Status
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Call number
Publication
Kregel Publications (1991), Edition: 2nd, Hardcover, 456 pages
Description
The splendor and pagan excesses of Roman society are confronted by the life-changing faith of Christianity in this historically accurate fiction work. Guaranteed fiction!
Local notes
1209-26
User reviews
LibraryThing member fairlight
This is one of the best novels I have read in years. All so-called Christian fiction should aspire to be as well-written as this book. The author, Paul Maier, may be a better fiction writer than non-fiction writer. In the story, he starts with the reign of the Emperor Claudius, and takes us all the
There are no characters in the story who did not live and breathe, and if some of the connections between the characters are broad assumptions, that's the prerogative of the author to advance the plot.
Flames of Rome is suspenseful and really hard to put down. It's true, it has descriptions of violence, but this was a violent, morally bankrupt age.
I really enjoyed seeing the biblical characters, Aquila & Priscilla, Simon Peter, and Paul of Tarsus come alive in this book. The early persecution of the Christians is dealt with frankly, but yet it's a very gripping and emotionally moving account. The lives of the early saints are presented in such stark dramatic contrast to the corrupt and morally degenerate Nero that you wonder why the Lord let him live as long as he did.
I give this wonderfully suspenseful and gripping book the highest rating.
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way through Nero's.There are no characters in the story who did not live and breathe, and if some of the connections between the characters are broad assumptions, that's the prerogative of the author to advance the plot.
Flames of Rome is suspenseful and really hard to put down. It's true, it has descriptions of violence, but this was a violent, morally bankrupt age.
I really enjoyed seeing the biblical characters, Aquila & Priscilla, Simon Peter, and Paul of Tarsus come alive in this book. The early persecution of the Christians is dealt with frankly, but yet it's a very gripping and emotionally moving account. The lives of the early saints are presented in such stark dramatic contrast to the corrupt and morally degenerate Nero that you wonder why the Lord let him live as long as he did.
I give this wonderfully suspenseful and gripping book the highest rating.
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LibraryThing member janerawoof
Some kind of spark was missing but I did keep reading to find out about Sabinus [the protagonist and Vespasian's brother]. I wanted to like this novel more than I did. The novel followed very closely the historical record [mostly primary but some secondary sources]. Much of the work was given to
The story followed Sabinus from his return to Rome from military service in Britannia; as a senator; marriage into the Plautius gen; and terms of office as census taker in Gaul and Roman City Prefect [equivalent of mayor]. The novel brings out his role in plot against Nero. The author did make him sympathetic towards and helpful to Christians; the real-life Sabinus was a decent and peace-loving man. I liked the descriptions of the several outlandish assassination attempts on Agrippina; she was certainly 'a cat with nine lives' who finally used them all. I liked the coverage of Pomponia Graecina's trial by her family. I liked in the last part Lucas [Luke] telling Sabinus that he is using a coded form of his complete name, the first three sounds of 'Titus Flavius Sabinus' meaning 'Theophilus' for Luke's dedication to him of the "Acts." This is fiction or at least conjecture, but I'd like to think it might be true.
I admire the author as a historian and his use of the sources, but he lacked something as a novelist. Each character was actually historical, but all of them came across as wooden except for Sabinus himself. Claudius and Nero were the usual cartoonish stereotypes. Dialogue was nothing remarkable and was stilted. As much as or more than the novel itself, the end notes were most interesting: from where the author got his information and how he used it. Those are worth reading. The orgy scenes were probably risqué for when the book was written [1981], but they are very tame today. It is worthwhile for the history of that period and explanation of the Latin terms, e.g., the voting system at a trial: A [Absolvo], C [Condemno] or NL [Non Licet=not proven=in our parlance, Abstention].
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the expansion of Christianity to and in Rome, even after the Great Fire, which the author painted as not set deliberately; the author posits it starting in an oil merchant c*m builder's shop. Many historians of today agree with the assessment that the Fire was an accident. The retaliations against Christians as described were horrendous, but described in ancient sources. The story followed Sabinus from his return to Rome from military service in Britannia; as a senator; marriage into the Plautius gen; and terms of office as census taker in Gaul and Roman City Prefect [equivalent of mayor]. The novel brings out his role in plot against Nero. The author did make him sympathetic towards and helpful to Christians; the real-life Sabinus was a decent and peace-loving man. I liked the descriptions of the several outlandish assassination attempts on Agrippina; she was certainly 'a cat with nine lives' who finally used them all. I liked the coverage of Pomponia Graecina's trial by her family. I liked in the last part Lucas [Luke] telling Sabinus that he is using a coded form of his complete name, the first three sounds of 'Titus Flavius Sabinus' meaning 'Theophilus' for Luke's dedication to him of the "Acts." This is fiction or at least conjecture, but I'd like to think it might be true.
I admire the author as a historian and his use of the sources, but he lacked something as a novelist. Each character was actually historical, but all of them came across as wooden except for Sabinus himself. Claudius and Nero were the usual cartoonish stereotypes. Dialogue was nothing remarkable and was stilted. As much as or more than the novel itself, the end notes were most interesting: from where the author got his information and how he used it. Those are worth reading. The orgy scenes were probably risqué for when the book was written [1981], but they are very tame today. It is worthwhile for the history of that period and explanation of the Latin terms, e.g., the voting system at a trial: A [Absolvo], C [Condemno] or NL [Non Licet=not proven=in our parlance, Abstention].
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LibraryThing member eesti23
The first time I read The Flames of Rome was for a Latin class in high school. I wasn't a fan of the book at the time, probably because it was a class requirement and who likes those when you are a teenager. As an adult I gave the book another go and am really glad that I did. The book is packed Christians , but the Roman times weren't all about eating grapes from a reclined position.
Note: Reading dates are a total guess.
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full of information, while still having an interesting storyline(s). There are parts of this book that are hard to read, especially the treatment of Note: Reading dates are a total guess.
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Physical description
456 p.; 5.75 inches
ISBN
0825432626 / 9780825432620