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Historical person
70 BCE–31 BCE
Cleopatra VII was the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt. She came to the throne in 51 BC, fought a dynastic struggle with her brother Ptolemy XIII and regained power with the support of Julius Caesar. After Caesar’s death she formed a political and personal alliance with Mark Antony as both rulers tried to preserve their position against Octavian’s expanding power.
After securing her throne with Roman support, Cleopatra ruled as an active monarch rather than merely as a client of Rome. Her relationship with Julius Caesar strengthened her position during the Alexandrian civil war, and she later presented their son Caesarion as her co-ruler. She cultivated the religious and royal imagery of the Ptolemaic monarchy while managing Egypt’s finances, diplomacy and regional ambitions.
In H. Rider Haggard’s Cleopatra, Harmachis, a descendant of Egypt’s old royal line and priest of Isis, is trained to overthrow Cleopatra and end Macedonian rule. Lindsay Powell’s Cleopatra Queen of Egypt presents the life and reign of Cleopatra VII, the final active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt. Historical accounts that place Cleopatra in context include Mary Beard’s Confronting the Classics, Lindsay Powell’s Julius Caesar, Lindsay Powell’s Marcus Agrippa, Cassius Dio’s The Roman History: Reign of Augustus, and Antonia Fraser’s The Warrior Queens.
Periods
Series
The Emperor series is a highly fictionalised retelling of Julius Caesar’s life and the violent end of the Roman Republic. It follows Caesar from youth through war, political ascent and conquest, then continues beyond his assassination into the struggle between Octavian, Antony and Caesar’s killers.
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The Marius’ Mules series follows Marcus Falerius Fronto and Caesar’s legions from the invasion of Gaul to the destruction of the Roman Republic. Battles recorded in Caesar’s commentaries are viewed through officers and soldiers who must endure the practical cost of his ambition, while conspiracies in Rome steadily…
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The Silent Years explores Jewish life between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt through the Maccabean revolt and Hasmonean monarchy to the court of Herod the Great. Fictional witnesses and historical rulers reveal a period of Greek and Roman power, dynastic conflict and…
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The Masters of Rome series reconstructs the final century of the Roman Republic from the rise of Gaius Marius in 110 BCE to the settlement that made Octavian Augustus in 27 BCE. Across seven novels, military commands, elections, family alliances, provincial wealth and personal patronage become instruments in…
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The Mark Antony series presents a biographical saga of the Roman commander from the Catilinarian crisis to his defeat by Octavian. Antony’s youth is shaped by the execution of his stepfather, service under Aulus Gabinius in Judaea and Egypt, and the campaigns in Gaul that bind him to…
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The enslaved twins Romulus and Fabiola are separated when Romulus is sold to a gladiator school and Fabiola to a brothel. Romulus comes under the protection of the Gallic gladiator Brennus and meets Tarquinius, an Etruscan warrior and seer. The three men are forced into Crassus’s army and…
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The Parthian Chronicles follow Pacorus, a fictional Parthian prince whose life stretches across the violent politics of the first century BCE. The opening novel places him beside Spartacus during the Third Servile War; later volumes return him to Mesopotamia, where he becomes ruler of Dura and is drawn…
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The Dream of Rome is an omnibus collection rather than a single continuous saga. Its volumes gather the complete Sword of Rome campaigns, the two Augustus novels, the first three Spies of Rome investigations, the complete Sword of Empire sequence and three later Rufus Varro novellas. The collection…
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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…
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The Caesar’s Spies series follows Iacomus Artemidorus, code-named Septem, and the intelligence unit operating for Julius Caesar and later Mark Antony. The sequence begins with the attempt to prevent Caesar’s assassination in March 44 BC and continues through the pursuit of the conspirators, the struggle among Antony, Cicero…
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The Augustus series follows Gaius Octavius from the assassination of Julius Caesar to the point at which Caesar’s heir can compete for control of Rome. The two novels place his personal development within the collapse of republican government, showing an inexperienced claimant learning to use adoption, veteran loyalty,…
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The Shards is a historical fantasy sequence in which divine relics shape the wars and dynastic struggles of the ancient Mediterranean. The prequel The Aegis and the Oasis follows Alexander the Great and Hephaestion in Egypt; the main trilogy begins after Julius Caesar’s assassination and follows the conflict…
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Standalone books
Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
