The narrator in this novel is Aemilius Scaurus, an aristocratic Roman who was a schoolmate of Domitian, and the lover (at different times in his life) of Titus and Domatilla, and who was later exiled by Domitian but decided not to return to Rome after Domitian's death, having made a life for himself in his place of exile on the Black Sea. He was also a friend of Tacitus, and with a great deal of prodding from Tacitus he writes a series of letters to give him his account of events in Rome in 68 and 69 AD. Disturbed by his memories of that terrible time he intersperses the letters with reflections that he decides not to send Tacitus.

Massie conveys well the sense that the book is describing somebody's memories of events rather than the events themselves. There is a certain amount of enjoyment in the fact that the narrator doesn't seem to like Tacitus very much. Scaurus views Tacitus as rather pompous, with a better grasp of what makes for good literary description than of real life, but also unwittingly supplies Tacitus with some of his most memorable quotes.

On the other hand he supplies rather later famous people, such as Napoleon, with some of their best lines as well, which rather spoils the illusion, otherwise very well maintained, that this really is one of Tacitus's sources. ( )

A fairly graphic and in places rather off-putting rendition of the Year of Four Emperors, 69 AD, when Rome tore itself apart following the suicide of Nero. As it does not focus on one emperor, this lacks some of the flow of the others in the series and is decidedly lacking in sympathetic characters. ( )