Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Gollancz (2004), Paperback
Description
The Roman Empire never fell. Driven by political ambition and internal dissent, thrown into turmoil by rebellion and civil war, it changed and adapted, but it never fell. The balance of power between Byzantium in the east and Rome in the west ebbed and flowed, but the Empire never fell. And it continued to expand, taking in the New World, while still dominating the old. This ambitious and accomplished novel explores fifteen hundred years of alternate Roman history through the very human stories of some of those who lived through it: the soldier encountering the exoticism of the New World for the first time; the minor official exiled to Arabia for some misdemeanour whose meeting with a religious fanatic may have changed the course of history; the military hero seizing his destiny; the innocent British aristocrat witnessing the destruction of the royal family; the children who find the last emperor in a decaying wood are all vividly and memorably portrayed. Roma Eterna takes it's place among the great alternate histories.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member uvula_fr_b4
A "fix-up" novel comprised of previously published short stories, novellas and novelettes -- the only new piece here is the four-paged prologue -- Roma Eterna is an alternate history based on the premise that the Western Roman Empire never fell; the reason that Silverberg posits for the Roman
Owing to its scope -- Roma Eterna spans from 450 A.D. to 1970 A.D. -- there are no continuing characters that the reader can fix upon and follow through the course of the book; as a result, Roma Eterna never entirely escapes its disjointed, detached feel: the stories here remain intellectual exercises in the parlor game of "What If..?," and some stories are inevitably more interesting than others.
The story or novelette with perhaps the greatest poignancy is "A Hero of the Empire," whose premise boils down to the Roman Empire vs. Muhammad. Though written pre-"9/11" -- it was originally published in the October/November 1999 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction -- this story is likely to carry an added weight with many American readers in the wake of "9/11." It is also very likely to irritate, if not outrage, many Muslims, much as Silverberg's mythographic treatment of the Judeo-Christian tradition is apt to vex, if not outrage, many Christians.
The cover of the U.S. edition -- showing a man in Egyptian dress leaning against a column watching a rocket blast off in the distant desert -- is grossly misleading. There are no typical sci-fi trappings to be found here, and no steampunk noodlings either: just mostly sound speculations on what a world dominated by the Roman Empire for two thousand years might look like. The most fantastical element in Roma Eterna comes in the first story/chapter -- "With Caesar in the Underworld" -- which is set for a goodly portion of its length in what must be a fictional city-under-The-City: a series of tunnels, grottoes, catacombs and caves under the streets of Rome itself where most of the lowlifes, thieves, degenerates, murderers, smugglers, spies, weirdo cultists and terrorists of Rome congregate. This story is set in 529 A.D.; the Underworld doesn't get a return engagement.
On the whole, I much preferred Silverberg's novel Gilgamesh the King, which was a largely rational retelling of the famous epic that remained open-minded enough to allow some seemingly fantastical elements to breathe.
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Empire's continuation is sure to anger those who take issue with Chapters XV and XVI of Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, wherein Gibbon places the lion's share of the blame for Rome's collapse on the shoulders of Christianity's triumph. Silverberg most explicitly lays this out in his prologue, which consists of two Roman historians discussing their researches; one of them reveals to the other his fascination for "the Hebrews of Aegyptus," and his notion that, had the Hebrew chieftain Mosaeus -- "Moshe, in their language" -- been successful in leading his people out of Aegyptus and settling them in Syria Palaestina, the Hebrews could well have come to shake the foundations of the Roman world -- as in fact they did in ours. Owing to its scope -- Roma Eterna spans from 450 A.D. to 1970 A.D. -- there are no continuing characters that the reader can fix upon and follow through the course of the book; as a result, Roma Eterna never entirely escapes its disjointed, detached feel: the stories here remain intellectual exercises in the parlor game of "What If..?," and some stories are inevitably more interesting than others.
The story or novelette with perhaps the greatest poignancy is "A Hero of the Empire," whose premise boils down to the Roman Empire vs. Muhammad. Though written pre-"9/11" -- it was originally published in the October/November 1999 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction -- this story is likely to carry an added weight with many American readers in the wake of "9/11." It is also very likely to irritate, if not outrage, many Muslims, much as Silverberg's mythographic treatment of the Judeo-Christian tradition is apt to vex, if not outrage, many Christians.
The cover of the U.S. edition -- showing a man in Egyptian dress leaning against a column watching a rocket blast off in the distant desert -- is grossly misleading. There are no typical sci-fi trappings to be found here, and no steampunk noodlings either: just mostly sound speculations on what a world dominated by the Roman Empire for two thousand years might look like. The most fantastical element in Roma Eterna comes in the first story/chapter -- "With Caesar in the Underworld" -- which is set for a goodly portion of its length in what must be a fictional city-under-The-City: a series of tunnels, grottoes, catacombs and caves under the streets of Rome itself where most of the lowlifes, thieves, degenerates, murderers, smugglers, spies, weirdo cultists and terrorists of Rome congregate. This story is set in 529 A.D.; the Underworld doesn't get a return engagement.
On the whole, I much preferred Silverberg's novel Gilgamesh the King, which was a largely rational retelling of the famous epic that remained open-minded enough to allow some seemingly fantastical elements to breathe.
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LibraryThing member DLMorrese
This is a mildly interesting story of a Roman Empire that avoided collapse until modern times. I can't say I found it very enjoyable as a story, though, and the ending was less than satisfying.
LibraryThing member JohnFair
Although this is called a novel, it's actually a collection of stories charting the history of a roman empire that never fell - the point of departure is the destruction of the Jews in their Egyptian exile, therefore no Christianity. Given the vast sweep of history covered in this book, the
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complete breaks between stories is to be expected. If you are trying to match back dates to our time line, don't forget that dayes here are given in the Roman fashion; from the date of the founding of Rome, so you need to subtract 753 from these dates to get the CE dates. Show Less
LibraryThing member John_T_Stewart
This is quite a good alternative history book. It does use the "Great Man" view of history. The story visits several important figures from the past in the new environment of an on-going Roman Empire. It was a fairly interesting read.
Awards
Italia Award (Winner — 2015)
Language
Original publication date
2003-06
Physical description
400 p.; 6.77 inches
ISBN
0575075562 / 9780575075566