Fiction set in ancient Rome
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There is a large body of modern fiction set in ancient Rome. The following titles listed include only those that are substantially (more than half) or entirely set in the city of Rome during any period up to the Byzantine empire. It does not include works set partially in Rome, nor does it include all works set in the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire. For works set in the Roman empire but not in the city of Rome, please see Fiction set in the Roman empire for a list of all works set in the ancient Roman world.

Titles include:

Historical novels listed in chronological order

Rome as a Kingdom

If you know of works set in the pre-Republican era, please expand this section.

• Roma, published March 6, 2007, by Steven Saylor. According to the author's website, the book covers part of Rome's early history.^[1]

Early Republic

If you know of works set in the Early Republic, please expand this section.

• Coriolanus (play)(full text) (16th century), by Shakespeare. Features a Roman hero-turned-villain Gaius Marcus Coriolanus, considered legendary by modern historians.
• Roma, published March 6, 2007, by Steven Saylor. According to the author's website, the book covers part of Rome's early history.^[2]

Middle Republic

If you know of works set in the Middle Republic, please expand this section.

• Roma, published March 6, 2007, by Steven Saylor. According to the author's website, the book covers part of Rome's Republican history.^[3]

Late Republic

• The Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough.
• Young Caesar (1958) by Rex Warner
• Pro Caelio by Stephen Ciraolo, possibly based on Cicero's famous speech Pro Caelio defending a friend on various charges.
• Imperium (novel) by Robert Harris, showing Cicero's rise to the consulship in 63 BC; a fictionalized biography told by his slave, later freedman, Tiro
• A Pillar of Iron (1965) by Taylor Caldwell, a fictionalized biography of Cicero.
• Imperial Caesar 1960) also by Rex Warner
• The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder, culminating in Caesar's assassination.

Julius Caesar (play) (16th century) by Shakespeare

• The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy (2005) by Michael Curtis Ford

Early/High Empire (27 BC to 190 AD)

The Julio-Claudian Dynasty

• The Nero Prediction by Humphry Knipe

• Caesar, Anthony, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Nero's Heirs by Allan Massie.

Books about early Christians or the Christ include:

• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880) by Lew Wallace; famously made into a film starring Charlton Heston; set in the reign of Tiberius in Judaea, the Mediterranean, and Rome. Epilogues carry the story into the reign of Nero

• I Am a Barbarian (1967, written 1941) by Edgar Rice Burroughs; the fictionalized memoirs of Caligula's slave.

Books about Claudius or set in his reign include:

• I, Claudius (1934) and its sequel, Claudius the God (1935), by Robert Graves. The classic and influential dramatised account of the life of the emperor Claudius, made into a popular TV series (see below).

Books set in Nero's reign include:

• Quo Vadis (1895/1896), by Henryk Sienkiewicz set in the reign of Nero in 64 AD.
• A Song for Nero (2003) by Tom Holt, writing as Thomas Holt.

The Flavian Dynasty

• The Course of Honour (1998), the first novel by Lindsey Davis (later author of the Marcus Didius Falco mysteries) narrates the history of Vespasian's imperial freedwoman mistress Antonia Caenis.

• [The Lightbearer] (1994), by Donna Gillespie tells the story of a Germanic female warrior who becomes a gladiator in Rome in the reign of Domitian.

The Nervan-Antonian Dynasty

No historical works are known that are set entirely or substantially in the city of Rome.

Middle Empire (191 AD to -- AD), when Diocletian splits the Empire

No historical works are known that are set entirely or substantially in the city of Rome.

Late Empire: West (-457 AD)

• The Young Julian by Thomas J., Ph.D. Hairston
• Julian (1964 by Gore Vidal, fictionalized biography of the emperor Julian who tried to revive Paganism
• Titus Andronicus (play) (16th century) by Shakespeare, based on a fictional Imperial Roman general fighting the Goths.
• Gods And Legions: A Novel of the Roman Empire (2002) by Michael Curtis Ford
• The Sword of Attila: A Novel of the Last Years of Rome (2005) by Michael Curtis Ford
• The Fall of Rome: A Novel of a World Lost (2007) by Michael Curtis Ford

Unknown period

• Avventura nel primo secolo by Paolo Monelli
• The Roman (1964)by Mika Waltari
• The Door in the Wall, The Key, The Lock by Benita Kane Jaro
• Sand of the Arena by James Duffy
• In the Army of Marcus Batallius by David M. Ross
• 68 A.D. by D.G. Bellenger
• Gods and Legions: A Novel of The Roman Empire by Michael Curtis Ford
• The Quest For the Lost Roman Legions by Tony Clunn
• Three's Company, Winter Quarters, Conscience of the King, The Little Emperors and Family Favourites by Alfred Duggan
• Domitia & Domitian by David Corson
• Games of Venus by Sylvia Shults
• The Flames of Rome by Paul L. Maier
• Antonia by Brenda Jagger
• The Tribune: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Patrick Larkin

Detective fiction

• The Roma Sub Rosa series (1991-2005) by Steven Saylor, starts with Roman Blood (1991); the books cover the period 80 BC to 48 BC.
• The Marcus Didius Falco series by Lindsey Davis, starts with The Silver Pigs; set in the reign of Vespasian.
• The SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts.
• The I, Claudia series of novels by Marilyn Todd featuring her picaresque heroine Claudia Seferius
• The Publius Aurelius series by Danila Comastri Montanari
• The Marcus Corvinus series by David Wishart
• Roman Justice: SPQR: Too Roman To Handle, by Anne Hart
• The Roman Mysteries young adults' detective/drama series by Caroline Lawrence
• The Caius Trilogy by German author Henry Winterfeld: Caius ist ein Dummkopf (Caius is an Idiot); Caius geht ein Licht auf (Caius has an Inspiration), and Caius in der Klemme (Caius in a Fix). The first part was published in English with the alternate title Detectives in Togas. The second was published in English with the alternate title Mystery of the Roman Ransom.
• The Third Princess: A Septimus Severus Quistus Roman Mystery by Philip Boast

Science fiction

Science fiction/time travel novels

• Caesar's Bicycle (1997) (Timeline Wars series) by John Barnes

Alternate universe fiction

The following alternate history novels are set in fictional universes where the Roman Empire never fell, and has endured to the present day:

• Romanitas (2005), by Sophia McDougall
• Rome Burning (2006), sequel to Romanitas, by Sophia McDougall
• Roma Eterna, a 2003 novel by Robert Silverberg

Comic books

• Asterix series by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations), of which some titles are set substantially in Rome.

Movies

• Quo Vadis - U.S. 1951 director Mervyn LeRoy
• The Robe - U.S. 1953 director Henry Koster
• Demetrius and the Gladiators - U.S. 1954 director Delmer Daves (sequel to The Robe)
• Jupiter's Darling - U.S. 1955 director George Sidney, based on a play by Robert Sherwood
• Ben-Hur U.S. 1959
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - U.S. 1966 director Richard Lester
• Satyricon - Italy 1970 director Federico Fellini
• Caligula - U.S. 1979 director Tinto Brass
• Gladiator - U.S. 2000 director Ridley Scott
• Quo Vadis - Polish/U.S. 2001 director Jerzy Kawalerowicz, remake of 1951 film

Plays

• Joseph Addison
  • Cato
• Albert Camus
  • Caligula
• Henrik Ibsen
  • Emperor and Galilean
• Ben Jonson
  • Sejanus, His Fall
• Heinrich von Kleist
  • Die Hermannsschlacht
• William Shakespeare
  • Titus Andronicus
  • Julius Caesar
  • Antony and Cleopatra
  • Coriolanus
  • Cymbeline
• Robert Sherwood
  • The Road to Rome (1927), on which a little-known 1955 film Jupiter's Darling was based.
• Stephen Sondheim
  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Television

• I, Claudius
• Rome
• Spartacus miniseries by Robert Dornhelm (director)

Video Games

Shadow of Rome

Colosseum Road to Freedom

See also

• Fiction set in the Roman empire
• Fiction set in Ancient Greece

References

External links

• Fictional Rome
• The Detective and the Toga - Roman mysteries