The Horse Changer — Craig Smith

Follow the intelligent and compellingly chequered career of a little-known participant in Rome's civil wars

Dellius distinguishes himself in Caesar's Spanish war against Pompey, becomes a tribune of cavalry in Caesar's army, and looks forward to an assured and glittering career. But when his hero is assassinated, the Roman republic is plunged into chaos as both his heirs and enemies jostle for power. In the civil wars that follow, Dellius is soon caught up in a maelstrom of shifting allegiances, and the young soldier will need to discover reserves of both tenacity and ruthlessness if he is to survive. As he journeys from the orgiastic salons of Rome's Palatine Hill to the Palaces of Alexandria, the rocky fortresses of Judea and the bloody field of Philippi, he manages to incur the enmity both of Egypt's queen and Rome's future emperor, but also to snare the affections of a beautiful and cunning young senator's wife, Livia Drusilla. This epic cast of historical greats, which includes Julius Caesar, Octavian, Mark Antony, Horace, Cassius Longinus, Cleopatra, Herod the Great, and the future empress, Livia, will appeal to readers of Robert Harris, Robert Graves, James Clavell, and Hilary Mantel.