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User reviews
The story line was a rather predictable: a) Roman finds Christians repellent b) Roman gets won over c) Roman gets martyred. The problem with this is that the Roman, Minutus, is portrayed as completely lacking
This rough story line has been done a number of times, from Lloyd C. Douglas' The Robe to Henryk Sienkiewicz' Quo Vadis. Waltari's take is not the best of the lot.
As also can be expected, the Roman main character does get increasingly involved in this new Christianity thing. However, the best part of the book is that it is not particularly sparing in its characterisation, Waltari does have somewhat bleak view to humanity.
While he obviously sympathises Christians, they are unruly, confused lot keen on fighting and betraying each other, non-Christians are not better, and most characters are very keen on taking care of their own interests, regardless of what lofty ideals they have expressed at any point. This is especially true of the main character who really is lacking on moral fibre: that's the tragedy, it is a book about human incapability of doing good (and possibly the quality of divine mercy, even if it is not expressed).
An interesting subplot is the son, Minutus, first trying to prove his noble descent so he can go through the upper Roman society, and then trying desperately to hide the fact that his mother was a Greek dancing slave.
Not excellent writing, but an interesting and slow account of someone living in Rome and the empire in the ten to twenty years after the death of Christ. Minutus has the holy grail, the cup used by Christ at the last communion, and it appears several times in the book, but again this is a subplot and may have been placed in the story to form the basis of the next novel.
The book is a great filler for long flights or rainy days at the beach.
The hero fights with the II Legion in Brittania. His loves, his stint as beastmaster for the arena, government positions and postings to
The unexpected happened at the end of the book. Many will probably disagree with me, saying it was expected, but what I
I liked the book but it is not a 5 Star like. There are areas where it drones on and on. As is usual with his main male character, his Roman protagonist is captivated by women, marries them and then is very unhappy. Oh well, that's all ok as each wife moves him to the next phase of his life.
Also he is very sympathetic to Nero. I found that interesting. He did't sugar-coat any of Nero's actions, but put them in context of the times and way of life of the elite and the Uber-elite.
I will think of this book often and have already begun investigating the various Emperors and time period in which this book takes place. YouTube is great for additional information.