Roma Eterna (Gollancz Sf S.)
by Robert Silverberg
Category: Imperialism

The Roman Empire never fell. Driven by political ambition and internal dissent, thrown into turmoil by rebellion and civil war, it changed and adapted, but it never fell. The balance of power between Byzantium in the east and Rome in the west ebbed and flowed, but the Empire never fell. And it continued to expand, taking in the New World, while still dominating the old. This ambitious and accomplished novel explores fifteen hundred years of alternate Roman history through the very human stories of some of those who lived through it: the soldier encountering the exoticism of the New World for the first time; the minor official exiled to Arabia for some misdemeanour whose meeting with a religious fanatic may have changed the course of history; the military hero seizing his destiny; the innocent British aristocrat witnessing the destruction of the royal family; the children who find the last emperor in a decaying wood are all vividly and memorably portrayed. Roma Eterna takes it's place among the great alternate histories.