influential dramatised account of the life of the emperor Claudius, made into a popular TV series (see below).
  • The Eagle series by Nigerian-born British novelist Simon Scarrow. The first book Under the Eagle (part of the Eagle series) was published 2000 by Simon Scarrow. Story of Roman invasion of Britain, featuring a young Vespasian. Other books in the series include The Eagle's Conquest (2001 set in 42 AD (introducing Boudicca at the end); When the Eagle Hunts (2002) set in 44 AD. Other books in the series include The Eagle and the Wolves (2003), The Eagle's Prey (2004), The Eagle's Prophecy (2005), The Eagle in the Sand (2006), and the forthcoming Centurion (January - 2008).

Books set in Nero's reign include:

The Flavian Dynasty

Middle Empire (191 AD to 305 AD), when Diocletian splits the Empire

Late Empire: West (to 476 AD)

  • Murder Imperial, (2003) and The Song of the Gladiator (2004) by Paul Doherty, Helena, mother of Constantine, employs a meek spy named Claudia.
  • * Frontier Wolf by Rosemary Suttcliff (1980). Set in 343 AD. As a punishment, a detachment of Roman legionaries are ordered on a hopeless mission beyond Hadrian's Wall.
  • The Young Julian by Thomas J. Hairston, Ph.D.
  • Julian (1964) by Gore Vidal, fictionalized biography of the emperor Julian the Apostate, who tried to revive Paganism
  • The Last Legion: A Novel by Valerio Massimo Manfredi; fictionalized story of the emperor Valerian and what might have happened to his surviving retinue.
  • Eagle in the Snow (1970) by Wallace Breem; set in Britannia and Germania in the late 4th and early 5th Century; features a Mithraic Roman general.
  • The Little Emperors (1951) by Alfred Duggan. A succession of coups in late-Roman Britain.
  • Dominic (1991) by Kathleen Robinson. The life and times of a dwarf, set in Gaul, Egypt, Constantinople, and finally Germania, 397 AD.
  • Gods And Legions: A Novel of the Roman Empire (2002) by Michael Curtis Ford
  • The Sword of Attila: A Novel of the Last Years of Rome (2005) by Michael Curtis Ford
  • The Fall of Rome: A Novel of a World Lost (2007) by Michael Curtis Ford

Late Empire: Byzantine (457-1453 AD)

Other books about the Byzantine empire and the Crusades are listed under fiction set in Byzantium

Unknown period

Detective fiction

Science fiction

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Science fiction/time travel novels

Alternate universe fiction

The following alternate history novels are set in fictional universes prior to the present day.

The following alternate history story is set in a fictional universe prior to the present day

  • "Delenda Est" (1955) by Poul Anderson; now available in Guardians of Time (1960 and 1985) editions); Rome defeated by Carthage in the Second Punic War and what follows.

The following alternate history novels are set in fictional universes where the Roman Empire never fell, and has endured to the present day:

  • Romanitas (2005), by Sophia McDougall
  • Rome Burning (2006), sequel to Romanitas, by Sophia McDougall
  • Roma Eterna, a 2003 novel by Robert Silverberg
  • The Germanicus trilogy, a collection of books by Kirk Mitchell.
  • Orbis (novel) (2002), by Scott Mackay. Romans return to a modern day Earth to retake it from Alien invaders who exiled them centuries ago and imposed a strange form of Christianity.
  • The Aquiliad (1983), by Somtow Sucharitkul. Circa 50 AD. A romp in which Roman legions discover America, battle the Aztecs, encounter Big Foot, and drive off flying saucers.
  • Emperor (2006), by Stephen Baxter. After a Celtic chieftain obeys an ancient prophecy, and sides with the invaders, the history of Roman Britain takes a different path. First in a series.

Comic books

  • Astérix series by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations). A tiny village in Gaul holds out against the Roman Army, and its doughtiest warriors meet all the famous Romans.

Works inspired by Roman history, or by works of fiction and non-fiction about Rome

Science fiction inspired by Rome or works about Rome

Comic books

  • Leading Comics - in the 1940s, a series called "Nero Fox" (about a funny animal named Nero Fox, who was emperor of Rome) was published as a backup series in this comic title.
  • Trigan Empire was a Science Fiction comic series telling of adventures on the planet Elekton with many similarities to the Roman Empire

Movies

Plays

Television

Video games

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Fiction set in ancient Rome" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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