Books by Alfred Duggan
“Now this is one of the very few books that actually changed my life. What’s so good about Alfred Duggan’s novel, indeed, all Alfred Duggan’s novels—he wrote an awful lot of them, nonfiction too—is that, although he didn’t really engage all that much with contemporary scholarship, he did read all the primary sources and thought about them.” Read more...
Historical Fiction Set in the Ancient World
Harry Sidebottom, Classicist
“It’s an odyssey about a warrior from Gaul, which had been recently conquered by Rome. And every time I reread it – and I do that every few years – I get swept up in it, this perspective of a former enemy of Ancient Rome, who decides to join the army of Julius Caesar. He leaves his village in the Pyrenees, and goes on Roman campaigns across Germany, France, Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. Then they travel to the edges of the Steppes, to what is now southern Russia. Finally his Roman army is defeated in Parthia, now modern Iran, and our hero survives and decides to join the victorious Parthian army. He finds himself patrolling the borders of Afghanistan.” Read more...
The best books on Enemies of Ancient Rome
Adrienne Mayor, Classicist
Interviews where books by Alfred Duggan were recommended
Classic Historical Fiction Set in Ancient Rome
Ever since the ruins of an ancient civilization started to be discovered around Italy, ancient Rome has captured the imagination and inspired writers. Here we’ve collected together all the novels about ancient Rome and its empire that have been recommended on Five Books, from an 18th-century bestseller to the last novel by one of the great fantasy authors of our time.
The best books on Enemies of Ancient Rome, recommended by Adrienne Mayor
Stanford University classics scholar Adrienne Mayor says a comparison between Mithradates, a deadly enemy of the Roman Empire, and Osama bin Laden, who set his sights on the American Empire, is a tempting one.
Historical Fiction Set in the Ancient World, recommended by Harry Sidebottom
The ancient world offers an excellent canvas for historical fiction but too many books fall victim to anachronistic thinking, says Oxford ancient historian Harry Sidebottom, author of two series of historical novels set in Ancient Rome. Here he recommends some of his own favourites, all written during the golden age of classical historical fiction half a century ago.
