Masters of Rome

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Masters of Rome is a series of historical fiction novels by author Colleen McCullough (b. 1937) set in ancient Rome during the last days of the old Roman Republic; it primarily chronicles the lives and careers of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, and the early career of Caesar Augustus. It spans from January 1, 110 BCE through to January 16, 27 BCE.

Other major historical figures who appear and play prominent parts in the series include Mithridates VI of Pontus, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Publius Rutilius Rufus, Quintus Sertorius, Marcus Livius Drusus, Jugurtha of Numidia, Spartacus, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, Marcus Porcius Cato, Publius Clodius, Vercingetorix, Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Mark Antony, Cleopatra VII of Egypt, Caesarion and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Each book in the series features a detailed glossary, hand-drawn illustrations of the major characters, and notes by McCullough detailing her reasoning for portraying certain events in certain ways.

The series has a thesis: as Rome became more powerful within the Mediterranean world, the old ways of doing things -- through the deliberation of various interests, mainly aristocratic and mercantile -- became impossibly cumbersome. It became more and more difficult to govern an empire with institutions originally designed to administer a city-state. Certain powerful leaders (especially the dictators Sulla and Caesar) tried to reform the old ways -- and to do so in a manner that would be consistent with Rome's basic character as a republic. But the conservatives (called the optimates by classical historians, though they themselves preferred the title boni or "good men") opposed reform so fiercely that they made inevitable the death of the Republic they claimed to cherish. The result was the birth of an imperial monarchy, and a radically different organization of power.

The novels of the series are

The First Man in Rome (1990); spanning the years 110-100 BCE
The Grass Crown (1991); spanning the years 97-86 BCE
Fortune's Favourites (1993); spanning the years 83-69 BCE
Caesar's Women (1997); spanning the years 67-59 BCE
Caesar (1998); spanning the years 54-48 BCE
The October Horse (2002); spanning the years 48-41 BCE and
Antony and Cleopatra (2007); spanning the years 41-27 BCE

McCullough had decided to end the series with The October Horse because in her opinion the ultimate fall of the Roman Republic took place after the Battle of Philippi, with the death of Caesar's assassins. However, most historians place the end of the Republic a decade later, after the final showdown between Augustus and Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium, in 31 BC.

Due to much lobbying from fans McCullough completed one more volume concerned mainly with Antony and Cleopatra, Antony and Cleopatra, released in September, 2007, in the UK, and December, 2007, in the US.

Indeed, Bob Carr, former Premier of New South Wales, Australia has very publicly campaigned for McCullough to write further Roman novels. Surprisingly, he argues that she should not continue in chronological order through the Second Triumvirate and the Julio-Claudian and Flavian Dynasties but instead skip ahead to write about the Five Good Emperors. This is unlikely, because her eyesight is rapidly failing due to macular degeneration.