The First Man in Rome (Masters of Rome, Book 1)
“Highly recommend this series if you like (highly accurate) historical fiction.”
Why it is worth your time
The First Man in Rome is the 1990 opening novel of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, which ran to 7 books. It covers 110 to 100 BC and follows Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla through the war against Jugurtha and the German invasions. McCullough was an Australian neuroscience researcher at Yale before The Thorn Birds made her a bestselling novelist, and she built the series on years of reading in the primary sources. Sacks posted in Jun 2023 that he recommends the series to anyone who likes historical fiction that gets the history right. Rome is one of his regular reference points on the podcast, often as a parallel for US politics. It suits readers who want the late Republic in detail and have time. The caveat is bulk. This paperback runs 1,152 pages, and Publishers Weekly found its measured pace slowed further by the characters' cumbersome Roman names.
