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A series of historical fiction novels by author Colleen McCullough:
 
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Set in [[Ancient Rome]] (between 110 BC and 27 BC) this epic seven book series covers the fall of the Roman Republic and ends with the rise of Octavian (later known as [[Emperor Augustus|Caesar Augustus]]). Noted for their intricate research of Roman life and McCullough's use of [[Deliberate Values Dissonance]] with even clearly sympathetic characters. Also sex, quite a lot of it.
 
While there are hundreds if not thousands of named characters in these books, broadly speaking several major if unrelated story arcs stand out. The first two books are dominated by the friendship and later rivalry between brilliant general [[Self -Made Man|Gauis Marius]] and the icy but brilliant aristocratic [[Impoverished Patrician|Lucius Cornelius Sulla]] while most of the later works focus on the careers and lives of Pompey, Crassus, Cicero, Cato, Octavian and Mark Antony and above all [[Gaius Julius Caesar]] whose pivotal life makes him the central character of the whole story.
 
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=== Provides examples of: ===
* [[All Men Are Perverts]]/[[All Women Are Prudes]]: Fascinatingly inverted with Brutus and his mother Servilia; one of the (many) reasons Servilia has difficulty comprehending her son is that she has a very strong sex drive while Brutus is naturally prudish and much more sentimental than lustful.
* [[Army of Thieves and Whores]] (Marius' legion)
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* [[Broken Bird]] (Cato is a rare male - and very masculine at that - version.)
* [[Bus Crash]] (The end of Mithridates VI of Pontus is a little disappointing considering his importance and big role in ''The Grass Crown'' - not so much his actual death, which is a matter of historical record, but the way we hear about it in a letter).
* [[Death Byby Materialism]] (Caepio Junior)
* [[Deliberate Values Dissonance]] (Selling your daughter for political pull and cash, murder, crucifixtion, slavery, murder, adultery, murder, arson for profit and of course murder)
* [[Depraved Bisexual]] (Sulla will have sex with anything)
* [[Designated Monkey]] (Marcus Brutus)
* [[Door StopperDoorstopper]] (seven books, of which the ''shortest'' is 576 pages and three are over 1000 pages long. A good example of their length is that it takes ''270'' pages before Marius and Sulla are even introduced to each other, even though their interaction is the main story in the first book.)
* [[Enemy Civil War]] (from the viewpoint of outsiders the multiple Roman civil wars look like this and they try and take advantage accordingly. It doesn't work.)
* [[Eunuchs Are Evil]] (The Alexandrian palace cabal)
* [[Even the Guys Want Him]] (Both Sulla and Caesar are so [[Bishonen|beautiful]] as youths that more than a few male characters openly lust after them)
* [[Evil Albino]] (Sulla has very, very pale skin and very pale eyes)
* [[Evil Matriarch]] (If you thought Servilia was warped on ''[[Rome]]'' wait till you see the [[Masters of Rome]] version)
* [[Evil Redhead]] (Sulla. Cato is also a redhead but while he has an antagonistic role you can't real call him evil.)
* [[Face Heel Turn]] (Marius after his stroke, Pompey after Julia dies)
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* [[Revenge Before Reason]] (Octavian. After the assassains of Caesar have already been defeated ad killed he is sufficently murderous to have Cato's (totally harmless) best friend killed for the 'crime' of being friends with Caesar's old enemy).
* [[The Roman Republic]]
* [[Self -Made Man]] (Marius, and in a very diffent manner, Cicero)
* [[Two Lines, No Waiting]] (Due to [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] and [[Door StopperDoorstopper|Loads And Loads Of Pages]] all the books have multiple interweaving storylines)
* [[Villain Protagonist]] (Sulla)
* [[Villain Withwith Good Publicity]] (Octavian is beloved by legionaries because of his charm and resemblance to Caesar and also enchants Cicero amongst others; he is also hideously cold blooded about killing or ruining anyone who gets in his way or tarnishes the legacy of his beloved adopted father.)
** ("Beloved" because Octavian was using his adopted father's good publicity to promote his own political career in the eyes of the Romans. Anything that would slander Caesar would slander Octavian, as the latter tried to rub himselt with as much Caesarian clout he could think of. Including deifying Caesar and having people call him Divi Filius - [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Son of God]]).
* [[Wild Card]] (The oily, yet strangely likable Lucius Marcius Philippus, Rome's most honestly corrupt politician - that is to say anyone can buy him but he stays bought.)
** His father/grandfather, also Lucius Marcius Philippus is bribed by Marius in the first book, and offers his service for life. He later becomes a political enemy of Marius, which costs him the consulship when Rutilius Rufus points out he should be bound by his bribe a decade previously. Though this might be the same Philippus mentioned above. Most families have only one character kept through the generations.
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[[Category:Ancient Rome]]
[[Category:Sword and Sandal]]
[[Category:Masters Ofof Rome]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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