ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603290099
SECTION: BOOKS PAGE: F-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY MARGARET GRAYSON
CAESAR'S WOMEN. By Colleen McCullough. William Morrow and Company. $25.
Colleen McCullough's "Caesar's Women" is, her own words, a "novelization" of history; the history of the Late Roman Republic, the history of its prime mover, Julius Caesar, the history of 68 to 58 B.C. It is a decade known to Latin students everywhere.
McCullough's fascination with Roman history is admirable, her research exhaustive. She is a proven writer of great talent and a great story teller. A story line more gripping than that in "The Thorn Birds" is rare. Roman history, however, is too confining and defining for her. "Caesar's Women" bogs down in the details of day-to-day politics and in the actions of the Senate and assemblies. It is harder to sort out the main players than the characters in a Russian novel, and her characters do not always ring true. Caesar's mother as his confidant is jarring enough; Cicero arrogant and self-serving, yes; Cicero silly, never!
The title, "Caesar's Women," is a come-on which will result in heightened sales and disappointed readers. True, McCullough draws a handsome and canny Aurelia, a politically astute mother worth of a Julius Caesar; a virginal and loving daughter, Julia, with an adolescent crush on the post middle-aged General Pompey just home from his Eastern Conquests; and a beautiful, cold and over-sexed mistress, Servilia, whose wealth is legendary and whose lineage is impeccable. Servilia and Caesar are the subjects of one - just one - really torrid and innovative love scene. The pubescent Julia, instead of being the political pawn which she was, reduces Pompey to a simpering and foolish lover. All three of Caesar's women have minor roles and few pages in this 632 page historical novel. One wishes they had more.
McCullough accepts the gossip that Caesar had a sexual encounter with the King of Bithynia and that Catiline may have had an affair with a Vestal Virgin, Fabia, Cicero's sister-in-law. The wonder is that she did not use the rumor, admittedly tenuous at best, that Marcus Brutus was Caesar's son by Servilia. It would make for a much better story. How much more poignant would be Caesar's last words on the Ides of March, "Et tu, Brute."
The next book in the Roman series is tentatively called "Let the Dice Fly" which thankfully implies that McCullough will not undertake a rewriting of Caesar's "Gallic War" but will pick up from when he crosses the Rubicon. My advice to readers interested in the late Roman Republic is to read translations of the books of Suetonius, Plutarch, Catullus, Cicero, Sallust and Caesar. It is quicker, sexier, funnier and infinitely more interesting.
Margaret Grayson teaches Latin at North Cross School.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB