Tribune of Rome: Perfect for fans of GLADIATOR and THOSE ABOUT TO DIE

Read Vespasian's life story on Wikipedia or the Roman Imperial Index (or better still in Suetonius) and you will see why he is a good candidate for an historical novel. Congratulations to Robert Fabbri for spotting his potential. But this book is not in the 'I Claudius' or even the Mary Renault league. For a start its grasp of Roman society, values, culture, and attitudes as opposed to surface narrative detail is shallow. Secondly the writing, particularly the dialogue, is lamentable. Fabbri has succeeded in producing a fast moving potboiler whose plot (which follows the skeletal outline of the historical Vespasian' life) will keep Dr. Who addicts turning the pages. But the characters are about as psychologically plausible as the woodentops and speak with little more subtlety than Daleks. OK that's fine for potboiling fiction. But I have deeper objections which is that the violence is both unhistorical and ought to be distasteful. Yes the Roman Empire was a very violent and cruel place. If Fabbri wanted to understand the real toughness and cruelty of Roman army life, he could have made a good start by reading Gibbon carefully. But does anyone seriously imagine that an ambitious young Roman could kill opponent after opponent in casual fights, murder Praetorian guards (does Fabbri really understand what a Praetorian guard was?} and blaze a trail of blood and corpses across Italy without either suffering a pang of remorse, being looked at askance by companions, friends, and family, or the authorities outlawing and punishing him? Vespasian, on the run, wants to go to Genoa to take up a posting as an officer. A ship's captain he bribes agrees to take him there but then seems likely to betray his passengers. So hey presto he murders the captain and five or six crew and then he and his pals sail the boat themselves on the long journey north . Very likely and very loveable. (Conveniently the plot jumps in time and space after that to Thrace so Fabbri does not have to explain how Vespasian got away with it) This might just work if Vespasian was portrayed as morally chequered, psychologically tormented, and on the edge of society, but Fabbri seems to think he is just a nice clean-cut middle class boy, doing what nice guys always do when under pressure. This isn't just shallow fiction, it is highly morally and historically questonable, not least since the historical Vespasian and his elder son Titus had a contemporary reputation of being morally above average by the standards of their day. Also, as those Hollywood movies should have taught Fabbri, endlessly murdering or beating off your opponents like so many skittles quickly gets boring for the reader/viewer. Everyone in the narrative becomes just skittles. No previous age would have been so lacking morality, intelligence, and compassion in telling a story. It is worrying that ours apparently is.

A new author for me and a new character but what an enjoyable couple of days reading this book. I cannot wait to start on the follow on book - more please!

Absolutely loved this book, keen to read the next installment now.