But too much of this novel – especially towards the end – seems rushed. We actually got a full story here, with full character development and the desolation caused by the arrival of the Gauls into Rome was vividly told – it was Saylor at his best.

The section of the novel that worked best for me was the story of the vestal Pinaria during the siege by the Gauls, traditionally placed by Saylor in 390BC. All in all, the unevenness makes for an unsatisfactory read. Some famous historical episodes are given greater weight than others some are dealt with in depth, with the time for characters to develop others are merely skimmed and are little more than resumes of happenings or the great events of history are related as an after dinner anecdote by one guest to another. The trouble with novels of this type is often in the presentation of the material. Symbolic continuity is provided by the passing down, generation to generation, of an ancient talisman, worn around the necks of various Potitii and Pinarii until it has become unrecognisable. He does a decent enough job here, managing to create the odd vivid fictional character amidst a plethora of instantly forgettable people.

Like Rutherfurd, Saylor tells his history through the eyes of two families, the ancient Patrician Potitii and their relations, the Pinarii, both of whom have various changes in fortune (and name) throughout the millennium. To write a novel of such huge proportions is an achievement in itself, but as with Rutherfurd's Sarum, Roma suffers similar drawbacks. We should not be surprised, therefore, that one of America's foremost historical novelists, Steven Saylor, has decided to turn his hand to writing the epic novel of ancient Rome.Īs epics go, Roma is far less epic than Sarum, dealing with a mere 1000 years of history, from roughly 1,000BC down to 1BC, but for a city that grew to rule half the known world, the first thousand years is epic enough for anyone's tastes. Rutherfurd went on to repeat this epic format in several novels, all of which remain in print some twenty-odd years on. First there was Sarum, Edward Rutherfurd's mammoth 1000+ page documentary novel of 10,000 years of history surrounding the Neolithic monument known as Stonehenge and the towns that grew around it.

Roma saylor