Book Review: Emperor: The Gates of Rome

I realize now, I should have read this one first before I read Emperor: The Field of Swords, but anyways... clearly, I was just being stupid. This was the first book of the trilogy that eventually leads into The Field of Swords, and follows the story of two young boys, Gaius and Marcus, as they grow up from being bullied children, to being trained as young men to becoming important facets to Roman society. Gaius is the son of a senator and a woman who’s lost her mind. He is also the nephew of Marius, the 7-time consul of Rome, commonly referred to as the First-Born. Marcus grew up without a father, and was unofficially adopted into Gaius’s family, and grew up and trained with Gaius under the tutelage of Renius, a fictional gladiator from Rome. Marcus goes on to join the army in Greece, while Gaius moves to Rome to enter the Senate as a young boy. The plot climaxes with Sulla taking over Rome, Marius dead, and leaving Gaius on the run. Naturally Gaius is Julius Caesar, while Marcus, is Marcus Brutus, the man who would eventually kill Caesar. While the story was an interesting interpretation (there is very little known about Caesar’s upbringing), again I tend to like Colleen McCulloch’s version. This version was well written though, and definitely kept me interested. Definitely superior to Field of Swords. If you like anything about Roman history, this one is a pretty good read (8/10).