A historical fiction recommendation

For those of you Julius Caesar fans:

I'm normally not the type to read fiction novels. My library is mostly made up of historical books, law books, and science books. However, lately I decided to explore other genres, and tried my hand at historical novels.

I want to bring to your attention one I know you numismatists and history buffs will enjoy. This is a 10 book series called Marius' mules, which ranges from the campaigns of Caesar in Gaul to the Civil Wars. So far the series is in book 10 as Caesar and Pompey start to face off.

The books are well researched and are extremely educational despite being fiction. Thr battles are properly described, the names and geographical location of the tribes, and their cultures, are all accurate, and the lives of the legionnaires on campaign are accurate down to the smallest details based on the latest scholarly research , etc..

The fictional characters that are center stage in these books are the officers and centurions of Caesar's legions, as they struggle to keep their men alive, motivated to fight, and disciplined, through Caesar's challenging, arduous, and ambitious Gallic campaigns. The characters are likeable, relatable, and have real depth to them. If you want an account of the Galic wars through the perspective of the ordinary soldiers, centurions, and officers of a Roman legion, and not Caesar's self-promoting propaganda which seldom mentions the ordinary soldiers that helped him make history, give this a read.

Look, I stink at book reviews, but I'm reading this series and enjoying it, and I think you might too. And there is a Kindle special on these...$28 for all 10 books. It's got good reviews on Amazon and new books to the series are due to be released soon.




Here is a relevant coin.


Julius Caesar

Also, an you recommend me other ancient historical fictions? Looking to expand my reading list.

 

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I have read the series. Excellent imho, and I recommend it as well. I can recommend the "Sword of Cartimandua" series by Griff Hosker; "Warrior of Rome" by Harry Sidebottom; "Marching with Caesar" by RW Peake; "Eagles of the Empire" by Simon Scarrow; and Eagles and Dragons" series by Adam Alexander Haviaras. I can recomend more, but this list can get anyone started.

 

Thanks for the review, Sallent. I picked up the first one to give it a try!

Historical fiction is my favourite way to learn about history. For the same period, but more political than military, I would recommend Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. It starts with this one:


which is primarily about Gaius Marius. The Grass Crown continues with Sulla, then the rest are about Caesar. (Then there's a sort of sequel about Octavian and Antony.) The stories are told from many different points of view, and there's lots of historical detail and great (as well as a great many) characters. Not to be missed, in my opinion. And you can get coins linked to a lot of the events & characters to liven up your Republican/Imperatorial collection.

For Greek historical fiction, Mary Renault can't be beat. Two of my favourites are Last of the Wine, about the Pelopponesian war from the perspective of an Athenian, and her Alexander series: Fire from Heaven, The Persian Boy, and Funeral Games. These are simply great literature.

A bit more obscure, I like Wallace Breem's Eagle in the Snow, about the Vandals, Alans, Suebi and others crossing the frozen Rhine in 406 and invading Gaul. Great book about the dying empire, lots of action (at least towards the end) but also impeccably written.

I like Harry Sidebottom too, which @Bing mentioned. For Carthaginian, Pride of Carthage by David Anthony Durham is good, about Hannibal. (I think maybe someone here on CT recommended it?) Of course there's I, Claudius, and you might want to try Stephen Pressfield. I could go on, but I'll stop there!

To get a coin in... for some bizarre reason, the UK edition of Caesar's Women (4th in the McCullough series) features a Syracusan tetradrachm from 400 years previously?!?

 

Wow very nice I'll look into those while this is not ancient it is US history the Rush Limbaugh series are very good and educational.

Thanks,
Jacob

 

I second the Marius Mules and Marching with Caesar series. There are a surprising number of Roman military series. I have read about 10 different ones.

I like the Didius Falco mysteries set in ancient Rome by Lindsey Davis.

I also really like all of Mary Renault's books.

A great way to relax but still learn about history.

 

Recently, I have gotten into Caroline Lawrence's children's series The Roman Mysteries. Each book is a neat collection of tidbits and anecdotes about life in First Century Rome, with a little mystery to solve along the way. http://www.romanmysteries.com/books

Although the series is aimed at children 8-14, I found more than enough here to keep me entertained. Lawrence does not dumb down the history nor the writing. Plus, it has Mary Beard's stamp of approval, which is good enough for me!

 

Folks here also may be interested in Vipsania: A Roman Odyssey, a historical novel by Jasper Burns. Jasper is an ancient coin collector who wrote a series of articles in The Celator about the women who appear on Roman coins.

 

He may have to do his show with half his brain tied behind his back just to make it fair, because he has so much "talent on loan from God", but he should really do something about that oversized head...



Anyway, thanks for the recommendation. I might have to get one or two of the books in the series for my son for Christmas. I'm trying to teach him US history.

 

It would be so much easier to do so if you had a daughter because of the American Girl dolls and books.



I always thought the American Girl dolls were a wonderful idea (even though they would take a big chunk out of the coin budget) and I keep waiting for my son and his wife to have children. I, like my own parents, was daughterless.

 

I have 6 daughters: nope on the American Girl... none really got into them. I was surprised, but hey, less to acquire. Now, several granddaughters and I do not hear of their interest either...

 

My daughter loved that American Girl stuff when she was younger. As far as historical fiction goes, I would suggest Gore Vidal's book Julian. It is written in the style of the memoirs of Julian from his early days as a student up through the time when he became emperor and campaigned against the Sassanid Persians. A very good read.

 

Thank you all. I havent even finished the Marius' Mules series yet and thanks to all your recommendations I probably have enough reading material to keep me busy for at least 2 years (probably longer). Excellent!

I got bored of reading non-fiction history, science, and law books. Thats all I've read for the past 10 years. Its been that long since I last read a fiction book, and I really needed a change. Historical fiction seemed like a nice compromise that will allow me to get my history fix while also reading something different, more creative, and adventurous. Who knows, if I look around I may even find some historical fiction to cater to my science addiction too.

Anyway, I'm inspired enough now thanks to all your recommendations...even ordered me a new Kindle devise to upgrade my old and tired one which doesn't charge well anymore. You guys are awesome.

 

I've always loved to learn history so its no surprise my favorite kind of books were and continue to be nonfiction. All of my historical books right now are just that. But if there was a good fiction series that takes place during the late Roman Empire/early Byzantine era I would be tempted to check it out.

 

Aside from books like Beowulf, the Iliad, Epic of Gilgamesh, the only only non-fiction books I have are HP Lovecraft collections.

 

You would probably like Gillian Bradshaw's The Sand Reckoner, a fun read about Archimedes.

I don't know of a series, but check out Breem's Eagle in the Snow (mentioned above) as well as Robert Graves' Count Belisarius. I also enjoyed Gárdonyi's Slave of the Huns, although it is a bit dated in both content and style. Rosemary Sutcliffe's Sword at Sunset is an incredibly good book about post-Roman Britain (yes, it's an Arthur thing, but aiming for historical realism). It is a sort-of sequel to her Eagle of the Ninth series for young adults. (It's for young adults not because it lacks sophistication, but just because it lacks sex, I think!) The one previous to Sword at Sunset is The Lantern Bearers which takes place as the Romans withdraw from Britain.

 

I'm surprised no one has recommended the excellent work of Steven Saylor yet. He has written a whole series of "detective adventures" starring his prototypical sleuth "Gordianus the Finder". Detectives and their work either hadn't been thought of in Late Republican/Early Imperial Rome, or no record of it survives, so this is a fairly original concept which looks on the "Roman experience" from a novel point of view. Gordianus is a very engaging character whom the author ages through a series of about a dozen books from an intelligent but somewhat clueless young man to a well-known and respected elder counselor who helps provide facts to a wide range of famous Romans like Cicero who figures as a major character appearing in many of the books. He has also written a series in engaging style with his pervading personal grasp of the history which tells the story of Rome from the time that it was a crossroads on the salt road running east-west and the metal road running north and south through the early Imperial period. He manages to bring to plausible life the origins of the legendary feats and somewhat improbable sounding characters and situations from Rome's early "mythology". The first book, "ROMA", brings us from chaolcolithic prehistoric beginnings up to the Imperatorial period and follows the actions and intertwined fates of two important founding patrician families from generation to generation. The second volume, "EMPIRE", takes us through the 1st century and the "12 Caesars" period. He has also written several collections of short stories in which he can focus efforts to deal in greater detail with specific interesting facts, feats and occurrences which were either given less in-depth coverage in the novels or were outside the scope of the main course of the stories.

 

I've always liked historical fiction, have read a few of those mentioned above. I'll put more on my list! I may not have started collecting Roman coins if I hadn't read this series. These books kind of nudged my interest in that direction.



https://www.amazon.com/Skystone-Cam...1507165829&sr=8-1&keywords=camulod+chronicles

5th century Britian, Artthurian legend as historical fiction. It's an 8 book series and Arthur doesn't show up until book 8..as a baby. It's about the fall of Rome and the beginnings of the legend. I didn't really know much about this period, and it kind of made me think of LRB.

 

There are several series of detective-style novels set in the Roman period. I second the nomination of Steven Saylor's series about "Gordianus the Finder" and will add another favorite, Ruth Downine's "Medicus" series. Downie's series is set in the reign of Hadrian and features an army physician, Gaius Petreius Ruso, and his British slave girl (later wife) Tilla, whose original British name is dismissed by Ruso as "one long string of spelling mistakes". Be aware that the books have different titles in the US and the UK, so double-check to make sure you don't accidentally buy the same book twice. Robert Graves' Claudius novels and Mary Renault's Alexander trilogy have already been mentioned, but I can also vouch for those. Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" and "Baudolino" are set in medieval Europe and have excellent, accurate historical background (unsurprising as Eco studied medieval philosophy and literature at the University of Turin). Finally, for more recent history, David Mitchell's "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet" is set at the Dutch trading post of Dejima, Japan during the Napoleonic era and is well worth reading.

 

The history channel made an entertaining series on the rise and fall of rome, and my favorite episode, the first one, was about Marius. I'll have to check out that book.