I Am Rome
A Novel of Julius Caesar
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Discover the runaway #1 international bestseller that has captured readers the world over―and reminds us all why we remember the name Julius Caesar.
“Posteguillo shows just how thrilling a historical novel can be.”―El País
Every legend has a beginning . . .
Rome, 77 B.C. The corrupt Senator Dolabella is about to go on trial for his crimes.
But Dolabella owns the jury. He’s hired the best lawyers in the city. And he’s very willing to use violence against those who oppose him.
In all of Rome, no man dares accept the role of prosecutor—until, against all odds, an unknown twenty-three-year-old steps out to lead the case, defend the people of the city, and defy the power of the ruling elite.
That lawyer’s name is Gaius Julius Caesar.
So begins Santiago Posteguillo’s acclaimed masterpiece of historical fiction―a tale as epic as Caesar’s life itself. An irresistible page-turning novel of politics and betrayal, grand battles and impossible odds, shocking villainy and even greater acts of courage, I Am Rome brilliantly animates the moments that shaped this extraordinary young man’s fate—and in so doing, changed the course of history itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Posteguillo, a bestseller of crime and historical fiction in Spain, makes his English-language debut with a bold series opener about the early life of Gaius Julius Caesar. It's 77 BCE, and Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella, governor of Macedonia, has been charged with corruption. His prosecution in Rome falls to 23-year-old Julius Caesar, who beats out many older and more experienced lawyers for the honor. Complicating matters is the fact that Dolabella will be co-defended by Caesar's maternal uncle, Aurelius Cotta. The plot thickens when several prosecution witnesses turn up dead under mysterious circumstances and a spy in Caesar's camp leaks other witness testimony to the defense team. The narrative is broken up with many flashbacks: Caesar's coming-of-age under the tutelage of his paternal uncle Marius; his first time meeting Cornelia, whom he will be arranged to marry, when he is 12 and she is eight; and the time he outsmarted the hostile Sulla, dictatorial Consul of Rome. There is action, oratory, and spectacle galore as Caesar awakens to his world-changing destiny. Posteguillo tends to stray from historical accuracy, writing with a surfeit of vulgar gusto. The result is less Mary Beard or Robert Graves than French author Christian Jacq in his novels about Egypt's Ramses II, though it amounts to a lively depiction of young Julius Caesar. It's an engrossing narrative of Caesar's rise to power.
