Daughters of Rome

Set during the Year of the Four Emperors (A.D. 69), when Rome saw four successive rulers seize and lose the Imperial throne, the novel follows four patrician cousins of the Cornelii clan upended by civil war. A prologue set 11 years earlier introduces a struggling astrologer named Nessus, who reads the palms of four little girls in the Roman Forum. He gives three standard flattering predictions, but the fourth palm fills him with dread: He sees blood, enough to soak all Rome. He tells the girl she will be Empress someday, concealing the darker vision, and flees to a tavern.

The four girls have grown into women by the time the story begins. Cornelia Prima, the eldest at 24, is regal and ambitious, married to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus, a nobleman expected to be named heir by the aging Emperor Galba. Her younger sister, Cornelia Secunda, known as Marcella, is a sharp-eyed amateur historian in a loveless marriage, dominated by her brother Gaius's wife, Tullia. Their cousin Cornelia Tertia, called Lollia, is Rome's richest heiress, cycling through politically arranged marriages with cheerful resignation. The youngest, Cornelia Quarta, called Diana, is 16 and cares only for chariot racing and her beloved Reds faction.

The cousins' fortunes shift when Galba names Piso as his heir. A rival candidate, the charming Senator Otho, has been cultivating the disgruntled Praetorian Guard, the elite soldiers who serve as the emperor's bodyguards. He reveals to Marcella that a joke she once made gave him the idea for his coup. Days later, the Praetorians proclaim Otho Emperor. Galba is hacked to death in the Forum. Piso and Cornelia flee with their loyal bodyguard, Centurion Drusus Sempronius Densus, who fights off pursuing soldiers on the steps of Rome's sacred Temple of Vesta. Densus is stabbed through the side, and Piso is butchered and beheaded before Cornelia's eyes. Marcella, Lollia, and Diana, sheltering in the temple, witness the murder.

Cornelia collapses into grief, her home confiscated by Otho. Lollia's grandfather arranges her fourth marriage to the new Emperor's brother to protect the family. At the wedding, Diana arrives carrying a bloodstained sack: She has tracked down the Praetorian who took Piso's head and recovered it so Cornelia can give her husband a proper burial.

Under Otho's reign, each cousin charts her own course. Lollia serves as first lady but finds the role hollow. Marcella, learning that Vitellius, the governor of Lower Germania, has been proclaimed Emperor by his own legions, begins feeding Cornelia intelligence about Otho's forces. Cornelia, burning for revenge, passes this information to Vitellius's supporters without realizing Marcella is deliberately using her as a conduit. Diana secretly visits the horse farm of Llyn ap Caradoc, son of the legendary British rebel Caratacus, who teaches her to drive a chariot.

Cornelia attempts suicide, but Marcella interrupts and talks her down. Otho's army marches north and is routed at the Battle of Bedriacum in northern Italy. Marcella, who persuaded Otho to let her accompany the campaign, watches him take his own life with quiet dignity. Returning to Rome, she realizes with exhilaration that she has played a role in the fall of three successive emperors. She takes Domitian, the ambitious younger son of Vespasian, as a lover and begins considering how to use him.

Vitellius enters Rome as a bluff, good-natured sportsman whose court features grotesque banquets and rough provincial soldiers. Lollia is forced into a fifth marriage with Fabius Valens, Vitellius's chief general, who proves violent and possessive. When Fabius catches Lollia in bed with Thrax, a Gallic slave she has taken as her lover, he flogs Thrax nearly to death and strikes Lollia's young daughter Flavia when the child tries to intervene. Lollia sends both to her grandfather's house for safety.

Cornelia stumbles upon Centurion Densus in the slums, now disgraced and working as a bouncer. Their bitter argument dissolves into an unexpected kiss, and they begin a secret affair. Diana and Llyn become lovers as well, bonding over horses and shared stubbornness. Marcella cultivates Caecina Alienus, a Vitellian commander bitter about being passed over, introducing him to Domitian and hinting at rewards from Vespasian. When Fabius falls ill, Alienus takes command and betrays Vitellius, turning his forces over to Vespasian's legions. Fabius is captured and executed.

Diana, enraged that Fabius has been fixing races so the Blues always win, knocks out the Reds charioteer, steals his armor, and drives the Anemoi, her four champion chestnut stallions, in the climactic race of the season. She wins spectacularly, setting a new record at the Circus Maximus. Vitellius retaliates by confiscating her horses. Cornelia and Densus steal a brief holiday at the family's seaside villa in Tarracina, dreaming of a quiet life together.

When the victorious legions march on Rome, the city tears itself apart. Diana finds Vitellius hiding in the Blues stables, drunk and resigned. He returns her horses. Llyn arrives and leads the Emperor away to his death, fulfilling a long-held oath of vengeance against Rome. Diana harnesses the Anemoi and drives through rioting streets to collect Lollia, Cornelia, and Marcella, whom she finds standing by the altar of Mars, watching the slaughter with shining eyes. The four cousins escape in a wild midnight ride and shelter in Llyn's barn.

The Senate confirms Vespasian as Emperor. Llyn deeds his property to Diana and disappears to Britannia. At the bathhouse, Diana confronts Marcella before the other cousins, laying out evidence of her scheming across all four reigns. Cornelia, unable to forgive the sister who helped bring about Piso's death, tells Marcella she is not welcome at her wedding.

Cornelia announces to Gaius that she will marry Densus, that she is pregnant after years of believing herself barren, and that the treason charge against Densus has been lifted. Domitian abducts Marcella, installs her in the palace, and informs her they will marry the next morning. When she protests, he pins her by the throat and tells her that her only duties are to keep his house, warm his bed, and bear his children. He forbids her writing. Nessus, now Imperial astrologer, confirms she will indeed be Empress and that nothing can change it.

Cornelia's wedding to Densus is a joyful affair. Lollia has freed Thrax and wears his plain iron ring. Marcella arrives uninvited with Domitian, silent in Imperial purple. Domitian announces he has changed his wife's name: She will henceforth be called Domitia, after himself. Marcella begs Cornelia to visit her, but Cornelia pulls her hand away and asks, "What sister?" Tullia, catching Lollia kissing Thrax, denounces the family and storms out. Gaius tells her to leave.

An epilogue set 12 years later finds the cousins at the funeral of Emperor Titus. Domitian is now Emperor, with Marcella, renamed Domitia, waving from a gold litter with an empty smile. Cornelia has three children and lives happily in Tarracina. Lollia has cycled through seven husbands, but Thrax remains her constant. Diana breeds horses at Llyn's former villa, wearing his bronze arm ring. Diana observes that Marcella is being punished enough, trapped and powerless despite her title. She invites the others to the races: "The Reds are forever. Unlike emperors."