rome

Ziran Shang __The First Man in Rome__ Collen McCullough 1,108 pages. Avon Books. $6.95 __A Must Read for Fans of Historical Fiction __  Usually people think of Julius Caesar when they think of Rome, but not so many people think about Gaius Marius or Lucius Cornelius Sulla. The first book in the “Masters of Rome” series tells the stories of these men, among others, who helped make Rome great.  Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla both start out as relatively unknown people, with Marius “an Italian hayseed with no Greek” (an insult, similar to saying that he is uneducated), and thought of by the people as “//Marius//…He must be a New Man,” and Sulla living in the poor part of Rome, the //subura//, until now. __The First Man in Rome__ tells how both men are very lucky and use that luck to make their way up the //cursus honorum//, the “totem pole” of Roman government.  __The First Man in Rome__ mostly follows the story Marius, from his start by marrying Julius Caesar’s daughter Julia, to hearing the prophecy that he will be consul seven times, defeating Jugurtha of Numidia and the Germans, and finally suffering from a stroke but fighting through it. Sulla is also an important character in the story, as McCullough shows that he rises to power as Marius’s right hand man. For most of the book, Sulla is a //quaestor//, helping Marius with various tasks that are shown to play a large part in Marius’s success.  The reader can expect __The First Man in Rome__ to be very accurate, as McCullough has put a lot of work into researching for the book. This can be seen in the lengthy appendix of terms and historical facts, which provides definitions for all of the Latin used in the book, as well as pronunciations. However, one cannot expect the plot to be completely true to Roman history, as no one really knows everything that happened at that time. A few parts of the book seem to be quite clearly dramatized, but this isn’t really that noticeable.  McCullough uses letters as a unique way of giving the reader an idea of what is going on. These letters are between the character currently being focused on, usually Marius, and someone who is in Rome, where Marius and Sulla’s families are. They let the reader know what the big picture is like, with information on the political struggles that Marius should expect to face when he arrives in Rome, and what major problems are being discussed in the Senate. The letters also provide insight on Marius’s background and the relationship between him and Sulla. An example is this passage where Marius is reading a letter: “…for he liked the opportunity to go through it first to familiarize himself with the text, and when Sulla sat listening to him mutter his way across the endless squiggles trying to divide them up into separate words, it tended to put him off,” showing that Marius’s Latin is indeed not as good as other Romans’.  __The First Man in Rome__ shows that McCullough, who has written the award winning book __The Thorn Birds__, a purely fictional novel, can shift smoothly to research and write a work of historical fiction that is just as interesting and well written as her previous books. There are a few parts in the book where the writing does not flow too smoothly, and certain scenes seem to detract from the historical fiction genre and make __The First Man in Rome__ seem more like a cheesy romance novel, but overall the book is well written, and is definitely the book for you if you enjoy historical fiction.