-Emoción y emotividad no son exactamente lo mismo-.

Género. Novela histórica.

Lo que nos cuenta. Tácito, buscando documentación para su Historiae, contacta con un descendiente de los Claudios que fue testigo de excepción del terrible interregno que transcurrió desde la muerte de Nerón hasta la toma del poder por Vespasiano. Ese testigo, nuestro protagonista, comienza a mandar por carta parte de los datos solicitados. Pero no todos sus recuerdos, que llegan hasta el mandato de Domiciano, deben ser puestos a disposición del historiador.

¿Quiere saber más del libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...4 s Olethros2,665 490

-Emoción y emotividad no son exactamente lo mismo-.

Género. Novela histórica.

Lo que nos cuenta. Tácito, buscando documentación para su Historiae, contacta con un descendiente de los Claudios que fue testigo de excepción del terrible interregno que transcurrió desde la muerte de Nerón hasta la toma del poder por Vespasiano. Ese testigo, nuestro protagonista, comienza a mandar por carta parte de los datos solicitados. Pero no todos sus recuerdos, que llegan hasta el mandato de Domiciano, deben ser puestos a disposición del historiador.

¿Quiere saber más del libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...4 s Liviu2,322 654

An excellent novel but not the usual "Roman era" Massie. I read and greatly enjoyed his classical trilogy (Caesar, Augustus and Tiberius) and I enjoyed this one maybe even more because it is different; more cynical and personal, less about the grand sweep of history and the deeds of famous men, it almost reads one of Tom Holt superb historical novels, though it's shorter, focusing on 69 AD the famous Year of the 4 Emperors, but with reminiscences both to earlier times and a bit about the future and the Flavians.

The narrator, a noble of very high (official) lineage - though in reality only through his mother since his true father is rumored to have been a powerful freedman who was a sort of Prime Minister under Claudius not his presumed noble one - a former boyhood lover of Titus, sort-of-friend of Domitian since they were roughly of the same age and lover of Titus and Domitian' sister Domitilla to boot - now in late middle age in exile on the Euxine (exiled by Domitian after a glorious military career for adultery with his sister) and weighing if to return to Rome after the tyrant's death, recounts to Tacitus the happenings in 69 and much more.

A short but packed novel and highly recommended especially if you the darker, less heroic kind of historymainstream read_20103 s Ruth Harwood527 11

Not my favourite of the series, to be honest. The year of the four emperors was as bloody a year in Rome's history as any, except for, well, you know, most other years! The only difference would be that it's not the genocide of a whole Gaulish tribe by Caesar, or the pacification of Britain by Claudius, or any other war, though excepting the civil wars that created the Empire from the Republic, which was actually less bloody, being that it was father against son and brother against brother. I suppose you could call it the most bloody year in peacetime that the Romans encountered. The Empire collapsed after ridding itself of a supposedly 'bad' emperor (who, by the by, the whole population bar the aristocracy absolutely loved, and many false Neros' appeared in the coming years, much the same as many of Edward IV's sons appeared to plague Henry VII!)
Not that I want to give a history lesson. Far from it, I'm trying to display how this year of implosion has bred many books, fictional and not, that want to make sense of what is, in essence, senseless. You can't make sense of a melee!
Massie tackles the subject better than most. His style of writing, as in the other Empire books he wrote, is in the style of someone writing a memoir, someone who was in the thick of it, telling their truth, and Massie does it well, both in style and substance.
His depiction of these men who dreamed and grasped at Empire is, in all probability, pretty accurate. Or so I'd imagine, looking at what I've read and seen of this year.
His writing is always reminiscent of the atmosphere I see in my mind's eye, and as it's well-structured and interesting, I did enjoy this. So perhaps this was much better than Caesar, in hindsight. That was a little drier and less open. Here, we see a world in turmoil due to ambition, and that's a lesson anyone wishing for power should take note of: the wheel of fortune turns on us all in the end.
A 20 year old novel that still cuts the mustard, as they say. If I called it a classic, we'd have so many classics there'd be nothing but lol! But Massie's books are worth reading if you have an interest in human life and our deeds and thoughts - his insight is worth a thousand of any pale imitation!1 Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer1,908 1,486

Last (in historic time) in current series of Roman books – this one is narrated by Scaurus – childhood lover of Titus and his sister Domitius and familiar with Domitian (Vespasian’s) other son).

The book is narrated in what is now self imposed exile as he is asked by Tacitus to give his early memories of the recently deceased “tyrant” Domitian for Tacitus to include in his history but finds himself reminiscing on the year of four emperors following Nero’s death. In that year he was mainly in Rome at the side of Vespasian’s brother (who somehow manages to maintain relationships with the other emperors) and acting as an agent for Titus and babysitter for the over exuberant Domitian, and then in time as a go between in the attempts between Vitellius and Vespasian to negotiate a truce.

More explicitly than ever one feels that to really appreciate the book the reader needs to be familiar with Roman history as told by the classical Roman historians but it still serves as a good introduction to that period of history and to what it meant to live through it.20091 Amanda AlexandreAuthor 1 book48

By far the least interesting in the series. There is no personal involvement, when we learn to love Brutus in Cesar, or to imagine Cicerus as a clown in Marco Antonio.

It felt the author didn't even enjoyed writing it. He was just trying to get the story done.commercial disappointments history ...more Mark EllisAuthor 5 books118

Superb historical fiction as always from Allan Massie. This one about The Year of the Four Emperors in Rome in 69 AD. Brilliantly imagined and beautifully written.1 Annabelle1,094 15

I started this, my first book by Allan Massie, expecting another engrossing read on Roman emperors. And I was quite disappointed to realize it was historical fiction. (Oh yes, I've become quite the snob since getting hooked on Roman history, no thanks to Edward Gibbon. Because let's face it, unless we're talking about Robert Graves's I, Claudius, which is to me the gold standard for Roman historical fiction, the finest embellishments are no match for historical truth. With subjects this debauched, this perverted, who needs fiction?) And yet, I was easily captivated. The fictional character Scaurus eloquently narrates a timeline synonymous with the earlier books I had read on the first twelve Caesars. This was interesting because it focused on events immediately after Emperor #5 Nero's death, the year Rome had the highest turnover of emperors--numbers 6, 7,8, and 9. The perfunctory sketches I read before only skimmed the surface of their character, their primal weaknesses and intentions. Massie's storytelling, through the occasionally sanctimonious Scaurus, has made me recognize them for their very human, familiar frailties, especially given the political landscape my country has been in for some time now.

Three stars. Could have been higher, if the narration didn't delve too much into the fictional, and therefore expendable--Scaurus's sexual peccadilloes and existentialist woes.i-own-it Robert Hepple1,794 8

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