Dominus

Written by Steven Saylor

Narrated by John Curless

A.D. 165: The Empire of Rome has reached its pinnacle. Pax Romana reigns from Britannia to Egypt, from Gaul to Greece. Emperor Marcus Aurelius oversees a golden age, and the ancient Pinarius family of artisans embellishes the greatest city on Earth with gilded statues and towering marble monuments. But history does not stand still. The years to come bring wars, plagues, fires, and famines. The best emperors in history are succeeded by some of the worst. Barbarians descend, eventually appearing before the gates of Rome itself. Chaos engulfs the empire.

Through it all, the Pinarius family endures, thanks in no small part to the fascinum, a protective talisman older than Rome itself, handed down through countless generations.

But on the fringes of society, a troublesome cult disseminates dangerous and seditious ideas. They call themselves Christians. Some emperors deal with the Christians with toleration, others with bloody persecution. Then one emperor does the unthinkable. He becomes a Christian himself, and the revolution he sets in motion will change the world forever.

Spanning 160 years and seven generations, teeming with some of ancient Rome’s most fascinating figures, Saylor’s epic brings to vivid life one of the most tumultuous and consequential chapters of human history, filled with events that reverberate still.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705030998

Steven Saylor

Steven Saylor is the author of the long running Roma Sub Rosa series featuring Gordianus the Finder, as well as the New York Times bestselling novel, Roma and its follow-up, Empire. He has appeared as an on-air expert on Roman history and life on The History Channel. Saylor was born in Texas and graduated with high honors from The University of Texas at Austin, where he studied history and classics. He divides his time between Berkeley, California, and Austin, Texas.

Reviews for Dominus

[janerawoof · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very engrossing family history of seven generations of a Roman family from Marcus Aurelius throughConstantine. This senatorial family runs a workshop of artisans involved in building monuments, sculpture, architecture of all kinds. I lived Roman history through their eyes. Sometimes there were "info-dumps", perhaps interesting to those not knowing much about that history. We met the emperors and their personalities. Constantine came across as a cruel person. I got insight into some of the lesser-known emperors, such as Philip the Arab or the Gordians, for example.Very highly recommended.

[aront-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another great read by Saylor. While I agree with the reviewers who note the Pinarii family characters all seem like the same person, I still found this book a great read. That’s because the main character in this book is not any of the family members, but Rome itself. Saylor aptly traces the change from the zenith of the empire under Hadrian and the “5 good emperors”, through the crisis of the 3rd century and the emergence of Christian Rome. Saylor brings that change to life in a compelling fashion, and makes you understand all that was lost (and the very little that was gained) by this transition. The ending was a real kicker and I checked to see if the newspaper article was real - it is! He even has a setup for the next novel should he so choose. Would love to see his take on Julian. This is a good opportunity to recommend Gore Vidal’s historical novel about that emperor.Three more comments: 1. All of Saylor’s books have some over the top camp, which makes them a lot of fun. This book was his most restrained in that area and maybe that’s why some readers felt it a bit too tame. 2. He had a real bone to pick with Constantine “the great” and perhaps he over did it (just a bit) in his portrayal of him as a ruthless asshole. 3. the historical coincidences in this book really strained the limits of the genre, but hey, not that much more than Saylor usually does,

[dbsovereign · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Steven Saylor gives us yet another brilliant peek into the window that is ancient Rome. Third of a trilogy, he helps us travel through time and gain insight into the rulers - from Marcus Aurelius to that of Constantine. Having the benefit of Saylor’s obviously massive effort at ploughing through the sources, doing research at UC Berkeley and UT Austin, we come away with an intimate understanding of that period, but also insight into the personalities of its emperors and other key players. Along the way we gain access to the bathhouses, the temples and the inner sanctums. This unique perspective is afforded us by the book’s Pinarius family and their brushings up against the city’s movers and shakers over the years. It is through this family that we too experience the assassinations, the intrigue, the brutal purges and the plagues that beset Rome. This is a fascinating portrait of a city in transition.

[firstreader-313058 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel covers over a century of Roman history in order to explain the changes not only in empire’s elite, but in citizenry and Rome itself. It reads like several short stories cobbled together and it seems unfocused. From start to end it felt disjointed, and, somehow disappointing.The book is well written just not well plotted. Saylor manages, through his research, to bring the times alive while at the same time jumping from story to story without settling on a single place in time to fully engage his readers.If you like epic novels, then this is the book for you. If you prefer your historical novels to be focused on one point in time or on one character or family, you’ll probably want to pass on this book.My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Edelweiss for an eARC.