The riveting story of a dramatic year in the Roman Empire's history by a 'master of the long-ago historical novel'.
At the beginning of the year 66, Emperor Nero ruled the Roman Empire. By the end of it, Nero had committed suicide and three of his successors were dead, and out of the carnage of civil war at home and a nationalistic uprising in Judaea a new emperor, Vespasian, had emerged. Here Scaurus, once the lover of both Vespasian's son and daughter, looks back on the whole extraordinary year and recreates a world of treachery, malice, passion and-occasionally-quiet heroism.
Drawing on his formidable knowledge of Roman history, Allan Massie brings the distant past vividly to life and creates telling parallels with the present.
Allan Massie is a celebrated novelist and biographer. He is also a leading columnist for the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and The Scotsman. After reading history at Trinity College, Cambridge, he spent some years in Rome before returning to live in the Scottish borders. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.