In the dark recesses of the wald, the hungry survivors of the wars cling to the visions of victory seen by the ancient priestess, Rike. Separated from his beloved wald and his betrothed, Thusnelda, Ermin lives in the very palace of Augustus quickly becoming Romanized. Ermin, the most influential of young Cheruscan nobles, is held captive. The once numerous and independent tribes of Germania have been subjugated by a parade of Roman generals. In the sixteenth century, William Shakespeare discovered the dramatic potential of the great figures of the late Roman Republic, with Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Mark Antony becoming the main characters of plays that have defined, in part, our perception of the Roman world.It is 8 B.C. Interest in ancient Rome as a literary subject is certainly not exclusive to our times.
To be deemed historical (in our sense), a novel must have been written at least fifty years after the events described, or have been written by someone who was not alive at the time of those events (who therefore approaches them only by research). When does “ contemporary” end, and “ historical” begin? What about novels that are part historical, part contemporary? And how much distortion of history will we allow before a book becomes more fantasy than historical? There will never be a satisfactory answer to these questions, but these are the arbitrary decisions we’ ve made. There are problems with defining historical novels, as with defining any genre. Richard Lee, the founder of the Historical Novel Society, provides a good definition of the genre: Historical fiction is one of the most popular narrative genres, not least because it allows the reader to delve into the past and discover the culture, lifestyle, or political thought of a certain historical period in an enjoyable and interesting way. Reception, Recovery, Reinvention of the Ancient World in Current Popular Culture The Present of Antiquity, 185‑219
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