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TRAJAN AND PLOTINA
Romans described the emperor Trajan as the 'perfect prince'. What made him so remarkable? This novel is a narrative historical account of the lives of the emperor and his consort. It describes the extraordinary events that brought the couple to power and the timeless achievements of that power. The book traces Trajan's early life as a soldier, through his marriage, service to Domitian and rise to influence, and looks at Plotina's early life in Provençe, her philosophical interests, and the events that allowed her to become a partner in greatness. It includes a unique recreation of Trajan's lost 'Dacian Commentaries' which cover the Balkan wars that Rome fought to bring Romania inside the Empire. And it traces the military expeditions that helped fulfill Trajan's expansionist dreams, reaching across Iraq, Iran, Arabia, and up into Southern Russia. All this is presented inside a dynamic narrative account that engages the reader.
326 pages, Paperback
First published August 10, 2003
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August 13, 2020
Liked the idea very much, but have some doubts about the execution. Calling such a book a fiction should not give the author a chance to make all kinds of small mistakes that will either mislead the reader or cause him to doubt everything read. For example, the book claims that the mother of the Emperor Hadrian had Carthaginian heritage. There is no evidence for that whatsoever, so why put it in the book? Readers won't expect small details like this to be wrong so it's very misleading. The "fiction" part of this book should be used rather to imagine conversations and character traits, not small matters of fact.
It's also kind of annoying to find several anachronisms. For example, there's a reference to hardening of the arteries. How would they have known anything about that in Ancient Rome? The text should not use modern place names, for example, the Banat, which only arose centuries later, during the time of the much later Ottoman Turks in fact, being the area ruled by a Turkish official known as the Ban.
Since there is a lot of military campaigning in the book, it's good that it provides maps, but the maps fail to include some of the geographical references that are included.
On the more positive side, the picture of the protagonists seems reasonable. I'm not sure Trajan really had so many drinking bouts. More speculation about his motives in, say, attacking Parthia, might have made the book better. Some story threads start out -- such as that of Voconius -- but dont' seem to go anywhere. That's okay, I guess as they provide more background.
It's also kind of annoying to find several anachronisms. For example, there's a reference to hardening of the arteries. How would they have known anything about that in Ancient Rome? The text should not use modern place names, for example, the Banat, which only arose centuries later, during the time of the much later Ottoman Turks in fact, being the area ruled by a Turkish official known as the Ban.
Since there is a lot of military campaigning in the book, it's good that it provides maps, but the maps fail to include some of the geographical references that are included.
On the more positive side, the picture of the protagonists seems reasonable. I'm not sure Trajan really had so many drinking bouts. More speculation about his motives in, say, attacking Parthia, might have made the book better. Some story threads start out -- such as that of Voconius -- but dont' seem to go anywhere. That's okay, I guess as they provide more background.
Displaying 1 of 1 review