Attis

by Tom Holland

A beautiful aristocrat's lakeside ball; a faceless corpse found floating in the Tiber; a ghost from Rome's legendary past haunting her streets...

For the poet Catullus, newly arrived in Rome, these strange and seemingly random events are the foretaste of a danger more mysterious still.

As he is drawn into the world of Rome's hidden pleasures, as past and future coalesce, so he finds himself trapped by the intrigues of a corrupt and collapsing State. The more Catullus tries to escape the taint of the plots enveloping him, the more they come to touch all he holds dear: poetry, friendship - even love. And yet it is through his passion for Lesbia, the enigmatic Lady Clodia, that Catullus is led at last to a resolution of the mysteries that have pursued him since his arrival - and to an understanding of the darkness at the heart of Rome's history.

This witty and gripping novel, at once love story, thriller and political parable, confirms Tom Holland as one of the most innovative and brilliant of our new young writers, one whose voice will become synonymous with the literature of our time.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Classics, Dark Academia, Historical, Adult

413 pages, Paperback

Published October 30, 1995

About the author

Tom Holland is an English historian and author. He has written many books, both fiction and non-fiction, on many subjects from vampires to history.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Holland was born near Oxford and brought up in the village of Broadchalke near Salisbury, England. He obtained a double first in English and Latin at Queens' College, Cambridge, and afterwards studied shortly for a PhD at Oxford, taking Lord Byron as his subject, before interrupting the post graduate studies and moving to London.

He has adapted Herodotus, Homer, Thucydides and Virgil for BBC Radio 4. His novels, including Attis and Deliver Us From Evil, mostly have a supernatural and horror element as well as being set in the past. He is also the author of three highly praised works of history, Rubicon, Persian Fire and Millennium.

He is on the committee of the Society of Authors and the Classical Association.

Reviews

[Emma Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

The events of the Pro Caelio but Catullus is the main character and it’s (sort of) in the modern day and there are clowns. And it’s weirdly good? Tom Holland is a classicist and you can tell.

Check content warnings for this one. And prepare for a narrative full of rabbit holes and eddies and diversions. And also for dialogue like:

”Have you really no place in your soul for the teachings of the golden-limbed Plato?”

Catullus shrugged again. “Do you know? Sometimes, in the middle of the night” – he glanced at his watch – “at about, say, two forty-five, I wake up, and I lie there, and I say ‘Fuck the golden-limbed Plato.’ And then I go straight back to sleep. It never fails.”

The entire book is like this. And it is great.

[grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have...no words for this book. it's so bizarre. it's weirdly good. i still don't know what happened in it

[Clodia Metelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve just finished reading Attis, by Tom Holland and I’m rather impressed and a little enchanted. Attis is an intriguing and masterly blend of historical and fantasy fiction in which the Late Roman Republic of Catullus is transformed into a nebulously modern-day city, in which Pompey as President and Clodius as aristocrat turned union leader are facing each other in a conflict which is endangering the stability of Rome. Actual familiar events of the period as well as familiar lines from the poet himself are skilfully transformed and interwoven into a context involving grotesque murders, strange deities and a background of military intervention in Circassia. At the heart of the story lies Catullus’ frustrated, burning love for Clodia, which gets the young archaeology graduate, just arrived in Rome into affairs of high politics and low skulduggery. The strange modern-day Rome is beautifully realised, but as a sort of dream-city of no time rather than made convincing as a concrete reality. The plot is somewhat convoluted and, at times, distinctly Kafkaesque and I was left with a feeling that much was still unexplained but also that a pervading air of mystery was part of the plan and very much part of the aesthetic. A strange and compelling work of fiction.

[freddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i’ve said it before and i will again: all catullus knows is be bisexual get drunk and make unwise political decisions

[Judiejodia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What the hell did I just read (affectionate)

[rachel selene · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was one of the weirdest books i've ever read and i didn't exactly enjoy it, but it kind of works and i enjoyed it a lot?? it's like the pro caelio except translated to a psuedo-modern day rome and catullus is the protagonist and there's a spooky murder mystery going on. it's quite grimy and dark and depressing and i think you have to have some measure of knowledge about roman history/figures to catch all of the nuances, but there were a lot of things i loved about this: the integration of catullus's poetry into speech & plot, caelius being cicero's nephew, the parties (all of them), and especially the translation of catullus and clodia's relationship, which felt just as layered and complex and ultimately as toxic as his poems make us believe (odi et amo, etc). the circassian genocide being woven throughout and especially during That Scene near the end also felt very timely to 2024. i wish there had been more cicero because i am me, but what else can i say. fully understand why this book has developed a cult following in roman republic fandom (an incredible string of words to put together) and i don't think i'll be able to forget it.

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading this book was an absolutely surreal experience

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an incredible hot mess

[Rocio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure I hallucinated this book. What the fuck

[Benjamin Thrussell · Rating 4 out of 5]

What just happened...I'm so confused. That was kind of beautiful. Help