Hero of Rome, by Douglas Jackson
Mr Jackson doesn’t seem to like his characters much. He keeps killing them off. Now obviously he can’t kill-off Tribune Gaius Valerius Verrens, that’d be hard to manage in the first book of a trilogy, but most everyone else comes to a sticky, blood-soaked end. Actually I don’t like his characters much either, the villainous Centurion Crespo is an especially nasty piece of work, so their various demises are generally quite welcome. Crespo’s deserts are particularly gruesome, and satisfyingly fitting.
Verrens is based in Colchester, Colonia, in around AD60, the fateful times when the Romans wiped out the druids they feared and hated so much and eliminated all record of their religion, what they worshiped and how they worshipped it. After a winter of road building, militia training and fraternization with the natives, in particular one Maeve, Verrens’ tour of duty in Britain is up and he’s sent back to Rome via London. But London hears rumour of a rising of the Iceni so sends him back to Colonia with a couple of hundred garrison troops to sort things out.
That proved difficult when Boudicca and her fifty thousand or more furious warriors arrived on the doorstep. A battle, a famous last stand, everyone in Colonia killed except him and Verrens is rescued at the last possible moment to return to the Roman army. Strangely he’s welcomed with open arms and declared a hero (the Romans expected glorious death to the last man and looked askance on commanders who survived when their troops died and their cities fell). Suicide in disgrace was usually … encouraged … in such circumstances. However.
The book closes with the battle that ended the rebellion and completed, to all intents and purposes, the Roman conquest of Britain.
This is entertaining light escapist fiction, good for whiling away a few hours on long haul but not in the same league as Scarrow or Sidebottom.
-
The Bookgeeks Interview
Blaine Harden
Blaine Harden is an author and journalist who reports for PBS Frontline and contributes to The Economist. He worked for The Washington Post as a correspondent in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, as well as in New York and Seattle. He was also a national correspondent for The New York Times and writer for the Times Magazine.
-
Latest Competition
Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy: win books and signed posters
It’s a busy time for Irvine Welsh: not only has he got a new book out, Skagboys, a prequel to his famous and acclaimed Trainspotting, but his 1997 novel Ecstasy has been made in to a major new film, on general release from today. It’s a twisted tale that explores the euphoric highs and the [...]
Latest Bookbitz reviews
2 Comments on Hero of Rome, by Douglas Jackson
Thanks for the review, John, much appreciated. One thing I’d like to take issue with. I’m not sure where you get your conclusion that suicide was encouraged among defeated Roman generals, I can’t find any evidence of that. Nero ordered Corbulo to commit suicide, but that was because he feared he was plotting against him. In the civl wars commanders committed suicide to save themselves from worse deaths. Postumus, the camp prefect of the 2nd Legion was encouraged to commit suicide because he’d failed to come to Paulinus’s aid, but Petilius Cerialis, who commanded the 9th legion when half of it was butchered by Boudicca’s rebels went on to become governor of Britain. I made it plain in the book that Paulinus honoured Valerius because he was the last survivor of a heroic last stand and he needed to put as good a gloss on the disaster as he was able, as Britain did by giving VCs to so many at Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu wars.
Glad that you seem to have enjoyed Hero of Rome and will be interested to see what you think of the sequel Defender.
Doug Jackson
Fair point. Certainly in the many Roman civil wars defeated commanders wouldn’t have wanted to be captured. I think Isandlwana was a bit different though, the commanders there perished and would not have been looked on with much favour had they survived the massacre, even were their survival accidental. They’d have needed a lot of political clout, as I suspect any Roman would. The guys at Rorke’s drift on the other hand were very junior and won their fight with a low casualty rate, rather different than at Colchester.
I did indeed enjoy reading Hero of Rome and shall keep an eye out for Defender.
Let us know your thoughts below