Form: Novel
Year: 2003
Publication history:
- 2003 : Roma Eterna (hc) , Eos, 396 pp., ISBN 0380978598
- 2003 : Roma Eterna (hc) , Gollancz (UK), 384 pp., ISBN 0575073535
- 2003 : Roma Eterna (tpb) , Gollancz (UK), 384 pp., ISBN 0575073543
- 2004 : Roma Eterna (pb) , Eos, 464 pp., ISBN 0380814889
A powerful epic of alternate history from one of the ture giants of speculative fiction, multiple award-winning author Robert Silverberg
ROMA ETERNA
What if the Empire never crumbled--and the Eternal City reigned supreme for thousands of years?
No power on Earth can resist the might of Imperial Rome, so has it been and so it ever shall be. Through brute force, terror, and sheer indomitable will, her armies have enslaved a world, crushing all who would oppose her in her divine mission of total domination. From the reign of Maximilianus the Great in AUC 1203 onward, Rome thrives through myriad bloody intrigues and corrupt sovereignties that would doom a lesser state. Upstarts and enemies rise and fall, ground beneath merciless Roman boot heels: the prophet Mohammad murdered before his influence can take root; the Mayans in Mexico cruelly subjugated by the invading hordes of the Emperor Trajan VII on their first voyage of circumnavigation.
So it is and so it ever shall be--into a new age of scientific advancement and astounding technologies.
Throughout the many cneturies of Roman rule, one people have suffered and bled...and endured. In the year AUC 2723, at last a faint hope has been born with the advent of a miraculous new industry. For and intrepid band who are called Hebrews, the day is coming when the heavens themselves will be opened to them, and escape from Rome's eternal oppression may finally be possible--as the ships are prepared in secret that will carry the enslaved on their "Great Exodus" ti the stars.
A crowning achievement in a majestic career that has already spanned six decades, Robert Silverberg's Roma Eterna is a triumph of the imagination that reveals the acclaimed author at the breathtaking peak of his narrative powers.
A collection of all the Roma stories, telling the story of an alternate Earth where the Roman Empire never fell, due to be published in 2003. I'm not sure if it will be presented as a novel or as a collection of stories. Either way, it's a fascinating take on the possibilities of history.
The stories, in historical order (with Roman dates), are:
- AUC 1203: Prologue (1203)
- With Caesar in the Underworld (1282)
- A Hero of the Empire (1353)
- The Second Wave (1861)
- Waiting for the End (1951)
- An Outpost of the Empire (2206)
- Getting to Know the Dragon (2503)
- The Reign of Terror (2563)
- Via Roma (2603)
- Tales from the Venia Woods (????)
- To the Promised Land (2723)