The October Horse: A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra

McCullough, Colleen

ISBN 10: 0743528174 ISBN 13: 9780743528177

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2002

Synopsis

A novel of the final days of the Roman Republic explores the love affair between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, the assassination of Caesar, and the struggle for power that leads to the rise of the Roman Empire.

About this title

About the Author:

Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. A neurophysiologist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, then worked as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years. Her writing career began with the publication of Tim, followed by The Thorn Birds, a record-breaking international bestseller. The author of ten other novels, McCullough has also written lyrics for musical theater. She lives on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific with her husband, Ric Robinson.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Introduction

The Ides of October marked the end of the campaigning season, and on that day a race was held on the grassy sward of the Campus Martius, just outside the Servian Walls of Republican Rome.

The year's best war horses were harnessed in pairs to chariots and driven at breakneck pace; the right-hand one of the winning pair became the October Horse, and was ritually killed with a spear by the flamen Martialis, the special priest of Mars, who was god of war. Then the October Horse's head and genitalia were amputated. The genitals were rushed to bleed on the sacred hearth in the Regia, Rome's oldest temple, after which they were given to the Vestal Virgins to burn to ashes in the sacred flame of Vesta; later these ashes were mixed into cakes offered on the anniversary of the founding of Rome by her first king, Romulus. The decorated head was tossed into the midst of two teams of humble citizens, one from the Subura district, one from the Sacra Via district, who fought strenuously for possession of it. If the Subura won, the head was nailed to the Turris Mamilia. If the Sacra Via won, the head was nailed to an outer wall of the Regia.

In this ritual so old that no one remembered how it had begun, the very best that Rome owned was sacrificed to the twin powers that ruled her: war and land. Out of them came her might, her prosperity, her everlasting glory. The death of the October Horse was at once a mourning of the past and a vision of the future.

Copyright © 2002 by Colleen McCullough

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0743528174
• ISBN 13: 9780743528177
• Binding: Audio Cassette