Spanning a thousand years, and following the shifting fortunes of two families though the ages, this is the epic saga of Rome, the city and its pe...
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May 21, 2010
dioscurio
rated it: 
seluruh sejarah mengandung satu elemen fiksi
Adalah kebiasaan saya untuk mengintip catatan pengarang di halaman akhir terlebih dulu sebelum mulai membaca sebuah fiksi sejarah. Karena di situlah (biasanya) terletak penjelasan sang penulis mengenai aspek historis dan sisi fantasi dari ceritanya.
Saya tersentak saat menemukan beberapa pernyataan yang dikutip penulis:
..pengamatannya bahwa para sejarawan kuno, sebagaimana berlawanan dengan rekan sejarawan modern mere More...
Adalah kebiasaan saya untuk mengintip catatan pengarang di halaman akhir terlebih dulu sebelum mulai membaca sebuah fiksi sejarah. Karena di situlah (biasanya) terletak penjelasan sang penulis mengenai aspek historis dan sisi fantasi dari ceritanya.
Saya tersentak saat menemukan beberapa pernyataan yang dikutip penulis:
..pengamatannya bahwa para sejarawan kuno, sebagaimana berlawanan dengan rekan sejarawan modern mere More...
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Nov 01, 2010
Rachel
rated it:
Steven Saylor definitely took on a huge task when he chose to write a novelized history of Rome from the viewpoint of one of the oldest patrician families, but least-known in modern times --- the Pinarii, and their cousins the Potitii. The novel touches on the important turning-points of Rome's history, when members of the Pinarii or the Potitii are constantly being caught up in momentous events --- the sack of Rome by Gauls, the Carthaginian wars, the campaign of Scipio, the dictatorship of Sul
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Oct 05, 2008
Andrea
rated it: 
This was my first Steven Saylor book. It had a tough feat because it attempted to follow the first 1000 years of the city of Rome. Given the task and the ever-changing characters, I think he did a good job. It was a great idea to trace everyone through a family heirloom that got passed down from generation to generation. He seemed to get his facts mostly right, so as a Classics person I was not annoyed. It was a good escape and helped rekindle my love affair with the ancient world :) Let me
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Nov 17, 2007
Claudia
rated it:
What a book! So interesting and fascinating. From 1 B.C, to the rituals of Gods and goddess(a highly developed system of rituals, priestly colleges, and pantheons adopted from the Greeks in the later part of the Roman Republic). The incredible Hannibal, the assassination of the Gracchus brothers - Tiberius and Gaius - often considered the first major step towards the fall of the Roman Republic. Julius Caesar. In 44 B.C - Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Octavian, later Augustus: The first Roman e
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Feb 12, 2012
Melissa
rated it:
I wanted to read this book because I love Roman history and culture, and have for many years. I'm also a fan of such works as "I, Claudius" (both the two books by Robert Graves and the miniseries), and the HBO series "Rome." Still, when I first started reading "Roma," I was a little skeptical. To put it bluntly, I found it incredibly, um ... phallocentric. Is that a word? But I let myself become immersed in the story, in which over many generations, the city of Rome
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Jan 21, 2012
Sue
rated it: 
This was a very good read - an epic beginning before the founding of Rome and ending just in the last century BC. Saylor's "short stories" of each significant period reminded me of Michener's epic historical novels, but they didn't capture my interest in quite the same way as Michener did. If I could rate the book 3.5 or something just short of 4, I would. Although enjoyable, the book didn't quite make the number 4 grade.
Sayer follows a pair of families through the history More...
Sayer follows a pair of families through the history More...
Nov 25, 2011
Edy
rated it:
Buku ini bermula dengan mengisahkan kehidupan tahun 1000 sebelum Masehi dimana Larth dan putrinya yang bernama Lara, yang merupakan penduduk daerah sungai Tyber (yang menjadi cikal bakal berdirinya kota Roma) menjadi tokoh sentralnya. Larth merupakan pedagang garam, yang saat itu merupakan produk dagang utama dari sukunya. Dalam perjalanan menjual garam, mereka bertemu dengan suku lain yang dipimpin Tarketios. Tarketios merupakan penjual logam. Perjumpaan tersebut kemudian dibumbui roman percint
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Jul 03, 2011
Mark
rated it:
Well, I'm glad that I read it, but it was a bit of work for me to get through. I like picking books that inform vacations abroad with a historic context, but more often they work better after-the-fact, since the place comes alive in the story AFTER I've seen it myself, not before. In this case, I was looking for a book relating to the "trip of a lifetime" Candy & I took with the kids last January. Just about every book I could find for Munich was necessarily related to the ugly events
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Jun 28, 2011
D.w.
rated it:
First there was Michener, then came Rutherfurd, and now Saylor tells a multi generational story to give us a feel for a place from distant time and far off lands. He though while excellent is not quite as good as the other two I mentioned. Gordianus the Finder is slightly better and possibly because instead of spanning such a long timeline, we are much more focused in those works of Saylor.
One problem always with a generational tale is that just as you find you like a character of the More...
One problem always with a generational tale is that just as you find you like a character of the More...
Jun 14, 2011
Elaine
rated it:
1000 years of the history of Rome.
Romulus and Remus (757BC)--legend that they were suckled by a she-wolf comes from the swineherd who found them after a flood. His wife was a prostitute. Ancient name for a prostitute was "she-wolf"
Lupercalia- festival to celebrate the day Romulus and Remus and a friend ran through Roma naked except for wolf pelts over them.
Haruspex- a diviner. From Etruscans.
Asylaeus-patron god of vagabonds. Asylum derived fom this w More...
Romulus and Remus (757BC)--legend that they were suckled by a she-wolf comes from the swineherd who found them after a flood. His wife was a prostitute. Ancient name for a prostitute was "she-wolf"
Lupercalia- festival to celebrate the day Romulus and Remus and a friend ran through Roma naked except for wolf pelts over them.
Haruspex- a diviner. From Etruscans.
Asylaeus-patron god of vagabonds. Asylum derived fom this w More...
Jun 05, 2011
Perry
rated it:
I didn't have any great expectations when I picked this up a few years ago, but I like the idea of a quick look through the history of Ancient Rome that actually ends with the assassination of Julius Caesar rather than centre or start with it.
I was pleasantly surprised though.
Saylor traces the progeny of two founding families across eleven chapters and a millennium of time, from when Rome was nothing more than a route to transport salt to other, more developed places; to the More...
I was pleasantly surprised though.
Saylor traces the progeny of two founding families across eleven chapters and a millennium of time, from when Rome was nothing more than a route to transport salt to other, more developed places; to the More...
Apr 06, 2011
Jack
rated it: 
Sheer graphomania
It seems that the epic undertaking of “Roma” to Saylor is just a convenient disguise to publicize his idiosyncrasies, at times clearly transgressing the borders of obscenity into the realms of depravity. Regrettably, such authors find their audience, however the genre of their books should be unequivocally revealed in order not to fool wider audiences, seeking a historic narrative, into dissolute stories.
The phallic cult was not a solely Roman invention, nor w More...
It seems that the epic undertaking of “Roma” to Saylor is just a convenient disguise to publicize his idiosyncrasies, at times clearly transgressing the borders of obscenity into the realms of depravity. Regrettably, such authors find their audience, however the genre of their books should be unequivocally revealed in order not to fool wider audiences, seeking a historic narrative, into dissolute stories.
The phallic cult was not a solely Roman invention, nor w More...
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Feb 05, 2011
Tom
rated it:
Forty-odd years ago, the citizens of Boston bestowed (or inflicted) a classical education on me, which included reading Caesar, Cicero, Livy and Virgil in the original.
While Virgil mostly crops up in memory because the opening line of the Aeneid fits a Sousa tune and Caesar and Cicero creep into my writing style, that long ago reading of Livy applies here.
Titus Livius probably began his only surviving work soon after Octavian Caesar defeated Marc Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium and be More...
While Virgil mostly crops up in memory because the opening line of the Aeneid fits a Sousa tune and Caesar and Cicero creep into my writing style, that long ago reading of Livy applies here.
Titus Livius probably began his only surviving work soon after Octavian Caesar defeated Marc Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium and be More...
Oct 11, 2010
Aron
rated it:
Good:
Easy to read. Saylor knows all the tricks of the trade to keep the suspense going, to keep the story line moving and to make his characters interesting. He also brings to life many of the "heroes" of Roman history and humanizes their motivations. He gives the reader a good feel for the day to day life of Rome at all levels of it's society. Finally he brings to life all the themes that led Rome to become a great empire along with the internal conflicts that eventually led More...
Easy to read. Saylor knows all the tricks of the trade to keep the suspense going, to keep the story line moving and to make his characters interesting. He also brings to life many of the "heroes" of Roman history and humanizes their motivations. He gives the reader a good feel for the day to day life of Rome at all levels of it's society. Finally he brings to life all the themes that led Rome to become a great empire along with the internal conflicts that eventually led More...
Sep 12, 2010
Faith
rated it:
This is an abbreviated version of a much longer review posted on my blog.
Over three thousand years ago, a murder takes place on an island in a river flowing through the hilly region of Italy later known as the ruma. This bloody act presages the rise of one of the ancient world’s most ruthless empires. In Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome, Steven Saylor takes us on a thousand-year journey from Rome’s mythical beginnings as a trading post for salt sellers through its evolution into an e More...
Over three thousand years ago, a murder takes place on an island in a river flowing through the hilly region of Italy later known as the ruma. This bloody act presages the rise of one of the ancient world’s most ruthless empires. In Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome, Steven Saylor takes us on a thousand-year journey from Rome’s mythical beginnings as a trading post for salt sellers through its evolution into an e More...
Aug 02, 2009
Al
rated it:
This was an astonishingly bad book. It ranks among the worst historical fictions I have ever had the misfortune of encountering.
I'll give Saylor points for concept - an historical novel covering the history of Rome from its founding to the end of the republic is a formidable and praiseworthy undertaking. However, sailing solo around the world is also a formidable praiseworthy undertaking, but if you forget to pack your lunch that just makes you a twat with an inflated view of your More...
I'll give Saylor points for concept - an historical novel covering the history of Rome from its founding to the end of the republic is a formidable and praiseworthy undertaking. However, sailing solo around the world is also a formidable praiseworthy undertaking, but if you forget to pack your lunch that just makes you a twat with an inflated view of your More...
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Apr 28, 2011
Ron
rated it:
Good but not great.
Steven Saylor's Roma was an enjoyable read. This "novel of ancient Rome" as it is subtitled is told as a series of short stories that begins as a stop on the salt route in 1000 BC and ends 1000 years later. A big period of history to cover, even if the focus is solely on the city of the seven hills.
Saylor prefaces each story with a map of the area which details the locations of the events in the story and serves as a time chronicle through the More...
Steven Saylor's Roma was an enjoyable read. This "novel of ancient Rome" as it is subtitled is told as a series of short stories that begins as a stop on the salt route in 1000 BC and ends 1000 years later. A big period of history to cover, even if the focus is solely on the city of the seven hills.
Saylor prefaces each story with a map of the area which details the locations of the events in the story and serves as a time chronicle through the More...
Jul 24, 2011
NJMetal
rated it:
This novel is the very embodiment of the phrase, "bringing history to life." Stephen Saylor's Roma walks the line between historical fact and historical fiction. Where the lines of fiction are blurred who is to say there isn't a dallop of truth to it anyway. Wonderfully researched and brilliantly imagined, ROMA is a must read for anyone who enjoys history and/or adventure and/or biography.
The novel does not follow any one human character. The main characters of this story are the city More...
The novel does not follow any one human character. The main characters of this story are the city More...
Jul 28, 2011
Mirah
rated it:
'Sweeping' would definitely be an accurate description of this novel...it covers 1,000 years! That said, I think it might have been a bit too sweeping. I think the idea is great to have a novel of the history of the Roman Empire, but the sheer volume of that is just too much. I thought the author did a good job of condensing where he could but the downfall was that I never really got to know most of the characters very well. I love getting to know the characters in a story, it's my favoirite
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Dec 19, 2010
David
rated it:
Steven Saylor has written two excellent historical fiction books describing the rise (Roma) and fall (Empire) of the Roman Empire. I was looking for a fresh view on the topic and these books were perfect for this interest. I actually thought I would read only Empire until I realized after just a few pages that for these books starting at the beginning is necessary. Now having finished Roma I can say that this epic retelling of the history of the fragile start of Rome is thorough and extremely
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Jul 30, 2010
Leigh-ann
rated it:
This is Saylor's version of the history of Roma, starting from when it was merely a campsite for traders along the salt routes, and ending in the days of the Caesars. I enjoyed the very old details and stories because I hadn't heard them before, but once we reached the time period of 100BC onward, most of the material was familiar and even some of the little characterization stories that Saylor uses were repeated from his "Roma Sub Rosa" series (or vice versa). This wouldn't be a pro
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Sep 13, 2011
Mark
rated it:
Saylor sets his book in the city of Rome (and what will be the city of Rome, as the book starts well before the founding). While the writing is often somewhat plain (I say "often" because some chapters flow a lot better than some others), and occasional purple prose passages almost prudish in their choice of descriptive words, the story is captivating - especially if you are someone like me who is easily triggered by historical references to go look things up online. While it's histori
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Oct 29, 2008
Summers
rated it:
This was a good read. The storyline got a little old, but it did wander in close enough to history to keep me listening, and went into some depth. I got a little tired of the pagan worship and arbitrary ruthlessness and injustice -- but, considering it was Rome before Christ, I guess that was the point!
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Aug 21, 2010
Nancy
rated it:
Steven Saylor undertook a mighty challenge in this book: encapsulating 1,000 years of Roman history into 550 pages.
In many ways Roma reminded me of an exceptionally well-produced eleven-segment television mini-series. Each of eleven chapters was devoted to a specific period in Rome's social, religious, or political development and each was capable of standing alone. Family history provided the continuity between the chapters which occasionally skipped hundreds of years, and other tim More...
In many ways Roma reminded me of an exceptionally well-produced eleven-segment television mini-series. Each of eleven chapters was devoted to a specific period in Rome's social, religious, or political development and each was capable of standing alone. Family history provided the continuity between the chapters which occasionally skipped hundreds of years, and other tim More...
Oct 04, 2011
Carley
rated it:
I'm halfway through this book and it is A M A Z I N G. The history of Rome was always something intimidating to me and never knew where to start. This is a historical fiction version and Saylor makes the historical founders of Rome human. I already gave it 5 stars.
Aug 25, 2010
Nancy
rated it:
Reading “Roma” was an enjoyable time-consuming experience. I finally had to stop myself from googling various gods, goddesses and historic characters to learn more about them, or I never would have gotten to the end of the book. I do appreciate Saylor’s inclusion of a map before each chapter showing the physical changes of Rome through the years and the genealogical chart at the beginning, and of course his thorough research and imagination in making connections and creating such believab More...
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Aug 19, 2011
Zohar - ManOfLaBook.com
rated it:
"Roma" by Steven Saylor is a packed historical fiction book which attempts to tell 1,000 years of history in 600 pages. The book succeeds superbly in some parts, but not so much in others.
It is difficult to write a synopsis for "Roma" since the book spans one thousands years. Starting with the early Roman settlers, the salt traders, the book introduces the reader to fascinus, the winged phallus which becomes a family heirloom and each chapter aft More...
It is difficult to write a synopsis for "Roma" since the book spans one thousands years. Starting with the early Roman settlers, the salt traders, the book introduces the reader to fascinus, the winged phallus which becomes a family heirloom and each chapter aft More...
Dec 02, 2010
Margot
rated it: 
Thank GOD it's finally over! I gave this historical trek through Roman history two stars (as opposed to one) only because of how knowledgeable I now am about the founding of Rome and its history leading up to the Roman Empire.
The novel begins before the founding of Rome by the brothers Romulus and Remus, generally following one character from two of the original families in the area. Each chapter jumps to a new character about two generations down the line, skipping as little as half More...
The novel begins before the founding of Rome by the brothers Romulus and Remus, generally following one character from two of the original families in the area. Each chapter jumps to a new character about two generations down the line, skipping as little as half More...
Aug 12, 2008
Shay
rated it:
Amazing book, if you like historical renditions. Broken up in a way that makes the 600 pages fly by. The republic mirrors our republic in America today- hopefully we can learn by their mistakes!
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Oct 04, 2011
Naomi
rated it:
Steven Saylor does an awesome job writing the ancient history of Rome. He begins about 800 years BC and follows two patrician families up to 1 BC. This book never bogs down in boring politics or obscure details. Saylor is a master at telling his story and helping you understand the reglious importance of the culture, the politics of the culture and the rise and fall of the kings, the republic and eventually the rise of the Caesars. Filled with historical and fictional people you get a bette
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