The First Man in Rome (1990)

Possibly one of the largest books I've ever read. Definitely the only fiction I've ever read with a glossary! An interesting read...I will definitely read more in the series. I want to see how it all ties together with the fall of the Republic (you know, Julius Ceasar, Pompey, Octavion). The Grass Crown is next...wish me luck! ( )

Read this book once in Dutch, a long time ago. When I came across a copy of it at the locl book market, I put it on my wishlist.
And today, all the way from the US, I got this hardcover copy! I am so happy with it!!

"First Man in Rome" is an extremely well written and conceptualized piece of historical fiction. McCullough has painstakingly recreated the world of the Roman Republic during the late 100s BC. Her research is in full display as she created her own maps, glossary and even pencil drawings of some of the key characters.

The story is full of political intrigue, history, and character-driven drama. It's enjoyable, but will require a bit of patience to work through the multi-threaded plot lines and overwhelming amount of characters. ( )

In the first few pages, we are introduced to Gaius Julius Caesar and his family consisting of wife, Marcia, sons Sextus and Gaius Julius, and daughters Julia and Julia, more commonly referred to as Julilla (very common for Romans to name their daughters similar names and refer to them with nicknames). Gradually, through a ceremony who's purpose I cannot recall, we are introduced to the real stars of The First Man in Rome: Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Marius is extremely wealthy with great knowledge of military and politics, but he comes from a non-Roman family - a requirement to be apart of the political arena of Rome. His counterpart, Sulla, is a Cornelius, a well-known, high-born family with all the clout that comes with it. But his issue is that he has no money and no reputation - his drunken, now deceased father, the perpetrator. The First Man in Rome follows these two gentlemen (and their families and families' families) as the political environment in Rome drastically changes. Through two wars, a loss of thousands of soldiers and haughty tempers on the Senate, Marius and Sulla climb the ladder as best they can to be among the elite.

I give all of the credit to Colleen McCullough for her astounding research into the lives of these men and the rest of the sweeping cast. Truly, she should be commended in the best of ways for her research and then successfully delivering it to the readers in a manageable, easy to digest and wonderfully worded historical fiction.

For the most part, the story of the First Man in Rome is likable. One really gets to know the turmoil in Rome at this time from a political standpoint and there is so much to be taken and learned from the creators of modern day democracy. I learned so much from this book that it's hard to put into words how much I value that.

But the buck stops there. The biggest problem I had with The First Man in Rome, and thus will prevent me from reading the rest of the series, is the ridiculous length of the novel. I like big books. They give the opportunity for better, more thought-out explanations and better character development. I sometimes find the stories are richer and more real this way. All of this, you simply cannot accomplish in 400 pages or less. Unfortunately, here, after 500 pages (hard-earned, mind you), I kept thinking it was almost over, that surely, it can stop here. I thought the same at 600 pages, 650 and so on and so forth. There were a multitude of places where this book could have been cut up and split into several more easily readable novels. And this feeling makes the reading painful - something reading should never do.

I also found the book to be too political and a little over the heads of many readers. I dunno, but from the synopsis, I wasn't expecting there to be that much emphasis on the politics. I was expecting a little more action, a little more sex (as the Romans do), a little more violence and debauchery. What I got was a conservative speech from the podium at the House of the Senate. Bleh.

This is without a doubt a character-driven book. I adored the characters, really and truly. I got to know them on a very personal level. I knew their secrets, their home lives, their innermost desires they themselves could not admit to. And they have stayed with me.

One aspect of the novel that I really appreciated with relation to this character-based premise was how McCullough relayed information. While Marius and Sulla were away in Africa and then, Gaul-Across-the-Alps, Rome was scintillating and lots happened - famine broke out, senators died, women lost babies, people went crazy, etc. One of Marius' closest friends, confidants and family by one marriage or another, Publius Rutilius Rufus kept in correspondence with him. In these letters, Rufus explained all that happened in Rome with a voice that was amusing and interesting. I found this to be a really great reprieve in the novel (as these letters usually came at the end of the too-long chapters) and looked forward to the block-quote style text found between endlessly massive paragraphs.

Unfortunately, character-driven books tend to not go anywhere. The plot is very slow and doesn't really follow the formula for a fiction novel. There's no rising action leading to a climax in the plot that leads to a resolution. Or maybe there was but then I'd have to say there were lots of them, hence the idea of several smaller novels. I had a real problem with this and felt as though it dragged on for no good reason.

Overall, I'm glad I read this. I'm glad I stuck with it through to the end. The time and effort McCullough put into this book, and the series overall, is well worth the reading it. She really is a masterful storyteller, I just couldn't get past the length and general going-nowhere-ness. ( )

This is the first book in the seven book Masters of Rome series dealing with the last century of the Roman Republic, from 110 to 30 BC. At the start of The First Man in Rome we meet Gaius Julius Caesar--the grandfather of his namesake the famous general. This family patriarch marries one daughter to Gaius Marius and the other to Lucius Cornelius Sulla--two rivals for "first man in Rome."

The book has a very large cast. McCullough lists 42 as "main characters" but few are really memorable years after my read. The central character in this book is definitely Gaius Marius, and this book tells the tale of his rise to power and his unprecedented six back to back consulships over the span of a decade. Sulla also comes through vividly--a complex character, sympathetic here despite his dark aspects. And their two wives, Julia and Jullila also are memorable characters in the book--as is Aurelia, the mother of Julius Caesar who is born in the last pages of the book.

I have a friend who is a classicist. She doesn't just know Greek and Latin, she teaches Latin for a living and Rome is her passion. She just couldn't get into this book. I've seen some reviewers complain it can be ponderous reading, and it can be and at such an intimidating length, I'm not sure I can ever bring myself to reread it. I don't think McCullough is as good a writer as, for instance, Robert Graves, of I, Claudius. But I loved this book, a favorite among historical fiction, for how it fully immersed me in the world of the late Roman Republic over two millennium ago. More so than Graves. How it can point up the modern aspects in all different sorts of social strata, from the maneuverings of the Senate to the startling cosmopolitan world of Aurelia's insula (tenement). I think my friend perhaps knew too much about Rome, and that spoiled her for the book--it would take outstanding prose writing to entice her into a world she already knows so intimately. And I don't think McCullough gives you that--the writing itself is fairly pedestrian. This isn't the kind of book that makes me want to highlight lines or dogear pages or linger in sheer envy of the prose. But it does what really fine historical fiction does--make you feel like you've lived in a distant place and era. And it's because of this book and series that when my Latinate friend said all she wanted in her field was dignitas, I understood exactly what she meant. ( )