Seeing Lepida get hers in the end especially was SO satisfying! Many different characters’ lives intertwine, and while the story ends tragically for some of the peripheral characters, it’s triumphant for the main ones. Lepida eventually achieves her lifelong goal of becoming the emperor’s mistress, but her power is short-lived. This lands him in the arena when he is only a boy–though fortunately he has been trained by the Barbarian himself. The emperor eventually learns Thea’s secret, and casts her off while claiming her son as a new “favorite” instead. Arius and his son meet, and Arius trains the boy to fight, though neither knows of their relationship yet. Lepida, who rivals the emperor for most hatable character, continues to scheme and plot to destroy other people’s lives to get ahead herself. Arius fakes his death with the help of the Emperor’s Christian niece, who tries to help those slated for slaughter to escape.

So the story goes: Thea’s son is raised more or less away from her. Thea has to hide her son from him, as he is quite possessive and doesn’t like even the suggestion that she ever once belonged to another man. But when she becomes a very distinct favorite, he has her master murdered so that he can “own” her, whereupon he becomes physically and emotionally abusive. He seems benign enough, and she becomes a favorite. One day she sings for the Emperor, who takes a liking to her. Thea gets sold to a kind master who allows her to learn music, and she becomes a famous singer, though she is still technically a slave. Lepida, meanwhile, marries an old senator, but seduces his son, and attempts to become the Emperor Dominius’s mistress. But by that time, Thea is already pregnant with Arius’s child. Jealous, Lepida sells Thea into prostitution, and Thea and Arius are separated for about twelve years. She sends Thea to deliver them, and in the process, Arius and Thea fall in love. Lepida develops a crush on the gladiator Arius “The Barbarian,” and writes him letters to try to seduce him. She gets sold into slavery at fourteen to the flighty, beautiful, and later downright evil Lepida. Born a Jew, Thea is the only one of her people to survive a first century massacre. The protagonist was Thea, though she didn’t get any more “screen time” than the rest of the characters. The story jumps around to multiple characters’ perspectives. It was a lot more graphic, and far more of a sweeping epic than I bargained for, though I definitely got sucked in.

Mistress of rome series