# Colleen McCullough: Specifically, The Masters of Rome
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colleen-mccullough-specifically-the-masters-of-rome/118451
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 11, 2002, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colleen-mccullough-specifically-the-masters-of-rome/118451 "2002-07-11T17:19:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2002, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colleen-mccullough-specifically-the-masters-of-rome/118451/1 "2002-07-11T17:19:01Z")
Okay, everyone knows she wrote The Thorn Birds. Has anyone read her Masters of Rome series? I’m rereading them for the umpteenth time, and I love them. I desperately want to visit Rome. What’s so funny is that I thought I was reading a nice historical novel set in Ancient Rome, until I did some idle flipping through Encarta and realized the characters were actual real peope! I don’t mean Caeser, but Sulla and Gaius Marius and Quintus Sertorius, etc. Does anyone know when the next book in the series is coming out?
---
### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2002, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colleen-mccullough-specifically-the-masters-of-rome/118451/2 "2002-07-11T18:03:24Z")
I love 'em. I started a thread a couple of months ago (didn’t search for it just now, but it may have been lost during the Great Hack anyway) inquiring as to whether other Dopers were into it. The short answer is that I got a few responses, all positive, and some folks (I seem to remember **Cal Meacham** being one) who are more grounded in the facts of the history being represented indicated that McCullough exhibited solid scholarship in writing the books.
As for the next book - I believe she has said it will be called **The October Horse** - I read somewhere on line that she was going to write two other books then return to the series, and so we are talking about 2005 or so for the next one…rats.
---
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colleen-mccullough-specifically-the-masters-of-rome/118451/3 "2002-07-11T18:30:59Z")
I was fairly concerned because the author photos on her book jackets make her look older and frailer as each book comes out. I hope it’s just the lighting…
I do have to agree about the research…phenomenal.
---
### Author:  [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2002, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colleen-mccullough-specifically-the-masters-of-rome/118451/4 "2002-07-11T18:53:30Z")
I’ve read them too. She says that she’s gone to the original sources, rather than reading the interpreations of another scolar. And if she did. she’s very much a scholar too, nowadays.
The last one I’ve read was _Ceasar_ which ended with him crossing that river (Rubicon?). Is there one after that?
---
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2002, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colleen-mccullough-specifically-the-masters-of-rome/118451/5 "2002-07-11T19:59:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by The Gaspode \*
> \*\*
>
> The last one I’ve read was _Ceasar_ which ended with him crossing that river (Rubicon?). Is there one after that? \*\*
Not yet…
---
### Author:  [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2002, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colleen-mccullough-specifically-the-masters-of-rome/118451/6 "2002-07-12T00:39:46Z")
The last article I read in a women’s magazine showed pictures of Colleen McCullough looking as sturdy as ever. She’s not all that old.
She is supposed to have one of the largest libraries of stuff about Roamn stuff in private hands (oh what a felicitious sentence that was!).
I hate the Men in Rome series, I got totally bored and confused by about book 3. The scholarship is remarkably evident but for me it just didn’t flow well.
---
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2002, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colleen-mccullough-specifically-the-masters-of-rome/118451/7 "2002-07-12T12:54:39Z")
It is a lot of Latin names, but I found if I kept reading I was able to keep track of most everybody. The few I couldn’t were minor characters that weren’t that important.
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2002, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colleen-mccullough-specifically-the-masters-of-rome/118451/8 "2002-07-12T13:34:24Z")
I haven’t read them all yet – my fault, because they’re excellent – so I don’t really feel qualified to answer your question. I’ve got no idea when the next one is due out.