description: This is a story - perhaps the story - of the clash between two great civilizations of the sixth century of the Common Era, when the Roman Empire had crumbled into dust; the struggle for Rome, and for Italy, between the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium, ruled by Justinian, and the Gothic warrior tribes who had captured Italy under their legendary king Theodoric. of these events which shook the world as they knew it; most are historical figures and some are imaginary but typical; Justinian and his beautiful and scheming wife, Theodora; the great commander Belisarius, immortalised by Robert Graves; Totila and Teias, two Gothic kings, one as bold and bright as the sun and the other as black as night; and Cethegus, the Prefect of Rome and the last of the Romans, whose cold and calculating nature runs through the book like a steel thread, who will stop at nothing to regain the ancient city, and who, in the end, fails and redeems his many crimes with a hero's death. Firmly based on historical fact and contemporary sources.Excerpt:He makes our sympathetic interest center especially round the Goths, this most gifted of all the Germanic peoples, in regard to whom Hodgkin says in his Italy and her Invaders, The preservation of the Gothic kingdom would have helped forward the civilization of Europe by five centuries, and would perhaps have contributed something towards the softening and en nobling of human life even at the present day.Their short glory in Italy and their tragic fate Dahn has made the life-pulse of his powerful novel.In selecting episodes for publication from this work, care has been taken to leave out as little as possible of that part of the novel which treats of the tragedy, the life and customs of the Goths.
language: English
title: A Struggle for Rome
titlecomplete: A Struggle for Rome
genres: Fiction, Historical, Drama, German Literature, Classics, Historical Fiction
ratings_count: 137
publisher: Athena Press