Masters of Rome Boxset: First Man in Rome, the Grass Crown, Fortune's Favourites, Caesar's Women, Caesar
Page 560
MASTERS OF ROME
110 BC:
The world cowers before its legions, but the fate of Rome hangs in the balance.
From the marbled columns of the Senate to the squalid slums of the Subura, the city is about to be plunged into a conflict that will set rich against poor, Roman against Italian, father against son, a conflict destined to destroy the Republic but leave, in its stead, an Empire.
Unbearable cruelty, martial brilliance, murderous ambition, heroic destiny: this is the stuff of legend. Colleen McCullough’s epic Masters of Rome captures the soul of Rome in a way no other writer has ever managed.
I. The First Man in Rome
Rome, 110 BC
The world cowers before its legions, but Rome is about to be engulfed by a vicious power struggle that will threaten its very existence. At its heart are two exceptional men: Gaius Marius, prosperous but lowborn, a proud and disciplined soldier emboldened by his shrewdness and self-made wealth; and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a handsome young aristocrat corrupted by poverty and vice.
Both are men of extraordinary vision, extreme cunning and ruthless ambition, but both are outsiders, cursed by the insurmountable opposition of powerful and vindictive foes.
If they forge an alliance, Marius and Sulla may just defeat their enemies, but only one of them can become First Man in Rome.
The battle for Rome has just begun.
To read First Man in Rome, click here.
II. The Grass Crown
Rome, 97 BC
Gaius Marius is triumphant. Under his command, Rome has conquered the Western world, weathered invasion and crushed its enemies. There is just one prize left to him: an unprecedented seventh consulship.
But the greatest prize demands the highest price. Marius, now aging and ailing, is pitted against a new generation of assassins, power-seekers, and Senate intriguers. There are many who would like to see him fail, not least Lucius Cornelius Sulla, once his closest ally, now his most dangerous rival. Sulla and Marius’ contest can only be won through treachery and blood. As a deadly enmity engulfs both men and plunges them towards madness, Rome must fight its own battle for survival.
To read The Grass Crown, click here.
III. Fortune’s Favourites
Rome, 83 BC
The Republic is disintegrating. Ravaged by disease, tormented by desire, Lucius Cornelius Sulla has returned from his campaign in the East determined rebuild it, even if it means taking battle to the very walls of Rome and purging the city with blood. There will be deaths without number or limit, but amid the chaos, three infinitely ambitious young Romans vie for greatness.
The young wolves are Pompeius Magnus, Marcus Crassus and the man the world will one day know by just one name: Caesar. Together, they are Fortune’s favourites – an endorsement that will prove as much a blessing as a curse.
To read Fortune’s Favourites, click here.
IV. Caesar’s Women
Rome, 68 BC
Caesar has returned to Rome. Having cut his teeth campaigning in the East, his sites are now set on a new battlefield: the Forum Romanum. This war will be waged with rhetoric and seduction, weapons Caesar will wield with cunning and ruthlessness. Cuckolding political enemies is but a tactic in a broader strategy: Caesar knows that the key to Rome lies with its noblewomen. Whether the powerful, vindictive Servilia, whose son Brutus deeply resents his mother’s passionate and destructive relationship with Caesar, or his own daughter Julia, Caesar is prepared to sacrifice them all on the altar of his own ambition. Caesar’s women will make his name, and one of them will seal his fate.
To read Caesar’s Women, click here.
V. Caesar
54 BC
Caesar’s legions are sweeping across Gaul, brutally subduing the tribes who defy him. But, in Rome, his enemies are plotting his downfall and disgrace. Vindictive schemers like Cato and Bibulus, the spineless Cicero, the avaricious Brutus. Even Pompey, Caesar’s former ally. But all have underestimated Caesar.
When the Senate refuse to give him his due he marches upon Rome, an army prepared to die for him at his back. Rome is his destiny – a destiny that will impel him to the banks of the Rubicon, and beyond, into legend.
To read Caesar, click here.
Other titles in the series:
The October Horse
48–41 BC
Anthony and Cleopatra
41–27 BC
ALSO BY COLLEEN MCCULLOUGH
Bittersweet
From author of The Thorn Birds, one of the biggest-selling books of all time, comes this epic saga of love, betrayal, ambition and redemption in 1920s Australia.
The four Latimer sisters are famous throughout New South Wales for their beauty, wit and ambition. They have always been close; always happy. They thought this would never change.
But then they left home to train as nurses, swapping the feather beds of their father’s townhouse for the spartan bunks of nursing accommodation. And now, as the Depression casts its shadow across Australia, they must confront their own secret desires as the world changes around them. Will they find the independence they crave? Or is life – like love – always bittersweet?
Bittersweet is available here.
The Thorn Birds
In the rugged Australian Outback, three generations of Cleary’s live through joy and sadness, bitter defeat and magnificent triumph. Driven by their dreams, sustained by remarkable strength of character… and torn by dark passions, violence and a scandalous family legacy of forbidden love.
It is a poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit. Most of all, it is the story of the Clearys’ only daughter, Meggie, who can never possess the man she so desperately adores –Ralph de Bricassart. Ralph will rise from parish priest to the inner circles of the Vatican... but his passion for Meggie will follow him all the days of his life.
The Thorn Birds is available here.
Tim
Forty-three-year-old Mary Horton lives in a quiet, middle-class suburb on Sydney’s North Shore. A straight-laced, emotionally distant spinster, Mary has worked hard to make a life for herself, but her idea of ‘life’ does not include personal relationships. With no partner and no friends, Mary has no plans to let anybody into her solitary life.
Tim Melville is a twenty-five-year-old labourer with the body and face of a Greek god, but the mind of a child. A gentle outcast in a cruel, unbending world, Tim has a loving family, but is often derided and taken advantage of by his so-called friends.
By chance, one summer morning Tim meets Mary and what begins as a day’s labour for the kind-hearted young man becomes a life-changing relationship for both of them.
Tim is available here.
An Indecent Obsession
The Second World War has just ended and Sister Honour Langtree, a caring and conscientious Army nurse, cares for a striking mixture of five battle-broken soldiers being treated in the psychiatric care ward of a hospital in the South Pacific. To the soldiers, Honour is a precious, adored reminder of the world before war – they are as devoted to her as she is to them.
Then Sergeant Michael Wilson arrives, disrupting her ward’s precarious harmony. A damaged and decorated hero, Wilson is a man of secrets and silent pain, and as Honour finds herself inexorably drawn to this tortured man, she discovers a love that will leave her torn between her duty to all her patients – and her love for one of them…
An Indecent Obsession is available here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COLLEEN MCCULLOUGH was born in Wellington, New South Wales. She established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, then worked as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years, where she wrote record-breaking international bestseller The Thorn Birds. She lives on Norfolk Island in the Pacific with her husband Ric Robinson.
REVIEWS
‘A towering work of Roman historical fiction. Highly entertaining and co
mpulsive.’
Robert Fabbri
‘The Masters of Rome series is a tour de force, a brilliant recreation of the twilight of the Roman Republic as Caesar and Pompey vie for power. This is historical fiction at its finest.’
Sharon Penman
‘A powerful story told with the verve of a novelist and the commitment of a historian.’
The Sunday Times
‘Incomparable… Engrossing… Breathtakingly detailed… A triumph.’
Chicago Tribune
‘A truly astonishing work.’
Time
“An awesome and epic new work... This is an absolutely absorbing story—not simply of the military and political intrigues that went into the final days of the Republic but also of what it was like to live, love and survive at this pivotal point in our civilization... A master storyteller... A 900-plus-page novel that is every bit as hard to put down as it is to pick up.’
Los Angeles Times
“Splendid in conception... The narrative sweeps along as does the force of history... Colleen McCullough understands the undercurrents of human emotion. She reveals people as they are... Exceptional.”
Washington Post Book World
“McCullough is terrific... Her characters quiver with life.”
The New York Times Book Review
“A treat for those who troll bookstores searching for real historical fiction... As compelling as any novel of contemporary power seekers.”
Houston Post
“Political infighting and power plays; the slaughters and strategies of war; plots thick and nasty... A grandly meaty historical novel... Rich with gracefully integrated research and thundering to the beat of marching Roman legions.”
Kirkus Reviews
“A great Goliath of a novel... Perhaps the most thoroughly researched historical novel ever written... A genuine tour de force.”
Milwaukee Journal
“An intricate characterization of an age, agile in its movement from the minute details of household management to the precise composition of the military colossus Rome repeatedly mustered to repel the Teutonic hordes... An accomplishment so edifying as to be compelling.”
New York Daily News
“The most spectacular of her books... A fascinating history lesson that shows the timelessness of human ambition and misbehaviour... The best work McCullough has ever done.”
Sacramento Bee
“An exciting story of tangled lives and epic events... This novel really grabbed me after a few pages, and I savored it to the end... Republican Rome may be distant in time, but through McCullough’s talent for storytelling and intimate knowledge of the Roman life style, the world becomes alive and pertinent to the contemporary reader.”
Pittsburgh Press
“Crosses battle lines and boundaries. Deaths, births, prophecies, political alliances and rivalries create a whirlwind of drama. McCullough intermingles the high and the low-assassins, soldiers, wives and mistresses — to weave an intriguing tapestry of a great empire.”
Washington Times
“A serious historical novel that edifies while it entertains... McCullough tells a good story, describing political intrigue, social infighting and bloody battles with authoritative skill, interpolating domestic drama and even a soupgon of romance... Fascinating reading... A memorable picture of an age with many aspects that share characteristics with our own.”
Publishers Weekly
“Admirable... Colleen McCullough is an energetic yarn-spinner... Her research is extensive enough to win her half a dozen PhD degrees, and she throws nothing away... A bestseller of higher aspiration.”
Newsday
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The story starts here.
This eBook bundle first published in the UK in 2014 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Colleen McCullough, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1998
The moral right of Colleen McCullough to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
These are works of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in these novels are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781781859391
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