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The Damned Emperors, BCE to c 500 CE, Historical fiction
From the author of Caligula ('an engrossing new spin on a well-known tale' - The Times) comes a new standalone novel in the Damned Emperors series: Commodus.
Worshipped by Rome. Betrayed by love. Stalked by death.
Rome is enjoying a period of stability and prosperity. The Empire's borders are growing, and there are two sons in the imperial succession for the first time in Rome's history. But all is not as it appears. Cracks are beginning to show. Two decades of war have taken their toll, and there are whispers of a sickness in the East. The Empire stands on the brink of true disaster, an age of gold giving way to one of iron and rust, a time of reason and strength sliding into hunger and pain.
The decline may yet be halted, though. One man tries to hold the fracturing empire together. To Rome, he is their emperor, their Hercules, their Commodus.
But Commodus is breaking up himself, and when the darkness grips, only one woman can hold him together. To Rome she was nothing. The plaything of the emperor. To Commodus, she was everything. She was Marcia.
More books by Simon Turney
Praise for Commodus
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Caligula is a monster we all know and love to hate. Simon Turney's novel challenges our prejudice and sketches a more understanding view of the Roman emperor . . . Turney's version is an entirely plausible take on the sources. We pity the boy, even as we deplore the insane violence of the man. Caligula is an engrossing new spin on a well-known tale - The Times on Caligula
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In Caligula Simon Turney uses fiction to challenge some of [the] lies that masquerade under the name of "history" . . . [His narrator, Livilla] provides an energetic and intelligent eyewitness view of the imperial court and of the gradual decline of Caligula's rule . . . A satisfyingly alternative look at Caligula, something perhaps done better in fiction than in academic history . . . Great and enjoyable - TLS on Caligula
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Inspired . . . a mesmerising, haunting and disturbing portrait of Caligula - Sunday Express S Mag on Caligula
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Simon Turney brings an authentic, intriguing - and above all, fresh - new eye to one of the best-known names in the Roman world. . . This is a cracking book, alive with the sights and sounds of an ancient Rome brought vividly to life by one of the rising stars of the genre
Simon Turney
A born and bred Yorkshireman with a love of country, history and architecture, Simon spends most of his rare free time travelling around ancient sites, writing, researching the ancient world and reading voraciously.
Following an arcane and eclectic career path that wound through everything from sheep to Microsoft networks and from paint to car sales, Simon wrote Marius' Mules. Now, with in excess of twenty novels under his belt, Simon writes full time. He lives with his wife and children and a menagerie of animals in rural North Yorkshire.
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