“Dominus” is the concluding volume of Steven Saylor’s sprawling Roman history that began with Roma and continued with Empire. Here, we follow the fortunes of the Pinarii clan, now largely known as builders and sculptors, during the period of AD 165 and the reign of Marcus Aurelius to AD 325, when Constantine takes over the empire, converts to Christianity and begins his massive project to create a New Rome in what becomes Constantinople. Throughout this 160 year period, the Pinarii are once again close to power, able to observe the changes at first hand and comment on it all. As with the previous two novels, there is a lot of gore and cruelty depicted, but the overall effect is to come away with a fairly comprehensive knowledge of ancient history, more or less. I read all three books back-to-back and would perhaps caution other readers against doing so, simply because after a while the constant plagues, fires, assassinations and invasions all become rather repetitive - but then, that’s history for you! Recommended. ( )

I knew this would be a great book and I read slowly to savor it. I loved it. Not knowing much about Roman history, Dominus gave me the basics on the last 150 years of the empire. I knew there were alot of minor emperors toward the end of Rome's primacy but was not aware of how many there were. There were dozens of emperors who were in power only a few weeks or months. Constantine is the last emperor featured. I thought it was interesting how he moved toward Christianity. I had always thought that Constantine accepted this faith tradition quickly but Dominus shows that Constantine had a gradual acceptance of it and that it was made because Constantine could see the political advantages of accepting Christianity. Dominus paints a different picture of how early Christians were perceived by non-Christians. I guess if you are raised to believe that multiple gods are necessary to achieve success, believing that god is just one person was a large stretch for them to make. Another interesting fact is how the arguments among the Christians over doctrinal matters were perceived by the Romans. Infighting was seen as a weakness of the religion. Conversely, there were no fights over the peculiarities of the Roman gods. I don't understand why the Romans did not see that the emperors' worship of the gods forced them to worship the gods likewise. They just followed what the emperors' were doing.

I was surprised by the level of insanity displayed by the emperors. We read about their need for monuments of themselves. What struck me was that they needed to destroy the monuments of their predecessors. Why? No one cared about earlier emperors, only the current one. Most of them loved violence and thought too highly of themselves, believing that because they were emperor that they were more skilled at fighting than gladiators. Another unusual aspect to these emperors was the need to deify their deceased children. The Senate was responsible for voting on their deification, which they did only to protect themselves from a raging emperor. This all seems like craziness to my modern way of thinking.

After finishing the book I googled the Pinarius family. I discovered that this was a historical family with 1,000 years of recorded history. Since the novel ends with Constantine requesting that the family move with him to Constantinople, I wonder what happened to them while living there. Surely there must be a record of them there but I did not find any.

Dominus is a fantastic novel. It would be nice if there was another book in this series but I understand that it is a trilogy and one that ends with Dominus. ( )

Very engrossing family history of seven generations of a Roman family from Marcus Aurelius through
Constantine. This senatorial family runs a workshop of artisans involved in building monuments, sculpture, architecture of all kinds. I lived Roman history through their eyes. Sometimes there were "info-dumps", perhaps interesting to those not knowing much about that history. We met the emperors and their personalities. Constantine came across as a cruel person. I got insight into some of the lesser-known emperors, such as Philip the Arab or the Gordians, for example.

Very highly recommended. ( )

Another great read by Saylor. While I agree with the reviewers who note the Pinarii family characters all seem like the same person, I still found this book a great read. That’s because the main character in this book is not any of the family members, but Rome itself. Saylor aptly traces the change from the zenith of the empire under Hadrian and the “5 good emperors”, through the crisis of the 3rd century and the emergence of Christian Rome. Saylor brings that change to life in a compelling fashion, and makes you understand all that was lost (and the very little that was gained) by this transition. The ending was a real kicker and I checked to see if the newspaper article was real - it is! He even has a setup for the next novel should he so choose. Would love to see his take on Julian. This is a good opportunity to recommend Gore Vidal’s historical novel about that emperor.

Three more comments:
1. All of Saylor’s books have some over the top camp, which makes them a lot of fun. This book was his most restrained in that area and maybe that’s why some readers felt it a bit too tame.
2. He had a real bone to pick with Constantine “the great” and perhaps he over did it (just a bit) in his portrayal of him as a ruthless asshole.
3. the historical coincidences in this book really strained the limits of the genre, but hey, not that much more than Saylor usually does, ( )

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Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Steven Saylor is the third book in the Rome series. Mr. Saylor is a bestselling author and an expert on Roman history.

Rome has found itself with two emperors – Marcus Aurelius and Lucius, his brother. Marcus, a philosopher, rules the city while Lucius does the fighting and ruling the vast empire.

Ruling such a big country is difficult, certainly when a plague kills many in the city. Many charlatans and false prophets try to take advantage of the situation altogether, including ones from a new sect called Christians.

As Marcus Aurelius passes away, his successor Commodus is given the title of Augustus. Not interested in wars, Commodus wants to enjoy the peace, chariot races as well as gladiator fights. Additionally, Commodus builds an amphitheater, making himself popular with low-born Romans.

The scope of Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Steven Saylor is undoubtedly huge, spanning 160 very busy years. The novel includes many emperors, as well as other important personas during that time, the author wisely chose to concentrate on just a few.

I certainly enjoyed the historical aspect of the novel, changes to the empire in attitude, philosophy, and religion. The Romans viewed Christianity with an especially fearful eye at first, and being tolerable afterwards. As we all know, the religion was embraced by the emperor and the world has changed since then.

The narrative was a bit disjointed. Jumping from one subject to another, from one leader to another. There abrupt transitions brought me out of the story and I sometimes has to read back to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

By all means, spanning this much time is an ambitious project. I read and seen many history books which are twice the size, however only addressing a fraction of that timeline.

As with other novels I read by Mr. Saylor, the depictions of daily life are vivid and interesting. There is obviously a lot of research involved, and the author certainly knows enough to make conjunctures if needed. For me, this was the highlight of the book.

Getting a feel to what the Roman Empire was like, with great details is the strength of Mr. Saylor’s books. Brining historical figures, and others, to life as humans and not caricatures is a wonderful trait of historical fiction novels, and this one is no exception. ( )