From the Bookshelf of Senatus Populus Que Romanus…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought
A sequel to Roma, "Empire" continues the saga of a bloodline, the family called gens Pinaria, and the golden fascinum amulet they bear that predates the founding of Roma itself. "Roma" ended with Julius Caesar, and this book picks up through the principate of Augustus and Tiberius, through the reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, the unrest of the Year of Four Emperors and the establishment of the Flavians (Vespasian, Titus, and the wicked Domitian), then through the beginnings of the Five Go
...more
Great book to read for anyone wanting a sketch of the period of the early Roman Empire. The book follows four generations of the fictional Penarii family from the death of Augustus to the end of reign of Hadrian. I enjoyed reading the book immensely and Saylor succeeded in creating fictional characters nearly as interesting as the true to life emperors. One small complaint was the fact that the novel takes place almost entirely in Rome. I would have thought the author could have expanded on the
...more
I'm a fan of Steven Saylor and really enjoyed Roma. I definitely enjoyed this one too but there were times I felt it was a bit tedious. Maybe it was the nature of life during certain Emperor's reigns but I felt it was a bit heavy handed when discussing the attraction to other boys/men and not so much about their wives.
...more
This is a continuation of stories about the Pinarius family, whose lives have intersected with famous Romans before, in Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome. This time they meet with the emperors, from Augustus through Marcus Aurelius (although before he became emperor). The stories are interesting and it's fun to see other sides of the emperors, although I don't enjoy these stories as much as the Gordianus series, because there's not much of an emotional connection to any one of the Pinarii.
...more
...more
Not nearly as good as Roma, but still worth a read if you like this type of book.
Nice follow on to his book Roma. Good read.
This was a pretty decent follow-on to Roma, Saylor's previous history of everything up to the end of the republic, but it seemed to drag a bit more in the second half. I started to find it a bit contrived that somehow every member of this family managed to become enmeshed in the politics of the day, and there seemed to be more "manufactured" crises for them to deal with.
Still, a good story, and an interesting way to expound on the changes in Rome over the time period. ...more
Still, a good story, and an interesting way to expound on the changes in Rome over the time period. ...more
Mar 17, 2011
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads
marked it as back-at-library
Mar 23, 2011
Meredith
marked it as to-read
Sep 29, 2011
Chris Peach
marked it as to-read
Dec 12, 2011
Zsa Zsa
marked it as to-read
Apr 10, 2013
Marcus
marked it as to-read
Apr 28, 2013
Karen
marked it as to-read
Nov 22, 2013
Aj Smith
marked it as to-read
Feb 12, 2014
Edward Rosenfeld
marked it as to-read
Feb 19, 2014
Nico
marked it as to-read
Jan 15, 2017
Steven Eldredge
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-novels-greece-rome
