With extraordinary narrative power, New York Times bestselling author
Colleen McCullough sweeps the reader into a whirlpool of pageantry and
passion, bringing to vivid life the most glorious epoch in human
history.
When the world cowered before the legions of Rome, two extraordinary men
dreamed of personal glory: the military genius and wealthy rural
"upstart" Marius, and Sulla, penniless and debauched but of aristocratic
birth. Men of exceptional vision, courage, cunning, and ruthless
ambition, separately they faced the insurmountable opposition of
powerful, vindictive foes. Yet allied they could answer the treachery of
rivals, lovers, enemy generals, and senatorial vipers with intricate and
merciless machinations of their own--to achieve in the end a bloody and
splendid foretold destiny . . . and win the most coveted honor the
Republic could bestow.