Colleen McCullough spent seventeen years and seven novels recreating the fall of the Roman Republic in one of the most ambitious works of historical fiction ever written. The Masters of Rome series is enormous in every sense: in scope, in research, in page count, and in the sheer scale of its historical vision. It covers nearly a century of Roman history, from 110 BC to 27 BC, and follows the lives of the men who made and destroyed the Republic: Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and the young Octavian who would become Caesar Augustus.
This is not a series for casual readers looking for a light introduction to ancient Rome. McCullough was a trained neurophysiologist and researcher who brought the same rigour to Roman history that she brought to medicine. Each novel is long, dense, and meticulously sourced, with detailed glossaries, hand-drawn character illustrations, and maps. Readers who commit to the series consistently describe it as the most complete, most accurate, and most deeply satisfying portrait of the late Republic in fiction.
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Quick Series Facts
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Author | Colleen McCullough |
| Number of Books | 7 (complete) |
| First Book | The First Man in Rome (1990) |
| Final Book | Antony and Cleopatra (2007) |
| Setting | Rome and the Mediterranean world, 110 BC to 27 BC |
| Genre | Historical Fiction |
| Series Status | Complete |
Masters of Rome Books in Publication Order
Publication order and chronological order are identical for this series. Reading the books in order is essential: character relationships, political alliances, and historical context build across all seven novels.
1. The First Man in Rome (1990)
Setting: Rome and North Africa, 110 BC to 100 BC
Summary: The series opens in the waning years of the Roman Republic, with two men at the centre of everything: Gaius Marius, a brilliant military general of low birth determined to drag Rome out of crisis and claim her highest office, and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a penniless but exquisitely well-born young aristocrat with the cunning and ruthlessness to match his bloodline. Rome is threatened on two fronts: by the Numidian king Jugurtha in Africa, and by a terrifying invasion of Germanic tribes from the north. Marius and Sulla must navigate Senate treachery, class warfare, and brutal campaigns on multiple fronts as each pursues the title that gives the book its name: First Man in Rome.
McCullough takes a period that receives almost no coverage in popular fiction and makes it feel urgent and immediate. The book establishes her signature approach: relentless research, complex political intrigue, vivid characterisation, and an unflinching look at the contradictions of Roman society.
2. The Grass Crown (1991)
Setting: Rome, Asia Minor, and Italy, 100 BC to 83 BC
Summary: The friendship and rivalry between Marius and Sulla deepens into something far darker. Marius ages and grows increasingly erratic while clinging to political power; Sulla rises to extraordinary military glory, defeating the powerful King Mithridates of Pontus and securing the eastern frontier. Between them, Rome tears itself apart in the Social War, a brutal conflict in which Rome’s Italian allies fight for the citizenship they have long been denied. The title refers to the Grass Crown, the highest military honour Rome could bestow, awarded only by a saved army to its rescuer.
Many readers consider this the finest book in the series. The characterisation of both Marius and Sulla reaches its peak here, and the historical material (the Social War is rarely covered in popular fiction) is genuinely revelatory.
3. Fortune’s Favourites (1993)
Setting: Rome and the wider Mediterranean, 83 BC to 69 BC
Summary: Sulla returns to Rome with his army and seizes power as dictator. A young Julius Caesar comes of age in the chaos that follows. This is the transitional novel of the series: Marius is gone, Sulla is at the height, and then, at the end of his power, a new generation takes the stage. Pompey the Great rises to military glory. Marcus Licinius Crassus builds an empire of wealth. Spartacus leads a slave rebellion that shakes Rome to its foundations. And the young Caesar, already showing flashes of the genius to come, is kidnapped by pirates, escapes with characteristic audacity, and begins his long ascent.
Fortune’s Favourites is deliberately broader than its predecessors, introducing the crowded cast that will dominate the remaining four novels. Some readers find the shift in focus jarring; others appreciate the series widening its lens as Roman history widens its own scope.
4. Caesar’s Women (1995)
Setting: Rome, 68 BC to 58 BC
Summary: Julius Caesar takes centre stage. The title is literal: this novel focuses on the women in Caesar’s life and on how he used personal relationships as political weapons. His mother, Aurelia, his daughter, Julia, his wives, and his mistresses all play pivotal roles in a complex portrait of a man who was as brilliant in the bedroom as on the battlefield. The political backdrop is the formation of the First Triumvirate, the power-sharing arrangement between Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus that effectively ends the Republic’s already weakened balance of power.
McCullough’s characterisation of Caesar is one of her most distinctive achievements. She presents him not as the cold schemer of popular imagination but as a man of genuine warmth, extraordinary intelligence, and deep emotional complexity who nevertheless pursues power with absolute commitment.
5. Caesar (1997)
Setting: Gaul, Britain, and Rome, 54 BC to 48 BC
Summary: Caesar conquers Gaul in some of the most vivid military sequences in the series. The campaigns are brutal, the resistance is fierce (Vercingetorix emerges as one of the novel’s most compelling figures), and the political situation in Rome deteriorates dangerously while Caesar is away. His enemies, led by the rigid Cato and the vindictive Bibulus, scheme to strip him of his command and force him into exile. The novel culminates in one of the most famous moments in history: Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon, rendered here with complete psychological clarity. The die is cast.
This is the most action-driven novel in the series and arguably the most accessible entry point for new readers, though starting here means missing crucial context about the characters and their histories.
6. The October Horse (2002)
Setting: Egypt, Rome, and the wider Mediterranean, 48 BC to 42 BC
Summary: Caesar is at the height of his power, embroiled in Egypt’s civil war and the famous relationship with Cleopatra, while simultaneously fighting to reform a Rome exhausted by decades of civil conflict. The novel covers the full arc from Caesar’s involvement with Cleopatra to his assassination on the Ides of March, and then follows the chaotic aftermath: the rise of Octavian, the rivalry between Mark Antony and Brutus, and the Battle of Philippi, where the last remnants of the Republican cause are crushed.
McCullough originally planned to end the series here, feeling that the death of the Republic was complete with Philippi. The title refers to a Roman religious ceremony and carries powerful symbolism about sacrifice and succession. It is the longest and most politically dense novel in the series, covering an extraordinary number of historical events in exhaustive detail.
7. Antony and Cleopatra (2007)
Setting: Rome, Egypt, and the eastern Mediterranean, 41 BC to 27 BC
Summary: The final volume was added to the series a decade after The October Horse, following lobbying from fans and public figures, including the former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr. It covers the last act of the Roman Republic’s transformation into Empire: the power struggle between the cold, calculating Octavian and the passionate, reckless Mark Antony, whose relationship with Cleopatra becomes the defining story of the age. The novel ends on January 27 BC with Octavian receiving the title Augustus from the Senate, closing the series at the moment the Empire officially begins.
Some readers find this the weakest volume, feeling that the intimate character depth of the earlier books gives way to a broader, more summary-like approach. Others argue it provides essential closure to the series’ central question: how did the Republic die, and who was responsible?
Should You Read in Publication Order or Chronological Order?
For the Masters of Rome series, publication order and chronological order are the same. The seven novels follow Roman history in strict chronological order from 110 BC to 27 BC, with each book picking up where the last one left off. There is no reason to read them in any other sequence, and strong reasons not to: character development, political context, and relationships all depend on reading from the beginning.
Box Sets and Collected Editions
McCullough’s publisher issued a five-volume box set (Books 1-5) in both print and digital formats. Books 6 and 7 are available separately. The five-book digital bundle on Amazon is often the most cost-effective way to start the series.
Masters of Rome Box Set (Books 1-5) on Amazon
About the Masters of Rome Series
Series Overview
The Masters of Rome series chronicles the last century of the Roman Republic, a period McCullough considered the most dramatic and consequential in all of human history. The Republic had survived for four hundred years, governed by a complex system of elected magistrates, a powerful Senate, and an intricate balance of competing interests. By the time the series ends, all of that is gone, replaced by the one-man rule of Augustus.
McCullough’s central argument, woven through all seven novels, is that the Republic did not simply collapse under the weight of one man’s ambition. It was hollowed out from within, over decades, by the accumulated failures of men who preferred their own dignity to the good of Rome. Caesar is the most brilliant figure in the series and in many ways the most sympathetic, but McCullough does not present him as a hero. She presents him as the inevitable product of a system that had already broken.
The historical scope is breathtaking. The series covers the Jugurthine War, the Germanic invasions, the Social War, Sulla’s march on Rome, the slave rebellion of Spartacus, the campaigns of Lucullus against Mithridates, the rise of Pompey, the formation of the First Triumvirate, Caesar’s Gallic campaigns, the civil wars, the assassination, the Second Triumvirate, and the final struggle between Antony and Octavian. No other work of fiction comes close to covering this material with this level of detail.
What Makes This Series Exceptional
Research depth: McCullough spent years in Rome studying primary sources, walking the geography, and consulting classical scholars. Each novel comes with a comprehensive glossary explaining Roman terms, institutions, and customs. The accuracy has been praised by professional classicists.
Character complexity: The series refuses to flatten its figures into heroes and villains. Sulla is a monster by modern standards and also one of the most compelling characters in the series. Caesar is brilliant, warm, and ruthlessly willing to use everyone around him. Cicero is simultaneously admirable and contemptible. McCullough’s Rome is populated with people, not icons.
Political depth: Readers who engage seriously with the novels come away with a genuine understanding of how the Roman Republic worked: how magistrates were elected, how the Senate functioned, what the tribunes of the plebs were for, and why the struggle between optimates and populares mattered. This is not a series that uses history as window dressing.
The women: Despite a series named after male power, McCullough’s female characters are among its greatest achievements. Aurelia, Caesar’s mother, is one of the finest characterisations in the series. The women of Rome navigate a world of severe constraint with intelligence, resilience, and occasional ruthlessness that matches anything the men manage.
Who Should Read This Series
The Masters of Rome series is ideal for readers who want more than adventure from their historical fiction. If you care about how and why historical events happened, if you want to understand the political mechanics of a lost civilisation, and if you are willing to commit to long, demanding novels that reward patience, this series is almost without equal.
It is not recommended for readers who prefer fast-paced action over political complexity, who want a straightforward plot structure, or who are looking for a comfortable introduction to the ancient world. The books are long (most exceed 700 pages and several top 1,000), dense with Roman terminology, and populated with dozens of characters who share names and family connections in the Roman fashion.
Where to Start with the Masters of Rome Series
New to the Series?
Start here: The First Man in Rome (Book 1)
There is no shortcut with this series. The first novel introduces the political landscape, the key families and factions, and the central tension between military ambition and senatorial tradition that drives everything that follows. Starting anywhere else means missing a crucial foundation.
If You Want to Read About Caesar Specifically
Some readers come to the series primarily for Caesar and are tempted to start with Caesar’s Women (Book 4) or Caesar (Book 5). This is possible, but you will lose significant context: who Caesar’s enemies are and why, how the political landscape was shaped by Marius and Sulla before him, and why the events of his life carry the weight they do. A better approach for Caesar-focused readers is to start at the beginning and treat Books 1-3 as an essential prologue.
Can You Read Individual Books as Standalones?
No. Each novel builds directly on the previous one, and characters, relationships, and political situations carry over throughout the series. The Masters of Rome is a single, very long story told across seven volumes.
About Colleen McCullough
Colleen McCullough (1937-2015) was an Australian novelist and neuroscientist who became one of the best-selling writers of the twentieth century. She first achieved global fame with The Thorn Birds (1977), which sold more than 30 million copies and was adapted into a television miniseries watched by 140 million people.
She began the Masters of Rome series in 1990 after several years of dedicated research and published seven novels over seventeen years. Her publisher reportedly preferred she write sequels to The Thorn Birds; McCullough persisted with Rome regardless. She later described the research process as all-consuming and noted that she lived in the Roman world so thoroughly during the writing years that the present day sometimes felt less real than the Republic.
McCullough passed away on January 29, 2015, having completed the seventh volume eight years earlier. She remains the only author to have written a comprehensive fictional account of the fall of the Roman Republic at this level of depth.
More about this author: Colleen McCullough: Complete Guide to Books and Series
Historical Context: The Fall of the Roman Republic
The Roman Republic had governed Rome for roughly four centuries by the time the Masters of Rome series opens in 110 BC. Its system was built on checks and balances: two consuls elected annually, a Senate of experienced magistrates, popular assemblies with genuine power, and tribunes of the plebs who could veto legislation harmful to ordinary citizens. No single man was supposed to hold permanent power.
What the series documents, with meticulous historical accuracy, is why that system failed. Wealth concentration made the old system increasingly hollow: a small number of aristocratic families controlled the Senate, blocked the land reforms that might have stabilised the Republic, and used constitutional procedure as a weapon against men they feared. Military commanders discovered that their armies were loyal to them personally rather than to the state. And a series of extraordinary individuals, each more capable than the last, found ways to exploit the system’s weaknesses.
McCullough does not blame Caesar for the Republic’s fall. She traces the collapse to the generation before him: to the Social War, to Sulla’s decision to march on Rome (the original sin that showed it could be done), and to a Senate that consistently chose factional advantage over the common good.
The period also produced some of the most famous names in all of Western history: Caesar, Cicero, Pompey, Brutus, Cassius, Mark Antony, and Cleopatra. McCullough’s achievement is to restore these figures from legend back to humanity, showing them as brilliant, flawed, ambitious people making decisions under pressure rather than marble statues fulfilling destiny.
Learn more: Best Ancient Rome Historical Fiction and Ancient World Historical Fiction Hub
Similar Series You’ll Love
If you’re drawn to the Masters of Rome series, these offer comparable depth and quality in adjacent territory:
1. Emperor Series by Conn Iggulden
Five novels following Julius Caesar from boyhood to the Rubicon. Iggulden takes more creative liberties than McCullough but delivers enormous energy and pace. If the Masters of Rome feels overwhelming at first, the Emperor Series is an excellent way to build familiarity with the period before committing to McCullough’s depth.
2. Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris
Three novels following Marcus Tullius Cicero as lawyer, senator, and politician across the same period covered by Books 3 through 6 of the Masters of Rome. Harris writes from Cicero’s perspective through his secretary Tiro, and his novels are considerably shorter and more accessible than McCullough’s. Many readers read both series together, finding Harris’s more intimate view and McCullough’s panoramic scope complementary.
3. Marcus Didius Falco Series by Lindsey Davis
Set slightly later than the Masters of Rome, during the reign of Vespasian, Davis’s mystery series follows a private informer through the streets and back-alleys of Imperial Rome. Where McCullough operates at the highest political levels, Davis works from street level. Together, they offer a remarkably complete picture of Roman life.
4. Eagles of the Empire Series by Simon Scarrow
Twenty-four novels following two Roman soldiers through the legions of the first century AD. Less politically complex than McCullough and more focused on military action, but deeply researched and consistently compelling. Perfect for readers who want a detailed account of the Roman army.
Adaptations
The Masters of Rome series has not been adapted for television or film as of 2026. Given the extraordinary length of the novels and the complexity of the political material, a faithful adaptation would require a multi-season commitment of the scale not yet attempted for this particular series. Fan interest in an adaptation has been sustained for decades, and the success of prestige television productions set in Rome (including the BBC and HBO co-production Rome, 2005-2007, which covers overlapping material from Books 5 through 7) has demonstrated that the period attracts large audiences.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books are in the Masters of Rome series?
There are 7 books in the Masters of Rome series. The series is complete, ending with Antony and Cleopatra (2007). Colleen McCullough passed away in 2015, and no further volumes are planned.
Do I need to read the Masters of Rome series in order?
Yes, absolutely. The series follows a continuous historical timeline and carries the same characters across all seven novels. Reading out of order will spoil earlier books and leave you without the context needed to understand character motivations, political alliances, and historical significance.
What time period does the Masters of Rome series cover?
The series spans from 110 BC to 27 BC, covering the final century of the Roman Republic. It begins with the early careers of Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla and ends with Octavian receiving the title Augustus from the Senate, marking the formal beginning of the Roman Empire.
Is the Masters of Rome series historically accurate?
The series is considered exceptionally accurate. McCullough conducted extensive primary source research and consulted classical scholars throughout the writing process. Each volume includes a detailed glossary of Roman terms and institutions. Professional classicists have praised the accuracy, particularly regarding political processes and social customs. Where McCullough takes creative liberties, they tend to involve characterisation and private conversations rather than historical events.
How long does it take to read the Masters of Rome series?
Each novel runs between 700 and 1,100 pages. At an average reading pace of 40 pages per hour, each book takes roughly 20 to 28 hours. The complete series comprises approximately 160-200 hours of reading. Most readers spread the series across many months or even years.
Are the Masters of Rome books appropriate for young adults?
The series is written for adult readers. It contains graphic violence (battle scenes, executions, the brutal realities of Roman society), sexual content, and deeply disturbing depictions of slavery, misogyny, and cruelty that are treated honestly rather than sanitised. It is not appropriate for younger readers.
Which is the best book in the Masters of Rome series?
Reader opinion is divided, but The Grass Crown (Book 2) and The October Horse (Book 6) are most frequently cited as the series’ high points. The Grass Crown is praised for the depth of the Marius and Sulla characterisation; The October Horse for the Caesar and Cleopatra material, and the stunning Ides of March sequence. The First Man in Rome is considered essential groundwork even by readers who find it the hardest entry point.
Can I read just the Caesar books?
It is technically possible to start with Caesar’s Women (Book 4) or Caesar (Book 5), but it is not recommended. The political context, the characters’ histories and relationships, and the weight of the events are all substantially diminished without the foundation laid in Books 1 through 3.
Is there a box set available?
Yes. A five-volume box set covering Books 1-5 is available in print and as a digital bundle. Books 6 and 7 are sold separately. The digital bundle is often the most affordable way to begin the series.
Are the Masters of Rome books available on audiobook?
Yes, all seven novels are available in audiobook format. Given the length of the books and the density of the Roman terminology, many readers find the audiobook format helpful for maintaining pace through the longer political sections.
How does the Masters of Rome compare to the HBO series Rome?
The HBO/BBC series Rome (2005-2007) covers the period corresponding roughly to Books 5 and 6 of the Masters of Rome (Julius Caesar through the aftermath of his assassination). The television series is considerably more compressed and takes greater creative liberties, particularly with the fictional characters of soldiers Pullo and Vorenus. Readers who enjoyed the series will find McCullough’s treatment of the same period far more detailed and historically accurate, though significantly longer and more demanding.
Will there ever be more books in the series?
No. Colleen McCullough passed away in January 2015. The series concluded with Antony and Cleopatra in 2007, which she intended as its definitive ending.
Conclusion: Your Masters of Rome Reading Journey
The Masters of Rome series is one of the genuine monuments of historical fiction. It demands patience, commitment, and an appetite for historical and political complexity that not every reader will have. For those who bring those qualities to it, the reward is a complete and deeply human portrait of one of history’s most consequential periods, told with a level of research and craft unequalled.
McCullough spent seventeen years on these seven novels. They are the work of a writer who cared more about getting Rome right than about writing quickly or commercially. Every page reflects that commitment.
If you are ready to make the investment, start with The First Man in Rome. The period is unfamiliar, the cast is large, and the political machinery takes some time to absorb. By the end of the first novel, most readers who persist find themselves completely absorbed in a world that feels entirely real. By the time Caesar crosses the Rubicon in Book 5, many find the experience impossible to describe to people who haven’t read the series.
That is the kind of thing the Masters of Rome do.
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