Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

** spoiler alert ** The Egyptian by Mika Waltari is one of my all time favorite books. It makes you feel like you are time traveling with Sinuhe the physician as your companion. So naturally, I had high hopes for this novel too. While this novel does not quite reach the greatness of the previous novel, it is still quite a fascinating work.

In this novel, Mika Waltari paints the picture of 1st century Rome in very vivid detail. The circus games, the chariot races, the senate, etc. literally come alive in front of the reader's eyes. The novel weaves a rich tapestry with many historical Roman characters like Claudius, Nero, Agrippina, Poppaea, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, etc. It also describes the early days of Christianity.

Its protagonist, Minutus is a selfish person whose intentions are not so pure. A motherless child, he was neglected by his father also for most of his formative years. Over time, his father does come around to paying attention to him, but his remarriage pulls them apart once again. Therefore, from a very early age he has had to fend for himself. Unfortunately, this has turned him into a first-rate opportunist who is not a bad person but who keeps his interests above everyone else's. In fact so great is his selfishness and cowardice that he watches his eldest son being executed in an arena and does nothing to stop the whole thing. Later, he even convinces himself that his son was involved in serious crimes (actually petty crimes at best!) against the Roman empire & was bound to be executed sooner or later. Even when he gets to know that Nero has had his senator father and stepmother executed, he does not say a single harsh word to him. Naturally, his love life is complicated too. Even though he is a shrewd businessman, he is by no means an intelligent or sensitive man. He lacks the moral fortitude to stand besides the women he loves (Claudia & Lugunda) and ends up bewitched by power-hungry and manipulative women (Agrippina, Sabina, Poppaea & even Antonia). He may have had a shot at something real with Antonia but in the end is not smart or courageous enough to even attempt to make something of it. With his wife Claudia he has a son whom he calls Julius and for whose benefit he is apparently writing his diary. From this point onwards, he attributes all his cowardice and political machinations to increasing his son's future prospects. But as bad as he is, Minutus has quite a few redeeming qualities too. He is good to the Christians & Jews alike. He does end up saving a lot of lives by mediating peace between the different religious factions.

Overall, it is a very good attempt at creating a lost era. Be forewarned though, the era in question has a lot of blood and gore in it!