May 30, 2012 08:15 PM
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Nothing from the ancient history engrosses me more than the Greek Civilization and the Roman Empire; I guess it’s the case with most of people. Many movies have been made on Roman and Greek legends and I watched and loved most of them be it Gladiator or Troy or Alexander. But I had no adventure into the books yet and ‘The Last Legion’ (TLL) is my first plunge into the literature world surrounding the Roman Era. Have been looking at the books of Manfredi for long time in Landmark, resisted a lot considering the bulk of pages, but finally I succumbed before my fervor and bought my first book based on Roman History. Guess what, TLL has kindled my cravings even more and it won’t be a surprise if I find myself immersed into the world of Manfredi in the days to come.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Coming to the Author, Valerio Massimo Manfredi (VMM) is a professor of classical Archaeology at Luigi University in Milan. Alongwith numerous academic publications on historical events he has published around 12 works of fiction including trilogy on Alexander, his most famous one along with ‘The Last Legion’. The Last Legion was made into a movie in 2007 starring Colin Firth, Aishwarya Rai and Ben Kinsley and turned out to be a big failure. I wonder what must they have done with it, as it’s such a good book and almost ready to be turn into a motion without much work on screenplay as VMM has already covered everything in such an amazing way.
ABOUT THE STORY: 476AD, the Roman Empire is crumbling, Commander of Roman Army, Orestes, in an attempt to stabilize the state of affairs, has declared his 13 years old son, Romulus Augustus, the Emperor of the Western Roman Empire and has secretly formed a Legion of brave warriors called ‘Nova Invicta’ to protect the emperor from the Barbarian attacks.
Barbarian army, under the command of General Odoacer, is however on the verge of taking control. They craft a double blow to Romans through surprise attacks; one at the Legion’s centre and another one at the Villa of Orestes during a celebration with everyone unarmed and vulnerable. Commander of Legion sends Aurelius to Villa of Orestes for help, who reaches there only to find everything destroyed and everyone brutally killed. Orestes breathing his last, pleads Aurelius to save his son and the Emperor.
Romulus along with his mother and tutor Ambrosinus (a Master of Science and very wise man) has been taken prisoner by small force of Barbarians troops under the command of Wulfila, Odaocer’s ruthless lieutenant. Aurelius makes a brave and single handed surprise attempt to free Romulus but fails, and it makes Odoacer wary of further attempts so send Romulus to Island of Capri for a secret captivity accompanied by his tutor, under the vigilant eyes of Wulfila.
Loyalists of Rome, in a deal with the Emperor of Eastern Empire, Constantine, strategize another well planned attack with Aurelius and Livia in lead, but first they have to liberate the survivors of ‘Nova Invicta’ taken slaves and now working as Gladiators in Rome. They do succeed in liberating Romulus and Ambrosinus from Capri but soon find themselves betrayed by the Eastern Emperor who has joined hands with Odoacer. That’s when they plan to take Romulus to Britannica, a faraway place in North, not yet under the control of Barbarians. But it’s a long and perilous journey they had to commence from south to north of Europe, with Wulfila and his men looking for them all through the way like hungry wolfs; will they succeed?
The Last legion is formed between the last of the finest and boldest Roman warriors that remained during the fall of the empire. Will they be good enough to protect their last emperor from the wrath of a ruthless Barbarian on the mission to kill them all, Wulfila? Read ‘The Last Legion’ to know.
ABOUT THE BOOK: TLL came in 2003 and is translated from Italian to English by Christine Feddersen-Manfredi. Its 425 pages long; which is quite a long length for the likes of me. Since it a tale based on old Roman times I was expecting to encounter lots of problem in terms of vocabulary, but to my comfort, nothing like that happened. Language is very simple and no where required me to use dictionary. Another good thing is the flow; words flow so smoothly and never break the rhythm of the story. It’s written in such a simple and effective way that 425 never seemed too long a length to me and I finished it in a span of a month, with an average of an hour each day.
TLL has the plot based on part fiction and part facts that VMM might have gathered over the course of time in his works in the history of Roman Civilization. But his brilliance lies in the way he has woven them together to form such wonderful tale. It’s an adventurous journey that keeps a reader absorbed most of the times and slowly and slowly makes him involved as well.
“World was shattering to pieces. Breaking into splinters which were set adrift on the river of history.” Narrated from the view point of Ambrosinus, VMM has very meticulously covered the ancient times and places of that era. And since the plot is woven around declining period of Roman Empire with last emperor on the run, you can feel the tarnishing and ruination that the Roman Empire has to face at its sunset; roads and bridges which connected the whole Roman Empire and were the highlights of Roman development are breathing their last; big tall buildings and beautiful Villa, souvenir of Roman Architecture, ruined and made repulsive by the ruthless attacks and the slow putrefaction by mother nature. In parallel, it beautifully covers the awesomely beautiful and hazardous dangerous path, the Legion has to follow on their way to Britannica. What more, the detailed descriptions of VMM helps the reader in visualizing it all, as well.
Legendary Calibean Sword of Julius Caesar that Romulus discovers in Villa of Capri and later becomes an essential aspect of the plot, is so beautifully described and so much importance is woven around it that even I craved to hold it in my hands and posses it. What but I liked the most is the way author very smartly leads his plot in the climax, as they move to Britannica and ends it where the legend of King Arthur begins, a Legendary sword buried in the Stone which only a king can liberate.
One aspect that might seems to be a Con, to some, is repetitiveness if you consider the whole length of the book. But in between the pages, flow is so good that a reader never feels bored, even when he gets the Déjà vu feeling.
FINAL WORDS: ‘The Last Legion’ is an excellent book written on the plot set around the time towards the end of the era of Roman Empire. It’s written in very simple as well as flowing language that a reader never knows where the time flies by and when the last page arrives. If you have seen the movie based on TLL, please follow the famous saying: “Don’t judge the book by the movie based on it” (Oops.. Not sure if I am the first one saying it). TLL is much much better book than what the movie makes of it. I highly recommend this book based on past fiction and part facts but adventurous nonetheless.
P.S: A smart writer never fails to leave his message no matter what he writes on. Here is a small message (in comments) that VMM has given in the End Notes of the book and guess what, it’s addressed to the powerful Western world of today. It sums up all that one has to learn from the fall of Roman Empire.
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PYAR HUMIEN PHIR MILAAEGA..
