Masters of Rome/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Canon Sue (Caesar can verge on this; of course a historical figure who did accomplish a lot it is difficult to tell where to draw the line)
  • Complete Monster (Quintus Servilius Caepio: for starters he steals a fortune in gold that legally belonged to Rome having several hundred Roman troops murdered by bandits to conceal the identity of the thief. Then he causes the worst millitary disaster in Roman history because, coming from an immensely aristocratic background, he considers himself above working with the low born consul appointed to fight a massive barbarian invasion. Caepio survives the battle by stealing a boat and abandoning his entire army to their deaths. His grandaughter Servilia is worse if anything.)
  • Evil Is Sexy (Servilia)
  • Fridge Brilliance (If you get annoyed at the Mary Sue depiction of Gaius Julius Caesar, you might eventually realise that the story has been written in the form of propaganda written by Augustus. It was entirely in his advantage to present Caesar as a Mary Sue, and depict all of his enemies as bickering petty men.)
  • God Mode Sue (Caesar is smarter, tougher, stronger, braver and more morally decent than anyone else in the books by a ridiculous measure. In line with the Deliberate Values Dissonance, though, he really can't see anything but Roman traditional values.)
  • Squick (Cleopatra reflecting on sex with Marc Antony, specifically in reference to the size of his manhood, and how "he would have hurt her, had she not given birth to Caesarion." Think about it.)
  • Tear Jerker (Plenty - a lot of sympathetic characters die young or violently. Cato's crossing the Libyan desert (and seeing visions of his long dead brother and mother, both of whose fates are very sad in themselves) is very moving.)