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.
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 takes hold, 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.
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 takes hold, 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.
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Reviews
Simon Turney's Commodus combines thrilling Roman spectacle, star-crossed young lovers, and poisonous palace intrigue into a compulsively readable drama. Scrappy young freedwoman Marcia grows up in the shadows of the palace, becoming friend and confidante to the golden, haunted Imperial heir Commodus, but even Marcia's love cannot keep the prince's ghosts at bay once he becomes Emperor of Rome. A tense, taut, thrilling character study of one of Rome's most maligned rulers, transformed here into tragic hero
Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius: mad, bad and dangerous to stand too close to according to history. Simon Turney, however, does here what he did in Caligula - puts some humanity back in the beast of Rome. Warm and well-written
Turney masterfully gives readers a new and illuminating look at Emperor Commodus, but also introduces us to the clever freedwoman who should have been his empress. Seeing imperial Rome through Marcia's eyes is a delight not to be missed, and Turney is at the top of his game!
Astonishing . . . A fascinating, detailed and dramatic story of one of Rome's most notorious emperors
A nuanced portrait of an intriguing emperor
