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A review by rosietomyn
Emperor Nero: The Splendour Before The Dark by Margaret George
5.0
Margaret George is a phenomenal storyteller. In both The Confessions of Young Nero and this sequel, The Splendor Before the Dark, the reader encounters a Nero who is not only multi-dimensional, educated, and self reflective -- but also painfully naive.
Acte and Locasta, as additional narrators, compel the reader to view Nero through a lens of compassion and understanding.
As archaeological discoveries and refined historical review continue to compel historians to look at Nero in a different light (acknowledging that close-to-contemporary writers like Seutonius and Dio were writing from a place of extreme bias), this series does an excellent job of balancing what little we know to be true, what we know to be propoganda, and what is most likely to have happened.
Like Steven Saylor in his Roma series, Margaret George also weaves both the archaeological record and discovered artifacts into her novels expertly, making the history feel that much more attainable for the modern reader.
Many modern historians have posited that Nero was likely not the tyrant he has been historically painted as (see Rome is Burning by Anthony Barrett). Margaret George makes that argument real and tackles each violent claim against him with more plausible realities (ie, the claim he killed Poppaea).
This is a great series that balances historical facts well, explores the realities of Nero's reign, and breathes new, sympathetic life into characters that history attempted to close the book on long ago.
Acte and Locasta, as additional narrators, compel the reader to view Nero through a lens of compassion and understanding.
As archaeological discoveries and refined historical review continue to compel historians to look at Nero in a different light (acknowledging that close-to-contemporary writers like Seutonius and Dio were writing from a place of extreme bias), this series does an excellent job of balancing what little we know to be true, what we know to be propoganda, and what is most likely to have happened.
Like Steven Saylor in his Roma series, Margaret George also weaves both the archaeological record and discovered artifacts into her novels expertly, making the history feel that much more attainable for the modern reader.
Many modern historians have posited that Nero was likely not the tyrant he has been historically painted as (see Rome is Burning by Anthony Barrett). Margaret George makes that argument real and tackles each violent claim against him with more plausible realities (ie, the claim he killed Poppaea).
This is a great series that balances historical facts well, explores the realities of Nero's reign, and breathes new, sympathetic life into characters that history attempted to close the book on long ago.