The Proudfoot Review - Because Opinions Matter...

Look past the cover showing the eponymous princess Selene looking more icily Scandinavian than spicily half-Greek/half-Roman and you will find a very readable historical novel with many interesting and well-researched insights into Rome at the time of the ascendency of Octavian.

The situation is set up in the opening chapters with Octavian's army descending on Egypt and with the 11-year-old Selene and her twin brother Alexander (the last of the Ptolemies, descended from Alexander the Great) awaiting their fate. Their father, Marc Antony, appears in advance of the invaders, asks for a cup of wine, then runs himself through with a sword. Cleopatra waits around long enough to see that she can seduce neither Agrippa nor Octavian, then clasps the famous adder to her breast: the kids are at Octavian's mercy.

When they are taken to Rome, the real business of the novel opens up. Selene is still a girl and looks at the primitive excesses of Rome with the righteous eyes of her Egyptian cultural perspective. Seven leopards are released in the amphitheatre to fight with gladiators and Alexander is astonished ". they are sacred in Egypt. We don't kill them for meat, and certainly not for entertainment."

The danger of life in Rome is well exposed through the constant slave unrest. As part of their ludus, the children must attend a trial at which all 200 of one domine's slaves are to be executed in reprisal for his murder. And skating across her moral disapprobrium is Selene's awareness that she is a beautiful and well-educated young woman of much value as a future bride to some senator.

A 16-year-old Ovid recites poetry in the Odeum. Livy and Vergil make appearances. A teenage Tiberius sniffs disapprovingly at everything around him, 40 or so years before he becomes Octavian's unlikely successor. The fractious relationship between Octavian's wife Livia and sister Octavia is beautifully exploited. Roman birthing practices, the rights of fathers and the fate of foundlings all receive vigorous treatment.

And the plot? Who is the mysterious Red Eagle, a Scarlet Pimpernel type who bobs up through the novel as a champion of slave rights? What will happen to Selene when she turns the marriageable age of 15? And will an adult Alexander be too much of a threat to Rome to be allowed to live? All is revealed in the exciting last chapter.

Reviewed by R Horne