Ship of Rome (Masters of the Sea 1) [Hardcover]

John Stack (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 5, 2009 | Series: Masters of the Sea 1

Against a backdrop of the clash of the Roman and Carthaginian empires, the battle for sovereignty takes place on the high seas Atticus, captain of one of the ships of Rome's small, coastal fleet, is from a Greek fishing family. Septimus, legionary commander, reluctantly ordered aboard ship, is from Rome, born into a traditionally army family. It could never be an easy alliance. But the arrival of a hostile fleet, larger, far more skilful and more powerful than any Atticus has encountered before, forces them to act together. So Atticus, one of Rome's few experienced sailors, finds himself propelled into the middle of a political struggle that is completely foreign to him. Rome need to build a navy fast but the obstacles are many; political animosities, legions adamant that they will only use their traditional methods; Roman prejudice even from friends, that all those not born in Rome are inferior citizens. The enemy are first class, experienced and determined to control the seas. Can Atticus, and the fledgling Roman navy, staffed with inexperienced sailors and unwilling legionaries, out-wit and out-fight his opponents? SHIP OF ROME, full of magnificent sea-battles, packed with strong characters, torn between two powerful empires, is the first book in a new series, MASTERS OF THE SEA, by a brilliant new author.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this historically accurate debut, Stack vividly recreates the Roman Republic and its first attempts at a Roman navy. Capt. Atticus Perennis is a Roman of Greek ancestry and master of the trireme Aquila. Septimus Capito is one of the first marine Centurions. The two brothers-in-arms must confront both the vagaries of the Senate, with its backstabbing, self-aggrandizing politics, and the difficulties of developing the concept of naval warfare. Characteriza-tion tends to take a backseat to the abundant historical data, as Stack fills his stirring story brimming with the minutiae of Roman military life circa 200 B.C. and the strategic details of conducting battles at sea from slave-powered galleys, but fans of historical naval fiction will be thrilled by this exploration of an oft-ignored era. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

'This is a seriously entertaining book for anyone who enjoys stirring descriptions of ancient warfare. You can almost taste the salt, see the blood and hear the shouts and screams...John Stack is to be welcomed into the ranks of first-rate historical writers' Tuam Herald 'Crank up the testosterone, this one's a fighter!' U Magazine Ireland

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (January 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 000728523X
• ISBN-13: 978-0007285235
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,501,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor research mars good story, April 7, 2009

By 

A Reader (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ship of Rome (Masters of the Sea 1) (Hardcover)

I don't usually care so much about accuracy in a historical novel as long as the history is reasonable and the story is good. But Ship of Rome fails the accuracy test spectacularly, butchering both the broad outline of the 1st Punic War and the details.

1) The first and biggest problem is that the very premise of the novel is all wrong. In the book, the Roman legions on Sicily would wither and die as a result of a naval blockade by Carthage. This forms the basis of the entire book. However, ancient navies of the time couldn't blockade a single city much less an entire island like Sicily. This is because ancient fleets had to put to shore every night to camp. They couldn't carry food/water for their crews. In order to maintain a blockade a fleet would have to have an anchorage nearby (which Carthage did not have near Messana, the Roman port in Sicily) and even then could not spend enough time on the water to make a good blockade. Prior to the Romans building a fleet they took armies into and out of Sicily at will, making the trip from Rhegium to Messana w/o interference. The real reason Rome needed a fleet was to conquer the Sicilian port cities which remained under Carthaginian control because they could not be successfully besieged due to their ability to be supplied by sea indefinitely (which they were later able to do anyway despite Roman naval efforts). Carthage could hold out forever in theses cities, and reconquer the island when the Romans left.

2) So in the book why doesn't Carthage just blockade Messana? Well, Stack obviously considered this, so he made the only Roman port Brolium and makes little mention of Messana. Brolium apparently is like a secret port. Carthage doesn't know that Brolium is the Roman port. This is highly contrived. The Roman port in Sicily was Messana. Where did Brolium come from? It's not mentioned in any account of the war.

3) He has numbered Roman legions, as if they are permanent military organizations. At this time, they were citizen levies, raised for a specific purpose, then disbanded. Probably to accommodate his clichéd "band of brothers" storyline with the main characters.

4) Rome's treaty with Syracuse is treated as a kind of non-aggression pact. He has a Roman army stationed near Syracusan territory to keep Syracuse in check. In fact, Syracuse had become a loyal ally of Rome and was bound by treaty to come to Rome's aid whenever needed. This is exactly what Syracuse did during the Siege of Agrigentum by supplying the Roman armies when their supply source had been captured by Carthage. (Another example of how Rome was not dependent on Italy to supply its armies. Why would it be? Rome had allies among the entire interior of the island as well as Syracuse--it was hardly isolated in the middle of enemy territory.)

5) Characterizations are too broad and cliché. Gisco is cartooniishly evil. Scipio is cartoonishly haughty. Atticus is cartoonishly honorable. Etc, Etc. Gisco actually comes off like Blackbeard the pirate.

6) Has the appearance of a Carthaginian fleet off northern Sicily come as some kind of revelation to the Romans, as if they didn't know Carthage had a fleet. This news is greeted as something ominous and momentous when in fact in reality Carthage had already been raiding the coast of Italy prior to the time of this book.

7) Stack says repeatedly that the rowers on board the ships were chained slaves. Neither side used slaves as rowers.

All of this stuff is easily discovered by reading ANY book on the subject. I didn't come to know these things through a lifetime of study. I read a single book on the subject 15 years ago. To Stack's credit, he tells a good story, but the obvious lack of research makes the book of little value to the reader of historical fiction.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars lots of ancient naval action, May 2, 2009

By 

Konrad Baumeister - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ship of Rome (Masters of the Sea 1) (Hardcover)

During the course of the First Punic War, a Roman galley (under the command of a Greek) is surprised to encounter a large Carthaginian fleet, about to blockade the Roman supply base/port in Sicily, thereby stranding two legions and threatening to not only starve them into submission but strike a severe blow to Rome's entire Sicilian campaign. During the course of the ensuing action, Atticus the captain and Septimus the marine commander find themselves involved in multiple battles at sea, with egotistical or incompetant commanders of both sides; are involved in the design and building of Rome's first serious fleet; and eventually save the day (and campaign) for Rome.

On the positive side, Stack has constructed an interesting (if historically fanciful) story, and can write pretty well; this reads better than a first novel of this genre often does. His descriptions of the naval battles are very well done, the sights and sounds and smells of the ancient locations, including Rome, are seemingly spot-on, and one gets a good feel for the settings and locations of the story; it does not read like a couple of 21st century people transplanted in time (Harold and Kumar in Sicily) as too much pulp historical fiction does. He could work a little on writing better love-interest material, but that is not especially the focus of the book.

On the not-so-positive side, for all the effort to get things historically right in his story, Stack has altered (or blown) a lot of the actual well-known historical facts. In an author's note he gives reasons for some of these, for narrative reasons (it might be more interesting to read of Hamilcar Barca than Hamilcar Unknown); but there are plenty of details (eg the entire premise of a long-term naval blockade of an apparently wholly invented port) that rankle with this reader. The characters are wooden and essentially one-dimensional, the bad as well as the good. The reader should not think he is learning much about the First Punic War by reading this book.

One the whole, however, if one is willing to discount the multiple historical problems and read the book for the atmosphere and the action, it is an enjoyable way of spending a few hours immersed in ancient naval warfare.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Please don't buy this book, October 23, 2011

By 

Derfel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ship of Rome (Masters of the Sea) (Paperback)

Wish I could have my money back. Feel cheated. Sooooo bad. Love Scarrow Sharpe and many others and am quite tolarent of most first attempts but how this book got published I will never know.

I find that the first line of the amazon discription is completely false. Would be supportive of a first novel as it often gets better as the series progresses but this author is extremely lazy and has done no research.

This a money spinner to catch out people in book stores who can only make a decision from what they see on the back of the book and are interested in the Roman era.

As I said am supportive usually but this lad has taken the mickey out of people. He must have no pride in his work as allowing this to be published is embarrasing.

When I say there was no research done I mean none. Doubt this lad has even read a hist fiction book on rome let alone researching anything. Add to this that his charachters are something a ten year old would create and I hope you get the picture.