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Author

Steven Saylor

1956

19 fiction

Steven Saylor is important for Roman historical mystery and for readers interested in the final decades of the Republic.

Steven Saylor was born in Port Lavaca, Texas, in 1956 and grew up in the state before studying history and classics at the University of Texas at Austin. He worked in publishing and as a freelance writer while developing the research that became his first Roman mystery. His academic background and long engagement with classical sources shaped a career devoted almost entirely to the ancient city and its political transformations.

Roman Blood, published in 1991, introduced Gordianus the Finder, an investigator whose cases intersect with Cicero, Caesar and other major figures of the late Republic. The Roma Sub Rosa series uses crime plots to explore courts, elections, slavery, family authority and civil war from the viewpoint of a man who moves between social classes. Saylor also wrote Roma, Empire and Dominus, which follow generations of a family across a much longer span of Roman history. His novels combine known events with plausible fictional observation and are especially valuable for readers who want political history grounded in streets, households and legal disputes.

Periods and events

Alexandrian War48–47 BCE Ancient Near Eastc. 3500–539 BCE Assassination of Julius Caesar44 BCE Augustan Age27 BCE–14 CE Battle of Pharsalus48 BCE Caesar’s Civil War49–45 BCE Catilinarian Conspiracy63–62 BCE Crisis of the Third Century235–284 CE Crossing of the Rubicon49 BCE Flavian Dynasty69–96 CE Gallic Wars58–50 BCE Hellenistic Greece323–146 BCE Julio-Claudian Dynasty27 BCE–68 CE Late Roman Republic133–27 BCE Mithridatic Wars88–63 BCE Nerva–Antonine Dynasty96–192 CE Ptolemaic Egypt305–30 BCE Punic Wars264–146 BCE Roman Republic509–27 BCE Roman–Parthian Wars53 BCE–217 CE Severan Dynasty193–235 CE Sullan Civil War and Proscriptions88–81 BCE Tetrarchy293–313 CE Third Servile War73–71 BCE Year of the Four Emperors69 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Steven Saylor (3 series)

Roma Sub Rosa in Order

by Steven Saylor 13 books 4.1(53,315)

The Roma Sub Rosa series follows Gordianus the Finder through the last generation of the Roman Republic. His investigations begin in the aftermath of Sulla’s dictatorship and continue through slave revolt, aristocratic trials, Catiline’s conspiracy, Caesar’s civil war and the assassination of Julius Caesar. The series uses murder…

Ancient World in Order

by Steven Saylor 3 books 4.1(4,803)

The Ancient World prequels follow Gordianus before his established career as Rome’s Finder. The sequence begins with his youthful journey to the Seven Wonders in 92 BC, then moves to Alexandria, Egypt and Asia Minor during the opening phase of the Mithridatic Wars. These books are linked by…

Roma Trilogy in Order

by Steven Saylor 3 books 4.0(15,200)

The Roma Trilogy follows generations of the fictional Pinarius family across the long history of Rome. Roma begins with the city’s legendary foundation and continues through the Republic and the rise of Augustus; Empire carries the family through the Julio-Claudian, Flavian and adoptive-emperor periods; Dominus follows the later…

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