Empress of the Seven Hills

Kate Quinn's Empress of the Seven Hills opens in A.D. 102 with the arrival of eighteen-year-old Vercingetorix, known as Vix, in Rome. The son of a former slave and a former gladiator retired in Britannia, Vix seeks out Senator Marcus Norbanus, whose family owes a secret debt to Vix's parents for their role in overthrowing Emperor Domitian. The senator discourages Vix from joining the legions, citing twenty-five years of mandatory service and meager pay, and suggests bodyguarding instead. Vix also encounters the senator's eldest daughter, Sabina, a self-possessed seventeen-year-old who recognizes him from a childhood meeting.

Meanwhile, Empress Pompeia Plotina, the severe wife of Emperor Trajan, evaluates Sabina as a bride for Trajan's ward, Publius Aelius Hadrian, whom she has raised as her own son. At the Vinalia chariot races, Vix and Sabina reconnect, bonding over racing and ambition. Hadrian, a tribune (military officer) of about twenty-six, finds them together and disapproves. After the races, attackers ambush the pair; Sabina drops one with a rock, and Vix dispatches the rest. He kisses her against a tenement wall before she slips home.

At Plotina's urging, Hadrian begins courting Sabina, and the two discover a genuine intellectual kinship over Greek art and philosophy. Senator Norbanus hires Vix as a household guard, and over the summer Sabina requests him as her escort. One night she asks about the day Domitian died, and Vix reveals the truth: His parents killed the Emperor and fled to Britannia. Sabina absorbs the story calmly, then leads him to his room, beginning a secret affair.

Sabina accepts Hadrian's proposal, and Vix is devastated. She insists she chose Vix out of love and that Hadrian suits her because his preferences run to men, leaving her alone at night. Despite his fury, they continue the affair until the wedding. At a dinner Senator Norbanus hosts for Trajan, Sabina arranges for Vix to demonstrate his sword skills; in a spirited bout, Vix accidentally cuts the Emperor's arm. Trajan laughs and urges Vix to enlist. Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus, a sixteen-year-old suitor of Sabina's, watches the wedding procession with Sabina's half-sister Faustina in his arms, privately in love with the bride. Vix leaves the household rather than watch Sabina marry; that night, thugs beat him on Hadrian's orders. Weeks later, Vix enlists in the legions.

The narrative jumps to A.D. 108. Titus, now twenty-two and a reluctant military tribune with the Tenth Fidelis in Moguntiacum (modern Mainz, Germania), is attacked on a scouting mission by Dacian rebels and rescued by Vix, now a seasoned soldier. Hadrian arrives as legate, the legion's commanding officer, with Sabina. When Trajan brings reinforcements for the Dacian invasion, the army marches east. Sabina defies Hadrian's orders, marching on foot with the soldiers and resuming her relationship with Vix. She integrates into his contubernium, the small unit of tent-mates, earning their affection by sharing their hardships. Titus discovers the affair but keeps the secret.

The army besieges the Dacian capital, Sarmizegetusa. Vix discovers where the city's water pipes emerge, and Titus presents the plan to Trajan, bypassing Hadrian. The pipes are broken, and the Dacians surrender, burning their city. That night, Vix stumbles upon Dacians disguised as Roman soldiers stealing the Tenth's eagle standard. He kills two and confronts the third: King Decebalus himself, mortally wounded. They share a haunting exchange before the king dies. Trajan awards Vix the rank of aquilifer, the standard-bearer who carries the legion's eagle.

As the army returns west, Sabina tells Vix she will accompany Hadrian to his new governorship rather than stay with the Tenth. At the victory banquet, Hadrian strikes Vix, who warns him never to do so again. Back in Moguntiacum, Vix learns that Demetra, his Bithynian companion, died in childbirth while he was at war. He finds her young son in dangerous conditions, takes the child, and names him Antinous.

Years pass. Sabina travels with Hadrian to Pannonia, founding a hospital and aiding orphaned children, but Hadrian grows increasingly controlling. By A.D. 113, Vix returns to Rome and visits his old comrade Simon, now living among a Jewish family. He shares the story of his mother's survival of Masada, the fortress whose defenders chose mass suicide rather than surrender. At a Tu B'Av celebration, a Jewish festival for the unmarried, Vix meets Simon's niece Mirah and marries her within a month. Trajan promotes Vix to centurion of the first cohort, and he prepares to march east for the Parthian invasion.

Titus, now a quaestor (financial magistrate) overseeing Trajan's public baths, develops a friendship with Faustina, now nineteen. Together they trace financial irregularities toward the Imperial household. Hadrian reveals to Sabina that he has always believed he is destined to become Emperor and that he lied to win her hand. Sabina asks Trajan for a divorce, but he refuses, needing Hadrian cooperative, though he privately assures her Hadrian will not be his heir.

The Parthian campaign spans years. Vix rises to First Spear, the most senior centurion of the Tenth. Two of his original tent-mates die in battle. Jewish revolts across the Empire strain his marriage, as Mirah sympathizes with the rebels while Vix remains loyal to Rome. Faustina discovers Plotina has been stealing from public funds to finance Hadrian's career and brings evidence to Titus, who confronts the Empress. Their collaboration draws them together, and they become engaged. Plotina sails to Antioch, where Trajan informs her he plans to divorce Sabina from Hadrian and groom Titus as a successor.

At the siege of Hatra, Vix saves Trajan from an enemy archer and receives command of the entire Tenth Fidelis. But Trajan's health fails. On a return voyage, he suffers a stroke, and the ship puts into the abandoned harbor of Selinus on the coast of modern Turkey. On his deathbed, Trajan dictates to Sabina a list of five succession candidates, explicitly excluding Hadrian. His secretary Phaedimus records the letter.

Trajan dies before announcing his wishes. Plotina stages a deception, using a guard to impersonate the dead Emperor's voice from behind bed curtains, announcing Hadrian's adoption as heir. She destroys the real succession letter and has Phaedimus killed. Hadrian assumes power, abandons Trajan's conquered territories, strips Vix of his command, and assigns him to the Praetorian Guard, the emperor's elite bodyguard unit. He orders Vix to assassinate five political rivals, including Titus, threatening Vix's family if he refuses. Sabina confronts Plotina, accusing her of forging the adoption, but Plotina threatens to destroy Sabina's reputation. Sabina realizes she is now Empress of Rome, trapped in a role that strips away the freedom she spent her life cultivating.

In Rome, Titus tries to break off his engagement to Faustina, arguing that marrying him will make her a widow. Faustina refuses, insisting their marriage would protect him since she is Hadrian's sister-in-law. She pushes him into the pool of the nearly completed baths, declaring her love. Titus capitulates. On the day of Trajan's funeral, Vix finds Sabina weeping in a ruined temple. In shared grief and defiance, they make love one final time. Looking back, Vix reveals this encounter results in Sabina's pregnancy and that he will someday watch Hadrian die. The novel closes as Hadrian presides over the funeral pyre, consolidating power while his wife and his newest Praetorian Guard contemplate the dangerous world ahead.