| “ | Masters of Rome is a series of historical fiction novels by author Colleen McCullough (b. 1937) set in ancient Rome during the last days of the old Roman Republic; it primarily chronicles the lives and careers of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, and the early career of Caesar Augustus. It spans from January 1, 110 BC through to January 16, 27 BC.
Other major historical figures who appear and play prominent parts in the series include Mithridates VI of Pontus, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Publius Rutilius Rufus, Quintus Sertorius, Marcus Livius Drusus, Jugurtha of Numidia, Spartacus, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, Marcus Porcius Cato, Publius Clodius, Vercingetorix, Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Mark Antony, Cleopatra VII of Egypt, Caesarion and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Each book in the series features a detailed glossary, hand-drawn illustrations of the major characters, and notes by McCullough detailing her reasoning for portraying certain events in certain ways.
The series has a thesis: as Rome became more powerful within the Mediterranean world, the old ways of doing things – through the deliberation of various interests, mainly aristocratic and mercantile – became impossibly cumbersome. It became more and more difficult to govern an empire with institutions originally designed to administer a city-state. Certain powerful leaders (especially Marius, Sulla, and Caesar) tried to create a state in which they had autocratic power but also preserved the externals of the old ways. They were opposed by the conservatives (called the optimates by classical historians, though they themselves preferred the title boni or "good men"). The obtuse or simply ignorant resistance of these reactionaries, who are all presented as degenerate or self-serving, made the creation of an autocracy necessary. The result was the birth of an imperial monarchy, and a radically different organization of power. The novels have been criticized for their idealization of military dictators and strong men like Caesar and Octavian. | ” |
