My very first Scarrow! And yes I did work on this work (haha hello publicity!) but it was much better than I thought it was going to be!

Not very good, really. It starts well, but then gets bogged down into repetitive plotting and dialogue.

Many of the fight scenes are interesting for about half a page, then again, repetitive. Nothing much really revealed about how Romans fight.

Very episodic in parts, a somewhat clumsy assemblage of ideas, perhaps Scarrow was under pressure from his publisher. Often the case.

Notes and quotes:

39.0%
<i>"... Keep the mob happy and the question of how they were ruled would remain a matter of supreme indifference to them. Keep the upper echelons of society living in fear and they would be cowed into a show of indifference."</i>

40.0% .... one of the things I really like about Scarrow is that he doesn't constantly repeat himself just to extend the page count. So many other authors suck at this. ...

Scarrow sums up 3 chapters ...
<i>Cato collected his thoughts and gave an account of everything from the arrest until the point Macro ran into him, literally.</i>

Note: This great habit is totally abandoned by mid-book 😢

50.0% .... Hahahaaaaha! Scarrow takes a swipe at Mango Mussolini!

<i>"Haven’t you heard? It’s a new golden age. A new emperor. Now Nero’s in charge, <b>says he’s going to make Rome great again.</b>"</i>

63.0% .... far too much political chit chat here, very dull and unconvincing

70.0% ... uh oh. Lots of plot/dialogue repetition here. Very sad

Rome is in turmoil, Emperor Claudius is dead and his adopted son, Nero, has been declared Emperor. However rumour has it that Claudius was poisioned by his wife/niece Aggripina to disinherit Claudius' natural son, Britannicus, in favour of her own son. As rebellion is in the air Prefect Cato is claimed by both sides as his influence is needed but as he trusted friend Macro is framed for murder and his son is kidnapped Cato struggles to know which side to ally with.

Scarrow is a greatly loved author and this was the first of his books that I have read. Day of the Caesars is the 16th in a long running series about the characters in the Roman Army an, in common with many long running series, there is a lot of detail that has appeared in previous books and which is hinted at in this instalment. For this reason I found it difficult to engage with the book at first, characters appeared fully formed and their relationships and previous experiences were alluded to. However after persevering I became engrossed in the tale which blended fact and fiction seamlessly. Scarrow is a very entertaining writer, the smells and atmosphere of Rome are vivid and the politics that form such a key component of Roman life are explained in a way that does not confuse. The fight scenes are visceral and the characters are actually well-rounded.

Day of the Caesars by Simon Scarrow

It is late AD 54 and the Emperor Claudius is dead. Rumours of murder are circulating around Rome but few dare to utter them outloud. His adopted son Nero now wears the purple, supported by his ambitious, dangerous mother Agrippina. But he needs little of her support – he’s every bit as lethal in his own right. Claudius’s own son, Britannicus, is in a very precarious situation indeed, not least because others look to him as a possible solution to the problem of Nero.

Cato and Macro have arrived back in Rome as heroes after their mission in Hispania. Back within the Praetorian camp, they are positioned better than most to hear the rumblings spreading across the army at the turn of political events, and the lack of their promised gold. Cato, though, has other things on his mind – building a relationship with his young toddler son, Lucius – while Macro has distractions of his own. But it doesn’t seem to matter who’s emperor. They always have jobs in mind for Cato and Macro – and they’re never pretty.

Day of the Caesars is the sixteenth novel in Simon Scarrow’s hugely popular Eagles of the Empire series and it is always good news when Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro return. I’ve loved these two for years and have followed their exploits across the empire with pleasure. This time they’re back in Rome but Rome has never been more dangerous. But Rome is home for Cato and Macro and so we watch them try to put their private lives back together again after months away, finding some comfort, while at the same time we worry for them as the murky and complex world of politics and conspiracies threatens them and their plans from every side.

It’s difficult to imagine a more dangerous period in Roman history than the middle of the 1st century AD. I’ve enjoyed several novels about Nero over the last year and it’s rather refreshing that, in Day of the Caesars, no apologies are made for Nero – he’s as nasty and terrifying as history would have him. There is a scene early on which sets the tone for Nero and while I found it repulsive it certainly achieved its aim in summing Nero up. This is a man to hate. But this is Roman politics and, as such, there’s little to admire in any of the factions and nothing is straightforward. I enjoyed the tangled plot that Simon Scarrow has constructed here. It’s tense but it’s also thrilling and it has the whole of Rome in its grip.

This is most definitely historical fiction. Liberties are taken with events and with historical figures. But that matters little because this is the story of Cato and Macro – two fictional characters at the centre of events that are constructed around them. But the picture of the city of Rome itself is so well drawn, particularly its depiction of the city’s lethal poorer tenements. As usual, though, I have some issues with the author’s portrayal of women – none of the women featured here do well out of it.

In some ways, Day of the Caesars feels like a stepping stone novel. It informs us of what is going on in Rome while moving Cato and Macro from Spain to their next posting. As a result, I don’t think this is the best of the series but it’s certainly hugely entertaining, exciting and thrilling. Time spent with Cato and Macro is always time well spent and now that the sixteenth is read, I’ll look forward to the seventeenth which, just like all of the others, will go straight to the top of my reading pile.

Other reviews
The Blood Crows
Brothers in Blood
Britannia
Invictus
With T.J. Andrews – Invader

The 16th book in Simon Scarrow's Eagle series sees our hero's Macro & Cato return to the political cesspit of Rome. After a few books away campaigning back in Britain and Spain, the return to the eternal city gives us a book with a much tighter, centralised plot. This one reads as more of a thriller/action story than the usual military campaign book. Its a nice change of pace, and with the added personal threat to Cato's family, we see a continuation of Cato's hardening, while at the same time Macro seems to be easing towards his retirement.

Its a great read, hard to put down just as i've come to expect from Scarrow. It looks like the boys are all set to travel to Parthia next, so bring on next year!