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Ein Kampf um Rom; historischer Roman. (Book, ) [tandjfoods.com]
Cashback within 10 days. Offer valid only once per customer including mobile recharges and bill payments. Here's how terms and conditions apply. To get the free app, enter mobile phone number. See all free Kindle reading apps. I'd like to read this book on Kindle Don't have a Kindle? Besides a plot that is both colourful and rich of intrigue, the novel focuses on the actual struggle for control over Ancient Rome and specifically on the acts of heroism and heroic deaths therein.
For this fact it was quickly considered a novel for boys in the German Empire , newly founded in ; the book was continuously handed over from the previous generation of adolescents to the next until the s. Dahn was a trained historian and - prior to the novel - had published a first scientific monography about Procopius of Caesarea in , the main source of the Gothic War — , describing the history of Theoderic's realm and people and their future fates.
Dahn incorporated many historical details into the story. However, he was also able to create new characters if he felt the need for them, e. The beginning of the story focusses on Theodoric the Great 's envisioned heir, his grandson Athalaric. Being underage, his mother Amalasuntha reigns in his stead. Amalasuntha envisions a merger with the Eastern Roman Empire , much to the dismay of the Ostrogothic people, who consider her as a traitor an important motif throughout the book.
Theodoric's old but hardy armourer Hildebrand arranges an alliance to be made between him, Vitiges , Totila and Teia to save their kingdom.
Vitiges is a just and mature man, who has to sacrifice his happy marriage with Rauthgundis to marry Amalasuntha's daughter Matasuntha. Totila is portrayed as a handsome and charismatic young man, who like Theodoric wishes to combine Roman civilisation with Gothic strength. This is symbolised in his relationship with the Italian Valeria.
Teia is a dark and fatalistic war hero, who envisions the demise of the kingdom.
Even though he knows this demise to be predestined, he adopts the Germanic philosophy to face fate with courage, in order to be well remembered. The nature of this tragedy is kept a secret throughout most of the book.
Ein Kampf um Rom: Historischer Roman
As the story unravels each of these three men become king against their will, in their unsuccessful struggle to save the kingdom. Not so much the Emperor Justinian I and his scheming wife Theodora , but his marshals Belisarius and Narses shape the campaigns for the reconquest of the Italian Peninsula. Belisarius has already conquered and destroyed the Vandals and is determined to bestow the same fate upon the Ostrogoths but fails to do so. Whereupon Narses , a shrewd strategist, does not waste the opportunity to subdue the Ostrogoths. Throughout the military campaigns, historian Procopius is present to record the progression.
He is in fact the main source of the Gothic War — and thus the main source for Felix Dahn to write this novel. Procopius ' work Secret History is loosely interwoven as a subplot about Theodora scheming and cheating on Justinian I. The most interesting Roman character is the firm and cunning narcissist Cethegus. He, as opposed to most characters, is not a historical figure, but the patrician family to which he belongs is historical.
Cethegus was based on the life of Rufius Petronius Nicomachus Cethegus. In Cethegus was elected sole Consul e.
From - ca. During King Totila's siege of Rome in he was accused of treason and retreated to Constantinople. In the novel he opposes both the Ostrogoths and the imperial Eastern Romans and strives to rebuild the Western Roman Empire , but never reveals his true motives to others, while plotting to achieve his goal and corrupting the relationship between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines , except for his fellow conspirators.
The conspirators are mainly members of patrician families that lost their influence under Gothic rule.