I was going through some boxed books recently, and found a novel I picked up a couple of years ago. And started rereading it. First published in 1968, it tells the tale of Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, in the first person, and his actions in Boudicca's revolt. It is written entirely from a Roman (and allied British) perspective.
To be fair, it's somewhat drier than most novels, the prose hardly races off the page at times, and it wouldn't win the Whitbread or Booker prizes.
But many characterisations are interesting, and as a novel of occupation and
taxation, of relations with client barbarian allies, and of a polyglot army
of legionaries and auxiliaries campaigning against barbarian peoples, it's
evocative stuff -- and the perfect antidote to the style of much
'Sharpe-in-a-toga' Roman fiction.
It's a novel that is very firmly and accurately in its own idiom, and makes no apologies for that. To help get into the mindset of many of the Lunar commanders, and see the problems they might face, and to provide a little colour, I recommend it.
'Imperial Governor', George Shipway (Cassell Military Paperbacks, London,
2002). ISBN 0-304-36324-3. Cover price �6.99 UK, $9.95 US, $15.95 CAN.
Cheerio,
Stu.
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