A sacred sword. A crumbling prophecy. The silence of the godsÑand the fate of Rome hanging by a thread.
Set at the height of Imperial glory, Gladius et Sibylla: Fata Romanorum is the Roman epic that Rome never wroteÑa sweeping, mythic journey into the heart of destiny, divine mystery, and civilizational twilight. As temples gleam and legions march, signs stir beneath the marbleÑa hidden current of omens, voices, and shadows long buried beneath civic splendour.
Aulus Marcius Regillus, a former centurion of the elite cohors speculatorum, is drawn from the streets of Rome into a world of lost scrolls, vanished priests, ancient inscriptions, and a weapon whose origins reach beyond the memory of men: Caliberis, the sword once forged by Vulcan, sanctified by Venus and Mars, and whispered to be the key to RomeÕs fate.
But all is not as it once was. Can Rome still trust the voice that once guided it? The Sibyl speaks, but her words are veiled in shadow, and what once shone with divine light may now carry another fire. In temples, crypts, and sacred places, a deeper truth emergesÑone older than the city, older than the gods themselves.
As signs multiply and fate begins to stir, Marcius is swept into a mystery that spans from the Forum to the underworld, from the rites of Etruscan tombs to the oracles of Greece and Egypt. Behind every whisper lies a question, and behind every silence, a secret. Not all that gleams is gold. Not every prophecy brings salvation.
Gladius et Sibylla is a novel of myth, sacrifice, ritual, and revelation, where the boundary between religion and reality collapses, and the future of an empire may hinge on one sword, one scroll, one choice.
Written in authentic Classical Latin, this novel blends the poetic resonance of Vergil, the psychological gravity of Tacitus, the sacred texture of Apuleius, and the narrative dignity of LivyÑbut speaks in a voice entirely its own.
_ Ideal for Latinists, scholars, philologists, and lovers of ancient Rome, this is a prose epic where myth is not backgroundÑbut action, belief, and fate itself.
_ A tale of gods and mortals, destiny and silence, light and shadowÑGladius et Sibylla: Fata Romanorum is the last national epic of Rome, spoken in its own voice.
_ Includes a rich Ad Lectorem section: a final philosophical and mythological reflection on Rome, fate, and the transition from the ancient world to the shadow of what comes afterÑa voice that lingers after the last line is read., novel in Latin, literature in classical Latin, lingua Latina, , BJ Smith| | 436PAGES