I Am Rome: A Novel of Julius Caesar

Posteguillo, a bestseller of crime and historical fiction in Spain, makes his English-language debut with a bold series opener about the early life of Gaius Julius Caesar. It’s 77 BCE, and Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella, governor of Macedonia, has been charged with corruption. His prosecution in Rome falls to 23-year-old Julius Caesar, who beats out many older and more experienced lawyers for the honor. Complicating matters is the fact that Dolabella will be co-defended by Caesar’s maternal uncle, Aurelius Cotta. The plot thickens when several prosecution witnesses turn up dead under mysterious circumstances and a spy in Caesar’s camp leaks other witness testimony to the defense team. The narrative is broken up with many flashbacks: Caesar’s coming-of-age under the tutelage of his paternal uncle Marius; his first time meeting Cornelia, whom he will be arranged to marry, when he is 12 and she is eight; and the time he outsmarted the hostile Sulla, dictatorial Consul of Rome. There is action, oratory, and spectacle galore as Caesar awakens to his world-changing destiny. Posteguillo tends to stray from historical accuracy, writing with a surfeit of vulgar gusto. The result is less Mary Beard or Robert Graves than French author Christian Jacq in his novels about Egypt’s Ramses II, though it amounts to a lively depiction of young Julius Caesar. It’s an engrossing narrative of Caesar’s rise to power. (Mar.)