'The point of the novel, however, is action, heroic deeds, and gore. The qualities a writer of such stories needs -- imagination stimulated through the soles of his feet as he walks the scenes of his tale, and a sound knowledge of the period -- are abundantly possessed by Sidebottom ... Carefully described duels and engagements between whole army units compel the reader's attention ... He knows, too, how to keep the reader in suspense ... Authenticity is the key -- an 'Historical Afterword' gives some idea of the research Sidebottom has done for his gripping book.'
Times Literary Supplement
'The latest in this series of novels on Rome’s Persian Wars, Lion of the Sun, is, like the first two, a book to keep you up well past your bedtime. It’s all about war and killing; I loved it … It is the aspiration of every academic I know to turn his subject into blockbuster fiction … Harry Sidebottom … must be the envy of his peers. But he has achieved something real. The hero and his companions are individuals, and the quality of friendship should make this series a cult read for adolescents. The ancient world has proved to have unexpected resonances for our own time … and these novels will add to the fascination.'
Evening Standard
'The lionisation of war makes my blood run cold, but Dr Harry Sidebottom’s prose blazes with such searing scholarship that there is enormous enjoyment in this rumbustuous tale of the late Roman Empire ... Sidebottom treads in the footsteps of the greatest mimetic historian-storytellers of the 18th and 19th centuries. He makes you feel as though you are there.'
Bettany Hughes, The Times
'Harry Sidebottom works on Rome’s 3rd-century army the magic that Patrick O’Brian applied to Nelson’s navy. He has the touch of an exceptionally gifted story-teller drawing on prodigious learning.'
Tim Severin, author of the Viking Trilogy
'Harry Sidebottom brilliantly reconstructs the life of the ancient world, and in particular its military technology, and wraps it in a powerful narrative whose themes are classic in more ways than one. It’s the best sort of red-blooded historical fiction – solidly based on a profound understanding of what it meant to be alive in a particular time and place.'
Andrew Taylor, bestselling author of The American Boy
'In the third century AD the Roman Empire was beginning its meltdown. It was horrible and violent. Harry Sidebottom’s epic tale starts with a chilling assassination and goes on, and up, from there.'
Mary Beard, Chair of Classics, University of Cambridge
'At last, a piece of historical fiction for grown-ups'
Robert Low, author of the Oathsworn novels
'In modern fiction, from Valerio Massimo Manfredi to Conn Iggulden, there is often an awkward tendency for instruction to triumph over excitement ... Dr Sidebottom successfully avoids this pitfall. Instead he concentrates on providing a complex and human account of urban people under siege. The strength of Warrior of Rome lies in the portrayal of its central character and his evolving relationships with a cast of minor characters, some of whom – his household slaves and lover – seem destined to survive, and others whose lives are, usually gruesomely, cut short by battle ... Sidebottom provides a well constructed, well paced, and gripping account of life in ancient war-torn Asia Minor which, as a good series ought, leaves the reader eagerly anticipating the next instalment'
Times Literary Supplement
'Sidebottom captures perfectly the corruption, betrayals, and enmities of the Roman Empire ... I don't think I've ever experienced antiquity so directly: the brutality, the directness of expression and feeling, the deep bonds formed amid unmitigated violence'
Professor David Konstan, Chair of Classics, Brown University
'A gripping yarn interwoven with superb knowledge of the ancient world'
Professor Bryan Ward-Perkins, Fellow in History, University of Oxford
'A vivid, racy, and gripping novel from a major scholar who also happens to be a brilliant master of fiction'
Dr Jas Elsner, University Fellow in Classical Art, University of Oxford
'With the eye of a poet and the sure hand of a scholar, Harry Sidebottom takes us back to the clash of empires that had Rome and Persia wrestling over the fate of the Near East. This dramatic but often forgotten struggle of the third century AD deserves our fullest attention today. I was riveted'
Professor Barry Strauss, Cornell University, author of The Spartacus War
'This action-filled adventure story focusing on the siege of Arete, an apocryphal town on the Euphrates River at the eastern edge of the Roman Empire, is a great read ... the reader needs no knowledge of the period to enjoy the fast moving, extremely dramatic plot. Sidebottom manages to apply his considerable knowledge of 3rd century warfare and Roman military terminology in a way that never intrudes'
Bryn Mawr Classical Review