History Literature / MastersOfRome

** Sheltered idealistic LonelyRichKid and bookworm Livia Drusa endures a ForcedMarriage to the increasingly nasty Servilius Caepio thanks to her misguided brother. Marcus eventually comes around, but Livia Drusa's already been broken multiple times by then.

* BreakTheCutie: While not technically a cutie, Sulla was always noted as being extremely handsome... until he gained and lost two hundred pounds, lost all of his teeth, his hair fell out and his face almost got sunburned off. All in about three months. (It's implied that he was suffering from diabetes.)

* FriendToAllChildren:
** Octavia sincerely professes to be one, and is wondered at for such a FishOutOfWater attitude.
** Earlier Caesar instantly compares her to his aunt Julia, who is probably the only other person in the series to show indiscriminate kindness, especially to people who aren't adults.

* MeaningfulRename: Octavian ''insists'' on being called Caesar to tie his rising political career of his revered great-uncle once he's adopted by him posthumously. When he becomes the sole ruler of the Roman world following Mark Antonty's defeat, he briefly considered taking on the name "Romulus" but his wife, Livia, and his advisers talked him down to taking the name "Augustus".

* OedipusComplex: Part of Servilia's TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior involves her idolization of her father Caepio and contempt for her mother Livia.
-->'''Servilia:''' ''Tata'', if you won't kill her, leave her here! She's not good enough for you! She doesn't deserve you! Who is she, after all? Only a plebeian--not patrician like you and me! If you leave her here, I'll look after you, I promise!

* TheGreatestHistoryNeverTold: Partially averted. The series covers the familiar era of Caesar and Octavian, but the first three books cover things like the Cimbri invasion and Italian War that are very rarely depicted anywhere else.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters

* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Due to LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters and [[{{Doorstopper}} Loads And Loads Of Pages]] all the books have multiple interweaving storylines.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Rhiannon is murdered to get back at Caesar.

* NotSoDifferent: Sulla and Caesar's similarities are frequently pointed out. Both are patricians, both have good looks and cold blue eyes, both of them become dictators illegally. The main difference between them is that Caesar is much less ruthless than Sulla, that Sulla belongs to the ''optimate'' (conservative) faction while Caesar belongs to the ''populares'', and that Sulla eventually resigns the office of dictator, while Caesar continues to hold it until he is killed. Sulla himself comes to see Caesar as a younger, less damaged version of himself.
** Cato lacks Caesar's sheer brilliance or charm and is on the opposite side politically, but in many ways the two are very similar: very handsome men with a minor flaw offsetting their beauty and making them look more masculine (Caesar's receding hair line and Cato's huge nose), both are brave, physically impressive soldiers and both are comparatively poor but become the leaders of their factions via sheer force of personality.

* MeaningfulRename: Octavian ''insists'' on being called Caesar to tie his rising political career of his revered great-uncle once he's adopted by him posthumously.

* HistoricalFiction

* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: The prophecies concerning the greatness of Marius and later Sulla prove to be true; both become the leading soldier/statesman of their day.

** When given her choice of suitors Aurelia Cotta is appalled, it's ''un-Roman''!

* NobodyOver50IsGay: Averted by Sulla, who is sexually active with his male lover Metrobius until his death at the age of 60, as well as by the even older King Nicomedes.

* EvilAlbino: Sulla has very, very pale skin and very pale eyes.

Set in AncientRome (between 110 BC and 27 BC) this epic seven book series covers the fall of the Roman Republic and ends with the rise of Octavian (later known as [[UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} Caesar Augustus]]). Noted for their intricate research of Roman life and [=McCullough=]'s use of DeliberateValuesDissonance with even clearly sympathetic characters. Also sex, quite a lot of it.

* PurpleEyes: Aurelia's remarkable eyes are quite a plot point.

While there are hundreds if not thousands of named characters in these books, broadly speaking several major if unrelated story arcs stand out. The first two books are dominated by the friendship and later rivalry between the brilliant general [[SelfMadeMan Gaius Marius]] and the icy but cunning aristocrat [[ImpoverishedPatrician Lucius Cornelius Sulla]] while most of the later works focus on the careers and lives of UsefulNotes/PompeyTheGreat, UsefulNotes/MarcusLiciniusCrassus, Creator/{{Cicero}}, Cato, UsefulNotes/MarcusJuniusBrutus, [[UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} Octavian]], UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII, Mark Antony and above all UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar whose pivotal life makes him the central character of the whole story.

* FieryRedhead: Caesar's Gallic mistress Rhiannon. Porcia Cato. And subverted by Caesar's actual wife, Pompeia Sulla, who is a redhead in hair colour but a DumbBlonde in personality.

* DyingAlone: Young Caepio despite the desperate efforts of his brother Cato, who is too late by only an hour.