An excellent novel but not the usual "Roman era" Massie. I read and greatly enjoyed his classical trilogy (Caesar, Augustus and Tiberius) and I enjoyed this one maybe even more because it is different; more cynical and personal, less about the grand sweep of history and the deeds of famous men, it almost reads like one of Tom Holt superb historical novels, though it's shorter, focusing on 69 AD the famous Year of the 4 Emperors, but with reminiscences both to earlier times and a bit about the future and the Flavians.The narrator, a noble of very high (official) lineage - though in reality only through his mother since his true father is rumored to have been a powerful freedman who was a sort of Prime Minister under Claudius not his presumed noble one - a former boyhood lover of Titus, sort-of-friend of Domitian since they were roughly of the same age and lover of Titus and Domitian' sister Domitilla to boot - now in late middle age in exile on the Euxine (exiled by Domitian after a glorious military career for adultery with his sister) and weighing if to return to Rome after the tyrant's death, recounts to Tacitus the happenings in 69 and much more.A short but packed novel and highly recommended especially if you like the darker, less heroic kind of history
