If you’re interested in some time-travel, Household Gods by Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove takes place in this period and deals with some themes of Christianity coming to the fore, as well as other popular cults of the period. It also does quite a lot of daily-life-in-the-era stuff as well.
If children’s fiction is okay, I remember reading The Bronze Bow as a kid, though that was long enough ago that I hesitate to vouch for it now.
A little bit after the OPs cutoff date, but you may try Poul Anderson’s tetralogy The King of Ys. It is a fantasy (although I consider it High Fantasy), but the main protagonist is a Mithra follower.
I don’t think anyone has yet mentioned the classic *Last Days Of Pompeii *by Edward Bulwer-Lytton which takes place in 79 A.D.
That’s the one I came in to recommend.
The Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch
May not be the easiest read but it does have some reference to the era you are interested in.
I can’t vouch for the translation, (the original French is great!) but The Gardens of Light by Amin Maalouf is set in the third century AD, and deals with the prophet Mani, whom we know today because of Manichaeism. May be of interest to the OP.
It’s always my fault!
I’d add in The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas. The novel is much better than the Richard Burton movie.
Ernest K. Gann’s The Antagonists is set in Judea in 73 AD. It was made into the TV series Masada
He wrote a sequel, too.
If you’re willing to look at a different viewpoint (e.g. the “barbarians”), I’d recommend Druids by Morgan Llywelyn. It’s about the Gallic War, but from the perspective of the Celts rather than the Romans. Specifically, it’s about a druid from one of the major Celtic tribes getting wrapped up with Vercingetorix, the chieftain who united many of the tribes in Gaul to resist the Romans.
The one warning I’ll give is that, being from the perspective of someon who completely believes in the ancient Celtic religion (including magic, gods, and reincarnation), and these beliefs are presented from his viewpoint – as observable facts of reality, not just superstitions. This leads a lot of people to label the book ‘fantasy’ because it’s written in the first person, and he describes a couple of religious experiences, but I don’t feel that’s really fair. Lots of books are written from the perspective of the beliefs of Christianity being true and factual that aren’t labeled as fantasy novels. Still, I thought I’d let you know.
I love that book. It’s one of the books that has been most influential on my life; I read it as a teenager, and seeing history from a completely different perspective than I was used to was earthshattering to me. One of the reasons I still keep my old BBS handle as my username, here and elsewhere. It’s easy to think of Romans as the light in the darkness and how cruel and evil the ‘barbarians’ were, but remember who wrote those histories.
The plot is slow, but I liked Quo Vadis? by Henryk Sienkiewicz. I think some Dopers might have problems with its obvious pro-Christian agenda though.
The Sea Lord by Alet Schouten. I love her books in Dutch, and this one is translated into English, which is no mean feat for a Dutch writer and which shoudl tell you how awesome it is.
Set in a little backward village in a dune-marshland on the Dutch-Frisian shore, it captures the time about 400 BC. First the village is christened. Then a bunch of Vikings arrive, technically Christians but in practice just a bunch of pirates looking for a pirates’ nest. The next fifty years describe how the village gets rich enough on pirate loot (not to mention how the inbred malnourished villagers benefit from an infusion of viking blood) to build a road to the nearest town and to build an actual stone stronghold. I won’t spoil the rest of the novel for you, but it has love, madness, betrayal, plague, floods and dykes. It was my favourite book as a young adult and I still think it is an exceptionally well written, moving tale, set in a time few other historical novels treat well.
That’s true of course, but if the OP is after some hot Pagan/ Christian action, then Bernard Corwell’s The Warlord Chronicles might work.
Judas, My Brother by Frank Yerby is a novel about the life of Christ with a reinterpretation of Judas. Yerby is most famous for being one of the bestselling U.S. writers of the 1950s whose sales plummeted when his core audience (white women) learned he was black; by the time he wrote the Judas novel he was an expatriate living in Spain and an agnostic. The novel is heavily researched and includes annotations and supporting evidence for some of his factual claims.
Song for a Dark Queenis a novel by Rosemary Sutcliffe about the rebellion led by Boudica. It’s well researched, well written, and doesn’t make her look like a saintly freedom fighter (though certainly she was sympathetic in the novel as in real life).
Sorry to nitpick but if the village was Chritianized, wouldn’t it have been set around 400 AD rather than BC?
Peregrine Primus and Peregrine Secundus by Davidson also fall into roughly this time period. Sadly, he never got around to finishing the trilogy.
:smack:Of course, you’re right.
I mentioned that book because it focuses on what the OP indicated: the mingling of pagan world and early christianity. For instance, the village is christened by an enterprising monk who bribes the near starving inhabitants by offering them shirts.
The Tros of Samothrace novels by Talbot Mundy are unusual in that they are set from the viewpoint of a Greek rebel against Rome who is neither Roman nor Christian. Not sure hes’ a Mithraite either. They are more pulp adventures than historical novels, but are considered much more historically accurate than most pulp novels. If you want historical accuracy, though, read nonfiction histories. Well … some of them.
Personally I’ve found Saylors novels(before I gave up on them) full of anachnorisms which tended to make the narrative somewhat unbelievable.
Maybe he’s improved, I couldn’t say, now but his earlier novels displayed a shocking ignorance of how Romans thought and lived.
Amongst other things, he shows that he is pretty much clueless on the upbringing of the upper two classes, his main character is anti slavery (In ancient Rome!), he marries a slave…
.
He said himself he studied Roman HISTORY in his local library, but unfortunately it would seem that he contented himself with that .
Like I say maybe he’s switched on a bit more now about his chosen subject or maybe he isn’t.
I’m sorry but I found his books truly dreadful.
In the spirit of fairness I’m going to read his latest book; but I’m not looking forward to it, though maybe I’ll get a pleasant surprise.
Or maybe I won’t.
I would second the posters who recommend Colleen McCulloughs "Masters of Rome "series.
Apart from the her being a really talented author; she totally understands the motivations, etiquette and lifestyles of Romans of that time.
thanks for the recommendations, some of them don’t seem readily available in AU, even online through dymocks etc… (Amazon’s shipping to au is pretty outrageous…)
Julian, Gardens of Light and First Man in Rome will do me for now…