The character in this book that most gained my sympathy was Marcus Livius Drusus. Sulla, as in the first book, is shown as both incredibly able, more than a little creepy and definitely scary. A secondary character in the first book, he's on the rise in this one, as Marius is in decline.It makes for a sad book, seeing that decline of a character I grew fond of in the first book. That first man was unmistakenly Gaius Marius, a flawed but still admirable figure who married Julia, an aunt of Julius Caesar, making him a brother-in-law to Lucius Cornelius Sulla. This is the second book in the Masters of Rome series begun in The First Man in Rome. The Grass Crown ends with Rome on the brink of another civil war, with disparate factions breaking apart the upper classes of the republic while the fight against Mithradates in Asia Minor continues. Further significant events close to the end of the Republic take place, the Halian War comes to fruition, and Sulla leads a Roman army against Rome for the first time in history. Caesar's personality and abilities become more defined as the story progresses, and in the next novel he will begin to come into power. Young Caesar continues to learn and flourish, educated at the feet of both the Third Founder of Rome and Lucius Decumius, an assassin who loved Caesar more dearly than his own son. As Marius' health declines, Sulla's character becomes almost painful to read while his pride and arrogance grow (it makes one realize how essential Marcus Ameslias Scaurus Princeps Senatas was for Gaius Marius' life, career, and good qualities to flourish as they had- his character grows on one as the saga continues). The Grass Crown continues where First Man in Rome ended, chronicling both the last years of Gaius Marius' life and Sulla's rise to power.

At its center are two extraordinary leaders: Gaius Marius, the general who saved Rome from Barbarian invasions, desperately trying to extend his reign for a prophesied and unprecedented seventh term as Consul and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, once Marius' most trusted right-hand man, now a dangerous rival hungry for his own taste of political success.Īs the two men battle for position, they are surrounded by a new generation of statesman, soldiers and lovers, from Senate intriguers and their ambitious wives to the child of destiny, Gaius Julius Caesar.Īn absorbing tale of a Republic fighting for its survival in a world of treachery, barbarism and never-ending war, The Grass Crown is a remarkable entry in Colleen McCullough's brilliant and unprecedented series on the rise and fall of the world's greatest civilization.Ī Simon & Schuster audio production. The magnificent glory of Republican Rome is threatened when a struggle for power erupts among the men who shaped its hard-won peace.

The grass crown