Best Novels Set in the Ancient World

Top 10 Best Novels Set in the Ancient World : I, Claudius, The Persian Boy, The Bull from the Sea, Quo Vadis, Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae, Memoirs of Hadrian, Till We Have Faces, Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina, Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome, The Eagle of the Ninth

I, Claudius
AuthorRobert Graves
Into the 'autobiography' of Clau-Clau-Claudius, the pitiful stammerer who was destined to become Emperor in spite of himself, Graves packs the everlasting intrigues, the depravity, the bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, soon to culminate in the deified insanity...
The Persian Boy
AuthorMary Renault
ISBN0394751019
“It takes skill to depict, as Miss Renault has done, this half-man, half Courtesan who is so deeply in love with the warrior.”–The Atlantic Monthly

The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was...
The Bull from the Sea
AuthorMary Renault
ISBN0099463539
4.5 stars

Mary Renault’s _The Bull from the Sea_ takes up where The King Must Die left off and continues the legendary story of Theseus and his kingship of Attica. There are some differences between this volume and its predecessor, most notably in the fact that the scope of this tale is much...
Quo Vadis
AuthorHenryk Sienkiewicz
ISBN0781805503
Rome during the reign of Nero was a glorious place for the emperor and his court; there were grand feasts, tournaments for poets, and exciting games and circuses filling the days and nights. The pageantry and pretentious displays of excess were sufficient to cloy the senses of participants as well as...
Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
AuthorSteven Pressfield
One of the two best standalone books that I’ve ever read; this is truly historical fiction at its finest.

Lancelot by Giles Kristian was an amazing standalone and now, I’ve found Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. I’m starting to feel that historical fiction is the right genre to visit...
Memoirs of Hadrian
AuthorMarguerite Yourcenar
ISBN0374529264
Both an exploration of character and a reflection on the meaning of history, Memoirs of Hadrian has received international acclaim since its first publication in France in 1951. In it, Marguerite Yourcenar reimagines the Emperor Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally,...
Till We Have Faces
AuthorC.S. Lewis
In this timeless tale of two mortal princesses- one beautiful and one unattractive- C.S. Lewis reworks the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche into an enduring piece of contemporary fiction. This is the story of Orual, Psyche's embittered and ugly older sister, who posessively and harmfully loves...
Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina
AuthorRobert Graves
ISBN0679725733
Miracles do happen ask Claudius the unread historian the idiot, the clown, as his family perceives him, the people also yet becomes Emperor ( one of the best too) of the Roman Empire... These events unfold with the assassination of his mad nephew Caligula, the Praetorian Guard needs a ruler or else they...
Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome
AuthorRobert Harris
When Tiro, the confidential secretary (and slave) of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning, he sets in motion a chain of events that will eventually propel his master into one of the most suspenseful courtroom dramas in history. The stranger is a Sicilian,...
The Eagle of the Ninth
AuthorRosemary Sutcliff
ISBN0192750453
Classic historical fiction

At the age of eight, I read Eagle of the Ninth, my first encounter with historical fiction. I became hooked. Since then, I have been read Nigel Tranter, John Prebble, Conn Igguden, Simon Scarrow, Ruth Downie, and many others.

Forty-four years later, re-reading...
AuthorRosemary Sutcliff
ISBN0711215227
Homer's epic poem, The Iliad, is one of the greatest adventure stories of all time. Rich with arresting imagery and memorable characters, its powerful metaphors still permeate modern culture. This brilliant retelling offers young readers an exciting introduction to the heroes of ancient Greece...
AuthorGeoffrey Chaucer
ISBN0140442391
Set against the epic backdrop of the battle of Troy, Troilus and Criseyde is an evocative story of love and loss. When Troilus, the son of Priam, falls in love with the beautiful Criseyde, he is able to win her heart with the help of his cunning uncle Pandarus, and the lovers experience a brief period of bliss...
AuthorGustave Flaubert
ISBN0140443282
A little human sacrifice, a touch of cannibalism, some slaughter of both soldiers and civilians, one or two crucifixions, there you have it, the mercenaries revolt against Carthage in 240 B.C. Yes I am being facetious, a great amount in all these categories in fact occurred, people played rough then,...
AuthorEloise Jarvis McGraw
ISBN0140319298
Mara is a proud and beautiful slave girl who yearns for freedom. In order to gain it, she finds herself playing the dangerous role of double spy for two arch enemies - each of whom supports a contender for the throne of Egypt.

Against her will, Mara finds herself falling in love with one of her masters,...
Roma
AuthorSteven Saylor
ISBN0312328311
Spanning a thousand years, and following the shifting fortunes of two families though the ages, this is the epic saga of Rome, the city and its people.
     Weaving history, legend, and new archaeological discoveries into a spellbinding narrative, critically acclaimed novelist Steven...
The Bronze Bow
AuthorElizabeth George Speare
He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. –from the Song of David (2 Samuel 22:35)
The Bronze Bow, written by Elizabeth George Speare (author of The Witch of Blackbird Pond) won the Newbery Medal in 1962. This gripping, action-packed novel tells the story of eighteen-year-old...
As Sure as the Dawn
AuthorFrancine Rivers
The third installment in the Mark of the Lion trilogy.

Following A Voice in the Wind and An Echo in the Darkness, As Sure as the Dawn continues the chronicles of Hadassah, a Christian slave woman living during the height of the Roman Empire. She has saved the life of the scorned child of a disreputable...
AuthorRobert Graves
ISBN0374517398
Robert Graves's sources for Count Belisarius include some of the great historical works of classical antiquity: Livy, Thucydides, Herodotus, and certainly Xenophon in the Persian war sections. The novel is set in the sixth century of our era. Belisarius is perhaps the last loyal general the Roman...
AuthorJoanne Williamson
ISBN1883937388
When Uriah Tarhund's Hititte home is destroyed by invading Greeks, his dying father tells him to go seek a Canaanite named Sisera. "He will help you. For my sake...." When Uriah reaches Judea and saves a young boy from being sacrificed to Molech, he is given succor for a time by the Hebrews. Later, he finds...
The Silver Branch
AuthorRosemary Sutcliff
ISBN0192755056
Intrigue, plotting, and battles in the second of Rosemary Sutcliff's best-selling trilogy which began with The Eagle of the Ninth

Violence and unrest are sweeping through Roman Britain. Justin and Flavius find themselves caught up in the middle of it all when they discover a plot to overthrow...
Daughters of the Nile
AuthorStephanie Dray
Based on the true story of Cleopatra’s daughter…

After years of abuse as the emperor’s captive in Rome, Cleopatra Selene has found a safe harbor. No longer the pitiful orphaned daughter of the despised Egyptian Whore, the twenty year old is now the most powerful queen in the empire, ruling...
Druids
AuthorMorgan Llywelyn
ISBN0345491319
“Mine was the vast dark sky and the spaces between the stars that called out to me; mine was the promise of magic.”

So spoke the young Celt Ainvar, centuries before the enchanted age of Arthur and Merlin. An orphan taken in by the chief druid of the Carnutes in Gaul, Ainvar possessed talents...
Island of Ghosts
AuthorGillian Bradshaw
ISBN0812545141
Ariantes is a Sarmatian, a barbarian warrior-prince, uprooted from his home and customs and thrust into the honorless lands of the Romans. The victims of a wartime pact struck with the emperor Marcus Aurelius to ensure the future of Sarmatia, Ariantes and his troop of accomplished horsemen are sent...
The Twelve Caesars
AuthorSuetonius
ISBN0140449213
As private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, Suetonius gained access to the imperial archives and used them (along with eye-witness accounts) to produce one of the most colorful biographical works in history. The Twelve Caesars chronicles the public careers and private lives of the men who wielded...
Under the Eagle
AuthorSimon Scarrow
ISBN0747266298
Simon Scarrow's brilliant adventure novels about the Roman army appear with stunning new covers.

It is 42 AD, and Quintus Licinius Cato has just arrived in Germany as a new recruit to the Second Legion, the toughest in the Roman army. If adjusting to the rigours of military life isn’t difficult...
The Golden Goblet
AuthorEloise Jarvis McGraw
I really liked this book when I was 11, and I really liked this book twenty-one years later. Somehow Eloise Jarvis McGraw makes Ranofer, the main character, easily relatable without turning him into a kid that thinks, talks and acts like a twentieth century American kid who happens to be living in ancient...
Julian
AuthorGore Vidal
The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal’s finest historical novels.

Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest...
AuthorGary Corby
ISBN0312599021
Nicolaos walks the mean streets of Classical Athens as an agent for the promising young politician Pericles. His mission is to find the assassin of the statesman Ephialtes, the man who brought democracy to Athens and whose murder has thrown the city into uproar. It's a job not made any easier by the depressingly...
AuthorKate Seredy
ISBN0140312587
Winner of the Newbery Medal

For generations the tribes of Huns and Magyars had moved relentlessly westward, obeying the voices of their pagan gods, which compelled them to follow the elusive white stag to their promised homeland. They swept Europe, all the while pursuing their vision of the...
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