Nice, thought Marcia. Perhaps a thousand men walked slowly up the ramp toward the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the Great God of Rome, rearing its impressive bulk in highest place of all on the more southerly of the two hills constituting the Capitol. The Greeks built their temples on the ground, but the Romans built theirs on lofty platforms with many steps, and the steps which led up to Jupiter Optimus Maximus were indeed many. Nice, thought Marcia again as the sacrificial animals and their escort joined the procession, and all went on together until at last they clustered as best they could in the restricted space before the great temple on high. Somewhere among them were her husband and her two sons, a part of the governing class of this mightiest of all cities of the world.
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Author’s Afterword
The sources for the tale of Troy are many. Homer’s Iliad is but one of them; it narrates the events of some fifty-odd days only out of a war which lasted, all the sources agree, for ten years. The other epic poem attributed to Homer, the Odyssey, also provides much information about the war and those who fought in it. The other sources are often fragmentary, and include Euripedes, Pindar, Hyginus, Hesiod, Virgil, Apollodorus of Athens, Tzetzes, Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Sophocles, Herodotus, and more.
The date of the relevant sack of Troy (there were several) is generally thought to have been around the year 1184 BC, a time of great upheaval around the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea due to natural disasters like earthquakes and to the migration of new peoples both into the area and from one part of it to another. Tribes were pushing south from the Danube basin into Macedonia and Thrace, and Greek peoples were colonising the coasts of modern Turkey along the Aegean and the Black Seas. These convulsive movements were the successors of earlier migrations and the precursors of others, and were to persist until relatively recent times. They gave rise to much of the richest traditions inherent in the history of Europe, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean basin.
Archaeological evidence commenced with the discoveries of Heinrich Schliemann at Hissarlik in Turkey, and Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos in Crete. There seems to be little doubt that a war was fought between the Achaean Greeks and the inhabitants of Troy (also called Ilium). It was almost certainly waged for control of the Dardanelles, that vital strait connecting the Black (Euxine) Sea with the Mediterranean (Aegaean) Sea, for with control of the Dardanelles (the Hellespont) came a monopoly of trade between the two bodies of water. Some of life’s necessities were hard to come by, particularly tin, without which copper could not be made into bronze.
But while trade, economics and the need to survive were probably the roots of the war, no one can dispense with the more legendary trappings, from Helen to the Wooden Horse.
For the most part, the characters bear a Greek form of name. Some, like Helen and Priam, have passed so firmly into English-speaking cultures that I have preferred to give them their English names. A few characters are better known today by the Latin form of their names, as Hercules (Herakles), Venus (Aphrodite), Jupiter (Zeus), Aeneas (Aineas), Patroclus (Patrokles), Ulysses (Odysseus), Hecuba (Hekabe), Vulcan (Hephaistos), and Mars (Ares).
Despite the existence of clay tablets (Linear A, Linear B, etc) found at Pylos and other Mycenaen sites, the Aegaean peoples of the later Bronze Age were not literate in our meaning of that word. The ability to write, as distinct from Odysseus’s contemptuous references to ‘grocery lists’ (the Linear tablets – which were a form of Greek), did not appear much before the seventh century BC.
Coins also belong to the seventh century BC, so money per se did not exist, though gold, silver and bronze were used as tools of barter.
To indicate measurement, I chose terms like ‘talent’, ‘league’, ‘pace’, ‘cubit’, ‘finger’ and ‘dipper’. Though in much later ages a league consisted of three miles, for the purposes of this book it may be assumed as one mile (1.6 kilometres). The pace was a double step measuring five feet (1.6 metres). There are arguments as to whether the cubit extended from the elbow to the wrist, or to the knuckles of the clenched fist, or to the fingertips. For the purposes of this book, assume that a cubit measured fifteen inches (375mm). Smaller lengths were estimated by the breadth of the middle finger (something under one inch, about 20mm). A talent was the load one man could carry on his back: about fifty-six modern pounds (25 kilograms). Grain was a liquid measure: assume that the vessel used to dip into it contained about four American pints (2 litres). Years were probably determined by the cycles of the seasons, whereas the month was measured by the moon, perhaps from new moon to new moon. Hours, minutes and seconds were unknown.
About this Book
It was a clash of arms that would echo through the millennia: a hard-fought conflict born of love, pride, greed and revenge; a decade-long siege of the ancient world’s greatest city from which nobody would escape unscathed.
As urgent and passionate as if told for the first time, international besteller Colleen McCullough breathes life into legend, swinging our sympathies from Greece to Troy and back again as they move inexorably towards a fate not even the gods themselves can avert. Here are Greek princess Helen, sensuous and self-indulgent, who deserts a dull husband for the sake of the equally self-indulgent Trojan prince Paris; the haunted warrior Achilles; the heroically noble Hektor; the subtle and brilliant Odysseus; Priam, King of Troy, doomed to make the wrong decisions for the right reasons; and Agamemnon, King of Kings, who consents to the unspeakable to launch his thousand ships, incurring the terrifying wrath of his wife, Klytemnestra.
Reviews
‘A powerful story told with the verve of a novelist and the commitment of a historian’
Sunday Times
‘Incomparable… Engrossing… Breathtakingly detailed… A Triumph’
Chicago Tribune
‘A truly astonishing work’
Time
Also by Colleen McCullough
THE MASTERS OF ROME SERIES
110 BC:
The world cowers before its legions, but the fate of Rome hangs in the balance.
From the marbled columns of the Senate to the squalid slums of the Subura, the city is about to be plunged into a conflict that will set rich against poor, Roman against Italian, father against son, a conflict destined to destroy the Republic but leave, in its stead, an Empire.
Unbearable cruelty, martial brilliance, murderous ambition, heroic destiny: this is the stuff of legend. Colleen McCullough’s epic Masters of Rome captures the soul of Rome in a way no other writer has ever managed.
I. The First Man in Rome
Rome, 110 BC
The world cowers before its legions, but Rome is about to be engulfed by a vicious power struggle that will threaten its very existence. At its heart are two exceptional men: Gaius Marius, prosperous but lowborn, a proud and disciplined soldier emboldened by his shrewdness and self-made wealth; and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a handsome young aristocrat corrupted by poverty and vice.
Both are men of extraordinary vision, extreme cunning and ruthless ambition, but both are outsiders, cursed by the insurmountable opposition of powerful and vindictive foes.
If they forge an alliance, Marius and Sulla may just defeat their enemies, but only one of them can become First Man in Rome.
The battle for Rome has just begun.
The First Man is Rome is available here.
Jump to a preview here
II. The Grass Crown
Rome, 97 BC
Gaius Marius is triumphant. Under his command, Rome has conquered the Western world, weathered invasion and crushed its enemies. There is just one prize left to him: an unprecedented seventh consulship.
But the greatest prize demands the highest price. Marius, now aging and ailing, is pitted against a new generation of assassins, power-seekers, and Senate intriguers. There are many who would like to see him fail, not least Lucius Cornelius Sulla, once his closest ally, now his most dangerous rival. Sulla and Marius’ contest can o
nly be won through treachery and blood. As a deadly enmity engulfs both men and plunges them towards madness, Rome must fight its own battle for survival.
The Grass Crown is available here.
III. Fortune’s Favourites
Rome, 83 BC
The Republic is disintegrating. Ravaged by disease, tormented by desire, Lucius Cornelius Sulla has returned from his campaign in the East determined rebuild it, even if it means taking battle to the very walls of Rome and purging the city with blood. There will be deaths without number or limit, but amid the chaos, three infinitely ambitious young Romans vie for greatness.
The young wolves are Pompeius Magnus, Marcus Crassus and the man the world will one day know by just one name: Caesar. Together, they are Fortune’s favourites – an endorsement that will prove as much a blessing as a curse.
Fortune’s Favourites is available here.
IV. Caesar’s Women
Rome, 68 BC
Caesar has returned to Rome. Having cut his teeth campaigning in the East, his sites are now set on a new battlefield: the Forum Romanum. This war will be waged with rhetoric and seduction, weapons Caesar will wield with cunning and ruthlessness. Cuckolding political enemies is but a tactic in a broader strategy: Caesar knows that the key to Rome lies with its noblewomen. Whether the powerful, vindictive Servilia, whose son Brutus deeply resents his mother’s passionate and destructive relationship with Caesar, or his own daughter Julia, Caesar is prepared to sacrifice them all on the altar of his own ambition. Caesar’s women will make his name, and one of them will seal his fate.
Caesar’s Women is available here.
V. Caesar
54 BC
Caesar’s legions are sweeping across Gaul, brutally subduing the tribes who defy him. But, in Rome, his enemies are plotting his downfall and disgrace. Vindictive schemers like Cato and Bibulus, the spineless Cicero, the avaricious Brutus. Even Pompey, Caesar’s former ally. But all have underestimated Caesar.
When the Senate refuse to give him his due he marches upon Rome, an army prepared to die for him at his back. Rome is his destiny – a destiny that will impel him to the banks of the Rubicon, and beyond, into legend.
Caesar is available here.
STANDALONE NOVELS
Bittersweet
From author of The Thorn Birds, one of the biggest-selling books of all time, comes this epic saga of love, betrayal, ambition and redemption in 1920s Australia.
The four Latimer sisters are famous throughout New South Wales for their beauty, wit and ambition. They have always been close; always happy. They thought this would never change.
But then they left home to train as nurses, swapping the feather beds of their father’s townhouse for the spartan bunks of nursing accommodation. And now, as the Depression casts its shadow across Australia, they must confront their own secret desires as the world changes around them. Will they find the independence they crave? Or is life – like love – always bittersweet?
Bittersweet is available here.
The Thorn Birds
In the rugged Australian Outback, three generations of Cleary’s live through joy and sadness, bitter defeat and magnificent triumph. Driven by their dreams, sustained by remarkable strength of character… and torn by dark passions, violence and a scandalous family legacy of forbidden love.
It is a poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit. Most of all, it is the story of the Clearys’ only daughter, Meggie, who can never possess the man she so desperately adores –Ralph de Bricassart. Ralph will rise from parish priest to the inner circles of the Vatican... but his passion for Meggie will follow him all the days of his life.
The Thorn Birds is available here.
Tim
Forty-three-year-old Mary Horton lives in a quiet, middle-class suburb on Sydney’s North Shore. A straight-laced, emotionally distant spinster, Mary has worked hard to make a life for herself, but her idea of ‘life’ does not include personal relationships. With no partner and no friends, Mary has no plans to let anybody into her solitary life.
Tim Melville is a twenty-five-year-old labourer with the body and face of a Greek god, but the mind of a child. A gentle outcast in a cruel, unbending world, Tim has a loving family, but is often derided and taken advantage of by his so-called friends.
By chance, one summer morning Tim meets Mary and what begins as a day’s labour for the kind-hearted young man becomes a life-changing relationship for both of them.
Tim is available here.
An Indecent Obsession
The Second World War has just ended and Sister Honour Langtree, a caring and conscientious Army nurse, cares for a striking mixture of five battle-broken soldiers being treated in the psychiatric care ward of a hospital in the South Pacific. To the soldiers, Honour is a precious, adored reminder of the world before war – they are as devoted to her as she is to them.
Then Sergeant Michael Wilson arrives, disrupting her ward’s precarious harmony. A damaged and decorated hero, Wilson is a man of secrets and silent pain, and as Honour finds herself inexorably drawn to this tortured man, she discovers a love that will leave her torn between her duty to all her patients – and her love for one of them…
An Indecent Obsession is available here.
About the Author
COLLEEN MCCULLOUGH was born in Wellington, New South Wales. 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, where she wrote record-breaking international bestseller The Thorn Birds. She lives on Norfolk Island in the Pacific with her husband Ric Robinson.
A Letter from the Publisher
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The story starts here.
First published in Great Britain in 1998 by Orion
This eBook published in the UK in 2014 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Colleen McCullough 1998
The moral right of Colleen McCullough to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781781857908
Head of Zeus Ltd
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www.headofzeus.com
Contents
Cover
Welcome Page
Display Options Notice
Map
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter 1: NARRATED BY Priam
Chapter 2: NARRATED BY Peleus
Chapter 3: NARRATED BY Chiron
Chapter 4: NARRATED BY Helen
Chapter 5: NARRATED BY Paris
Chapter 6: NARRATED BY Helen
Chapter 7: NARRATED BY Hektor
Chapter 8: NARRATED BY Agamemnon
Chapter 9: NARRATED BY Ac
hilles
Chapter 10: NARRATED BY Odysseus
Chapter 11: NARRATED BY Achilles
Chapter 12: NARRATED BY Agamemnon
Chapter 13: NARRATED BY Achilles
Chapter 14: NARRATED BY Odysseus
Chapter 15: NARRATED BY Diomedes
Chapter 16: NARRATED BY Helen
Chapter 17: NARRATED BY Patrokles
Chapter 18: NARRATED BY Achilles
Chapter 19: NARRATED BY Brise
Chapter 20: NARRATED BY Aineas
Chapter 21: NARRATED BY Agamemnon
Chapter 22: NARRATED BY Achilles
Chapter 23: NARRATED BY Hektor
Chapter 24: NARRATED BY Nestor
Chapter 25: NARRATED BY Odysseus
Chapter 26: NARRATED BY Hektor
Chapter 27: NARRATED BY Achilles
Chapter 28: NARRATED BY Automedon
Chapter 29: NARRATED BY Agamemnon
Chapter 30: NARRATED BY Helen
Chapter 31: NARRATED BY Diomedes
Chapter 32: NARRATED BY Priam
Chapter 33: NARRATED BY Neoptolemos
Epilogue: The Fates of Some Survivors
Preview
Author’s Afterword
About this Book
Reviews
Also by Colleen McCullough
About the Author
An Invitation from the Publisher
Copyright
The Song of Troy Page 50
