A Chronicle of the Roman Twilight

GENRE: MEMOIR

The author took me to the early ages, and this was such a fantastic experience. The narrator excellently tells his story. Born in December 364, the narrator, Marcus Cedranus, shares his life in southwestern Britain with us. I loved his interesting personality from the beginning. The author penned down the story too well, that I was virtually transported to Britain throughout my reading.

Marcus was born in an averagely wealthy family of four children. Unlike many adults who often have fond memories of their childhood, and even say that their younger years were the best, Marcus could not relate to this. He says that he does not have the natural experience of having happy childhood memories. He goes on to state that childhoods are sometimes filled with extreme challenges, which come to haunt or affect us when we are adults. Nevertheless, Marcus reckons that his early years were the most serene and calm.

I cherish reading memoirs, and I extremely enjoyed reading “A Chronicle of the Roman Twilight”. The author wrote in an exceptional manner and was able to capture the reader’s interest from the beginning. When reading, we can see how Marcus tells about his life and those around him. One can picture the socio-economic status in Britain during the early years, and have a feel of how the culture was back then. I love Marcus’ background, and that he mentioned he was bilingual; spoke both Latin and Celtic.

The author’s writing style is one of the favorite things in the book. He increased my imagination and had me form a mental image of things in the years mentioned. 

Reading about the death of some of his siblings made me emotional.  Marcus could have had more siblings, but three of his brothers had died before reaching the age of five. Reading about death evokes intense feelings in me that I had to stop reading for a minute. The narrator writes that the loss of his siblings really affected his parents. Having mentioned that they were not on good terms with the father made it more distressing. He went on to mention that sometimes his father would lash out that Marcus’s dead brother wouldn’t have turned out like him, Poor Marcus.

Though not a purely history book, I was able to learn a lot about rural communities in Britain, the cities, languages spoken by the upper-class and folks in the countryside, and the general way of life back then.

Themes of conflict in the family, army life, love and romance, social classes in the society and child mortality were brilliantly covered in the book. It is an eye-opening read and will have you not skip any page, because of how well the book is written.

Marcus’s relationship with his parents, his relocation, posting to, training and tasks at Legion XXII Primigenia in Mainz and the Roman Army were too absorbing that I wished to read more.

I would recommend this book to anyone who adores reading real stories, written in an impeccable manner. I would rate the book with four out of five stars