A SWEEPING EPIC OF ANCIENT ROME FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE THORN BIRDS With her renowned storytelling gifts in full force, Colleen McCullough delivers a breathtaking novel that is both grand in scope and vivid in detail -- and proves once again why she is the top historical novelist of our time. In the last days of the Roman Republic, Gaius Julius Caesar is both adored and despised -- but his rule is unshakable. Forced by civil war to leave his beguiling mistress Cleopatra, Caesar turns his eye to the future: who is to inherit the throne of Roman power? But in the shadows of the empire, the talk is of murder. Who among his associates has the cunning and skill to fell the fierce leader -- and brave the dangerous consequences of that cataclysmic act?