Ancient Roman history is one of my favourite periods in time and Andrew Frediani was great at pulling me into the book and feeling like I'm there. It is a great read, with some of my favorite and also most known Roman leaders.

The book is set after the Battle of Philippi, where the leading conspirators (those who murdered Julius Caesar) were killed. Back in Rome, Octavian displayed their corpses in the parade.

Octavian became a cruel tyrant who terminated some of his former allies, whilst still staying close to his best friends. Tensions still remained among the two other triumvirs, Antony and Lepidus, as they fought to rule the whole empire autonomously.

The sea battles were awesome and incredible and the victors emerged. The fates of the losers were sealed.

Will Octavian preserve his bloodline through his heirs, inheriting the throne of Caesar to continue the quest of glory for Rome? I cannot wait for the next book of the Invincible series.

Caesar13

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

The saga of Octavian/Augustus continues. Lacking the need for the exposition that slowed the first book in the series, this rattles along fine style showing the future Emperor's hazard-ridden path to success, and how narrowly he achieves it. The brotherhood of friends previously established is his key to the Empire and their individual stories merge to form an entertaining and informative whole. Prior to reading this, I thought I knew the story pretty well, but the fact that it was such a "close-run thing" was new to me. I enjoyed this - a fine historical series. I'm looking forward to the next one.