My godson L gave me a historical novel for the Christmas before last: Dictator by Robert Harris.
I love the cover art by the way, very dramatic. For the record it has Cicero on the front cover ("Rome burning") and Julius Caesar on the back cover ("problem solved").
Both Cicero and Caesar are important writers in history. I know that on the cover of the book Cicero looks more like a writer, but Julius Caesar was too.
I've been keen on Rome since I was a teen and didn't know that till recently. How about that! But that's OK. No matter how much you get into something, you keep finding out things that you should've known until finally you drop dead never having found out that Cleopatra was actually Greek and it's just that in Hollywood they've been making her look like a barbarian ...
… or even like someone from up the Nile somewhere.
Cleopatra was Caesar's lover by the way, and Marc Antony's after Caesar copped it in the neck and various other places. And for now I'm happy to guess that she might've looked more like the way she appears on ancient coins bearing her image, as a rough guide.
And that will do, for now.
***
“Hey Nic! I’ve got a great new book on Rome, but I’m feeling a bit down because it’s part of a trilogy, and I haven’t got the other two.”
She’s fantastic my wife. She rolls her eyes every time I jump into a new obsession or back into an old one. But she gets onto her eBay thingie anyway and goes tappity tap tap and then suddenly there is a squeal of brakes out the front and a knock knock knock and bingo: I’ve got the whole trilogy.
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