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The Last Roman Trilogy #3
Triumph
Sixth century Byzantium. The Emperor Justinian is determined to reunite the whole of the Roman Empire and his best general, Flavius Belisarius, is poised to invade Italy. Flavius and his men march north unopposed until the local senators of Naples refuse to surrender and a bloody assault ensues. Rome, hearing of the fate of Naples, yields the city to Flavius, but before long the Goths arrive and stage a brutal attack which Flavius’s army only just survives.
Besieged and mired in a cesspit of corruption, Byzantium's greatest general must navigate a world rife with deceit and brutality where only the most cut-throat survive.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 20, 2015
4 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Jack Ludlow
18 books61 followersJACK LUDLOW is the pen name of writer David Donachie, who was born in Edinburgh in 1944. He has had a variety of jobs, including selling everything from business machines to soap. He has always had an abiding interest in the naval history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which he drew upon for the many novels he has set in that period. The author of a number of bestselling books, he now lives in Deal with his wife, fellow A&B author Sarah Grazebrook.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 23, 2019
3.5 out of 5. Somewhat dryly told last part of Belisarius' life from his Italian campaigns and his Persian campaign and sad end of his life. His wife, Antonina, and the Empress Theodora, thwart him at every turn and influence Justinian against him. [They are two peas in a pod.] His triumph is not that he won a great victory in battle, but that he held to his principles in spite of obstacles, even turning down temptations to become King of the Goths and even taking the diadem of the former Western Roman Empire.. Sometimes the book read more like a nonfiction history rather than a novel.
May 21, 2016
The final chapters of Flavius Belisarius' life are the focus of Jack Ludlow's third and final installment in his series "The Last Roman" subtitled "Triumph". In the second book, "The Last Roman: Honour", Flavius fights a vicious battle on two fronts as he struggles to retake the Italian peninsula for his emperor, Justinian I, while the empress Theodora, consumed with jealousy and paranoia, tries to thwart his success, both clandestinely and overtly. Flavius, undermanned, poorly supplied and saddled with ambitious disloyal subordinates, ends up having to resort to subterfuge to capture the Goth capital of Ravenna. He receives an offer of the crown of the Western Roman Empire and allows the Goths to believe he is willing to accept it to obtain their surrender. But this ruse does not go unnoticed by the treacherous Theodora and, although Flavius publicly refuses the crown that would have made him equal in rank to Justinian, he is abruptly recalled to the imperial court in Constantinople to explain himself.
As book three opens, Flavius returns to Constantinople with the Goth treasure for the imperial coffers. But, the imperial sycophants, fearful of the ruthless Theodora, whisper of his imminent downfall as his requests for an audience are ignored day after day.
"Not even the government officials could approach the Empress without expending much time and effort. They were treated like servants and kept waiting in a small, stuffy room for an endless time. After many days, some of them might at last be summoned, but going into her presence in great fear, they very quickly departed. They simply showed their respect by laying face down and touching the instep of each of her feet with their lips; there was no opportunity to speak or to make any request unless she told them to do so. The government officials had sunk into a slavish condition, and she was their slave-instructor." - Procopius, Anecdota
In the streets of Constantinople, however, Flavius is openly revered and can walk among the people without a single bodyguard. This infuriates the empress Theodora even more, since she remembers how she and Justinian nearly met a grisly fate at the hands of the mob during the Nika riots early in Justinian's reign.
Finally, Flavius is confronted by a publicly hostile Justinian. But after what appears to be a great show of imperial displeasure, Flavius is asked to attend Justinian in his private chambers. There, Justinian's royal posturing dissolves into nervous pacing as Flavius is briefed on serious Sassanid incursions that are eating away at the eastern frontier. Flavius realizes Justinian, who refuses to publicly cross his vicious empress, was putting on a show for her benefit, but actually needs Flavius' help and has not forgotten their friendship.
As we saw in book two, Justinian, like many of his predecessors, maintained the empire's long standing policy of averting outright war with the Sassanids by the payment of subsidies.
The Sassanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I in 224 CE, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. Just six years later, Ardashir's son, Shapur I begins a centuries-long cycle of Persian incursions and Roman retaliation when he raids deep into Roman territory in 230 CE. Territory ebbs and flows between the two superpowers until Shapur finally engineers a highly advantageous peace treaty with the Roman emperor Philip the Arab in 244 CE, securing the immediate payment of 500,000 denarii and further annual payments.
The Sassanid king comes to rely upon these subsidies to pay Persian nobles to ensure their loyalty and keep him in power. This arrangement does not last, however, when Shapur's forces, attempting to exploit past successes, advance into Asia Minor in 260 CE and suffer a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Romans led by Marcus Claudius Ballista and their Palmyrene ally Odaenathus. (For an exciting series about this period, check out Harry Sidebottom's "Warrior of Rome" series of novels beginning with "Fire In the East".)
But maintaining troops is expensive and eventually Rome again resorts to paying subsidies sporadically to avoid the monumental cost of engaging in a full scale war with the Sassanids. This continues for the next 270 years. During that time, frontier skirmishes are used as a way for Sassanid kings to periodically extort more Roman gold whenever Persian nobles once more become contentious.
During one of these restless periods, a very young Flavius Belisarius faces the armies of Kavadh I, defeating them at the famous battle of Dara in 530 CE (detailed in book two). But ten years have passed now, and as they say, glory is fleeting. Justinian now expects Flavius to face the forces of Kavadh's son Khosrau I, but without adequate supplies, money or Flavius' fiercely loyal bucellarii, his personally trained armored cavalry.
Meanwhile, Theodora, not to be outwitted, sends Flavius' duplicitous wife, Antonina, Theodora's creature, east as well to keep tabs on Flavius. Then the so-called Justinian's plague sweeps the empire. Among the victims is the emperor himself so the troops turn to Rome's most respected general for leadership.
Ludlow's taut narrative keeps the reader immersed in the unending court intrigues and the military challenges Flavius faces as he doggedly attempts to remain loyal to an emperor that has allowed court politics to blind his once formidable administrative acumen. Knowing that Theodora died of breast cancer at the relatively young age of 48, twenty years before Flavius and Justinian, I hoped that Flavius could at last put aside his loveless marriage originally engineered by Theodora, and enjoy at least some modicum of peace. But, like toxic waste, Theodora's legacy of suspicion and paranoia lingers between Justinian and Flavius, a fate I felt Flavius did not deserve. At least Justinian did not blind Flavius, as a popular medieval legend maintains, although the emperor periodically seizes Flavius' estates and allows him to be prosecuted on trumped up charges of corruption.
I realized as I finished this novel that the title did not refer to a military triumph, as I had originally assumed, but to Flavius Belisarius' triumph of maintaining his honor despite numerous imperial and personal betrayals throughout his tumultuous life. For this seemingly impossible achievement alone, I felt the Belisarius of Ludlow's novel truly earned his moniker as "The Last Roman."
As book three opens, Flavius returns to Constantinople with the Goth treasure for the imperial coffers. But, the imperial sycophants, fearful of the ruthless Theodora, whisper of his imminent downfall as his requests for an audience are ignored day after day.
"Not even the government officials could approach the Empress without expending much time and effort. They were treated like servants and kept waiting in a small, stuffy room for an endless time. After many days, some of them might at last be summoned, but going into her presence in great fear, they very quickly departed. They simply showed their respect by laying face down and touching the instep of each of her feet with their lips; there was no opportunity to speak or to make any request unless she told them to do so. The government officials had sunk into a slavish condition, and she was their slave-instructor." - Procopius, Anecdota
In the streets of Constantinople, however, Flavius is openly revered and can walk among the people without a single bodyguard. This infuriates the empress Theodora even more, since she remembers how she and Justinian nearly met a grisly fate at the hands of the mob during the Nika riots early in Justinian's reign.
Finally, Flavius is confronted by a publicly hostile Justinian. But after what appears to be a great show of imperial displeasure, Flavius is asked to attend Justinian in his private chambers. There, Justinian's royal posturing dissolves into nervous pacing as Flavius is briefed on serious Sassanid incursions that are eating away at the eastern frontier. Flavius realizes Justinian, who refuses to publicly cross his vicious empress, was putting on a show for her benefit, but actually needs Flavius' help and has not forgotten their friendship.
As we saw in book two, Justinian, like many of his predecessors, maintained the empire's long standing policy of averting outright war with the Sassanids by the payment of subsidies.
The Sassanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I in 224 CE, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. Just six years later, Ardashir's son, Shapur I begins a centuries-long cycle of Persian incursions and Roman retaliation when he raids deep into Roman territory in 230 CE. Territory ebbs and flows between the two superpowers until Shapur finally engineers a highly advantageous peace treaty with the Roman emperor Philip the Arab in 244 CE, securing the immediate payment of 500,000 denarii and further annual payments.
The Sassanid king comes to rely upon these subsidies to pay Persian nobles to ensure their loyalty and keep him in power. This arrangement does not last, however, when Shapur's forces, attempting to exploit past successes, advance into Asia Minor in 260 CE and suffer a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Romans led by Marcus Claudius Ballista and their Palmyrene ally Odaenathus. (For an exciting series about this period, check out Harry Sidebottom's "Warrior of Rome" series of novels beginning with "Fire In the East".)
But maintaining troops is expensive and eventually Rome again resorts to paying subsidies sporadically to avoid the monumental cost of engaging in a full scale war with the Sassanids. This continues for the next 270 years. During that time, frontier skirmishes are used as a way for Sassanid kings to periodically extort more Roman gold whenever Persian nobles once more become contentious.
During one of these restless periods, a very young Flavius Belisarius faces the armies of Kavadh I, defeating them at the famous battle of Dara in 530 CE (detailed in book two). But ten years have passed now, and as they say, glory is fleeting. Justinian now expects Flavius to face the forces of Kavadh's son Khosrau I, but without adequate supplies, money or Flavius' fiercely loyal bucellarii, his personally trained armored cavalry.
Meanwhile, Theodora, not to be outwitted, sends Flavius' duplicitous wife, Antonina, Theodora's creature, east as well to keep tabs on Flavius. Then the so-called Justinian's plague sweeps the empire. Among the victims is the emperor himself so the troops turn to Rome's most respected general for leadership.
Ludlow's taut narrative keeps the reader immersed in the unending court intrigues and the military challenges Flavius faces as he doggedly attempts to remain loyal to an emperor that has allowed court politics to blind his once formidable administrative acumen. Knowing that Theodora died of breast cancer at the relatively young age of 48, twenty years before Flavius and Justinian, I hoped that Flavius could at last put aside his loveless marriage originally engineered by Theodora, and enjoy at least some modicum of peace. But, like toxic waste, Theodora's legacy of suspicion and paranoia lingers between Justinian and Flavius, a fate I felt Flavius did not deserve. At least Justinian did not blind Flavius, as a popular medieval legend maintains, although the emperor periodically seizes Flavius' estates and allows him to be prosecuted on trumped up charges of corruption.
I realized as I finished this novel that the title did not refer to a military triumph, as I had originally assumed, but to Flavius Belisarius' triumph of maintaining his honor despite numerous imperial and personal betrayals throughout his tumultuous life. For this seemingly impossible achievement alone, I felt the Belisarius of Ludlow's novel truly earned his moniker as "The Last Roman."
September 27, 2023
The Last Roman is Belisarius in this last of a trilogy which starts with his attempted reconquest of Italy from the Goths in 536AD, moving to the eastern frontier and finishing with continuing machinations in Constantinople as fickle Emperor Justinian and his scheming wife, Theodora, make life difficult for the impossibly noble Belisarius.
The history is interesting and the settings, sieges, battles and set pieces are all well-described, but the author isn’t as good at dialogue nor at subtleties of character. Involving but …
The history is interesting and the settings, sieges, battles and set pieces are all well-described, but the author isn’t as good at dialogue nor at subtleties of character. Involving but …
December 13, 2020
It starts well , and looks to become the best of the three , but it bogs down into politics of the time , fine if you are interested in that , but read a history book of the era if you want more information
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews