post-Julio-Claudian ancient Roman Empire

Please can someone recommend novels set in post-Julio-Claudian ancient Roman Empire? The novels can be in either English or German. Thank you.
Jane

If you’re including Byzantium, how about Count Belisarius by Robert Graves?

There used to be a pretty comprehensive database ("Fictional Rome") that was sortable by era. Unfortunately it seems to have disappeared and the parts that can be accessed through archive.org don't include the period information.

You could look here for ideas: http://www.hist-rom.de/
It includes some English titles as well as German, and some very old titles, and doesn't seem to have been updated for several years.

There's also generally a fair amount of information about recent German-language historical fiction at Histocouch, though they only have a general category for "Antike": https://www.histo-couch.de/epochen/14-antike/

I tend to be more interested in Greece than Rome, so I can't make any specific recommendations. The last relevant title I read was a truly terrible piece of writing set around the time of the eruption of Pompeii (translated from French -- I can't remember the title offhand, but I definitely do not recommend it).

Ruth Downie has a series, beginning with Medicus set during Hadrian’s reign.
Lindsey Davis’ Falco series is set under Vespasian and Domitian. the silver pigs is the first in the series. Her Flavia Alba series follows, still under Domitian.
All are mysteries in the broad sense with leading character as investigator.

A God strolling in the cool of the evening by Mario de Carvalho. It's been translated into English, don't know about German.

>5 Crypto-Willobie: "Other language titles
English : A God Strolling in the Cool of the Evening
German : Die Verschwörung des Rufus Cardilius
Portuguese : Um deus passeando pela brisa da tarde
Spanish : Un dios pasea en la brisa de la tarde

>6 MarthaJeanne: Thanks, MarthaJeanne

>4 Helenoel: Thanks. I've read all of them and it's one of my favorite series.

>6 MarthaJeanne: Thank you. I've read and reread God strolling ... but I'll check out Verschwörung...
It looks like the last two titles are translations of #1. Well, the Portuguese is the original?

>2 thorold: I have read this one, thank you anyway.

>9 janerawoof: If you've read the English is there any point in reading the same thing in German?

Searching tags here on LT, I found Robert Fabbri's Vespasian series about, y'know, Vespasian. The tagmash of Vespasian + fiction brings up other authors, too.

(I

If you might consider a series that takes place during the first century BC, The Steven Saylor series featuring Gordianus the Finder was a great series whose characters included Cicero, Pompey, and Marc Antony among others. Gordianus is among my favorite protagonists.

>11 MarthaJeanne: No, not really unless you want to see how it has been done.

I suppose you've already read Julian by Gore Vidal?

And perhaps Rosemary Sutcliff's Eagle of the Ninth series? These take place in the Roman province of Britannia roughly between 200 and 800 CE. Many, though not all, of the characters are Roman military or colonists or descended from them. A lot of Sutcliff's books are 'officially' categorized as children's or young adult novels but it's one of those cases of appealing to 'children of all ages'. The characterization and writing style are worthy of adult fiction.

>16 Crypto-Willobie: I would second that recommendation.

Memoirs of Hadrian by Yourcenar? Originally french, translated into english for penguin. Or maybe Graves books I, Claudius and Claudius the God.
Also Gillian Bradshaw wrote several late Rome historic novels. She might be worth checking out.

For a very unconventional take on third-century Roman Britain, you could try Bernardine Evaristo's novel-in-verse Emperor's Babe.

I enjoyed it a great deal, but you should be forewarned that the writing deliberately doesn't have a historical feel -- the author makes liberal use of contemporary colloquialisms and references and even anachronisms as part of her approach of reading history against the grain.

>1 janerawoof: "Julian: A Novel" by Gore Vidal

>13 mamzel: I read the Gordianus the Finder series long, long ago, but thank you.

Actual 1st-2nd century literature can't be beat.

The Satyricon by Petronius (c. 27-66 AD)
The Golden Ass by Apuleius (c. 124-170)

And this modern one is very interesting.

Julian the Apostate aka "The Death of the Gods" by Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1895, tr. Herbert Trench 1901).

>17 -pilgrim-: And me. I have just finished re-reading the Eagle of the Ninth series for the first time since I was a teenager, and I enjoyed them even more as an adult, especially The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers, which have an elegaic quality about them as the power of Rome gradually ebbs away from Britain.

>11 MarthaJeanne: Only if you want to practice reading German.
Original language is Portuguese, I believe.

Raptor provides an Ostrogoth perspective on the fall of the Western Empire.

If you're looking for a recent book you might want to try The Navigating Fox.