Immerse In Imperial Purple Generated By Gillian Bradshaw Presented In EPub

Set in theth Century when the Roman Empire extended into Asia, Bradshaw is known for her historical research but there is apparently not a lot of historical sources for this period of the Roman Eastern empire.
Yet she has woven a vivid tale of Demetrias amp her husband Symeon, both state slaves, and their unintentional involvement in a plot to overthrow Theodosius II.
The novel describes both a slice of life of the populous and political intrigue at the highest levels, I enjoyed the story but some of the plot seemed too unbelievable or maybe inconsistent is the better word, for the main characters.
Some of the characters were more fleshed out than others, in fact one of the pivotal supporting characters, the Hun Chelchal, was more solid than Symeon.
I found the real life character of Pulcheria, the sister of Theodosius, fascinating and hope to find something else to read about her.
This was a really fascinating depiction of the Roman Empire as seen from the viewpoint of a peasant family a weaver and her fisherman husband.
The heroine is forced to weave a robe for an emperor, using the purple dye reserved for the royalty, but she knows the robe cannot be meant for the current emperor because the size is not right.
Thus we have a glimpse into the technical world of the art of the loom woven into a story of intrigue and suspense that leads to the highest levels of Roman society.
I admit I found the "headhopping" and frequent interior monologues a bit distracting, but overall the writing was very good, and I remained interested in the lives of the protagonists as well as the story.
Set in early Christian times, the tale of the weaver Demetrias portrays her entrapment in a treasonous plot against the Byzantine emperor and her fight to protect her family and self as the battle for Constantinople rages Reread.
Not as good as 'Beacon At Alexandria' but pretty darned good, Bradshaw has a talent for taking her readers to the obscure late Romanearly Byzantine period and creating plausible characters and settings.
Demetrias, a weaver in Tyre becomes enmeshed in intrigues that take place at the highest levels of the Eastern Empire.
Some of the characters are familiar to readers of Gibbon but Ms, Bradshaw adds a human dimension that gives life to distant and vague historical figures, This is one of those books that you're really sorry to have to finish, Det er sådan en fin historisk roman In many ways I really liked this book firstly Gillian Bradshaw deserves so much credit for shining a light on an obscure corner of the Eastern Roman Empire in thes AD, rather than writing yet another novel about Rome in the Late Republic.
And it's clear that she really understands Roman lifestyles and attitudes it's there in everything from people reading aloud, to Flavius Marcianus not valuing his daughter as much as his dead son, to the increasing intermingling with Huns and Goths, to Demetrias and Symeon not seeing anything odd or immoral about purchasing a slave even though they're slaves themselves.
Plus her characters are realised vividly and with sympathy Aelia Pulcheria is a badass, Meli is adorable, Marcianus and Asper are remarkably decent and honourable, and even the less obviously likeable ones, such as the thoughtless, arrogant procurator Marcus Acilius Heraclax, or the emperor's spy Eulogios, feel like real, complex people.


Appropriately enough for a book called The Colour of Power, she's also got an excellent grasp of how being a slave, even if it's state slavery which is freer and more comfortable, more like a job, than household slavery, shapes and defines your mindset, and how even the slightest hint of favour can affect how others relate to you.


So then why the two Firstly, I don't get the impression Bradshaw, a fundamentally kind writer who doesn't generally let anything too horrible happen to her characters, likes political scheming or writing about it.
The conspiracy to set Nomos on the throne is wrapped up amazingly quickly and simply, But more importantly, I simply didn't find Demetrias believable, At the start of the book she seems to be completely lacking in any sense of self or ability to act on her own desires she submits to her marriage and children, and doesn't try to make anything of it, to forge any sort of relationship with her husband.
Certainly being a slave would erode your will, and she was raped by a procurator when she was a young girl, plus her grandmother was cold and disdainful, but her mother is affectionate and the people around her have some selfesteem despite being slaves.
It doesn't make any logical sense that she would simply miserably endure her life rather than trying to find any happiness in it at all.
I think Bradshaw deliberately starts her from a low base so that throughout the book she can realise how much she actually loves her husband and son, and learn to fight for what she wants, but it's so low it's not realistic.


While this particular book didn't really click with me, I'll definitely read Bradshaw's others firstly she's one of the few who like exploring less famous parts of the Roman Empire, and secondly her strengths in worldbuilding and characterisation are such that I really look forward to finding the one which is going to work for me.
The Beacon at Alexandria, in particular, is one that I've heard really good things about, and am excited to start.
sitelink wordpress. com/ .Bradshaw pretty much at her best, with smart, resourceful, angry women being awesome in a period of history that no one writes novels set in I honestly can't think of another, pseduohistorical Arthurian stories excepted.
Symeon and Marcianus are smart and resourceful too, but the women are better, Hurrah for secondwave feminism! This was a reread for me, but I think I read this the first time overyears ago.
I always enjoy Gillian Bradshaw's historical fiction, She covers time periods and places that I am not familiar with, so I enjoy the glimpse into new cultures and time periods.
This story deals withth century Greece and Rome with a small look at the Huns, Good story, characters, and great historical detail, Seidenweberin muss purpurnen Mantel weben, der zur Absetzung und Einberufung eines neuen Kaisers dienen soll, Eine Revolution also. Die Seidenweberin und Ihr Mann werden immer tiefer darin verstrickt,
sitelink sonderbooks. com/Fiction/im Demetrias, a skilled silk weaver in Tyre, lives a very simple life until she is caught up in an ambitious political plot and is forced to go along with it in order to protect her life and her young family.
She is a state slave of the Roman Empire with little influence, Those in power are easily able to control and manipulate her until, that is, Demetrias attains a level of power herself that in turn affects them.
Bradshaw showcases the intrigues of the Roman court in this novel that is somewhat lacking in suspense, but makes up for it with vivid descriptions of the time period and memorable characters.


Favorite quotes: “Tool I may be, but tools used for dangerous work must be treated with respect if they turn, they can cut the hand that used them.
” Demetrias

“Power makes you callous, You dont just agree to pay for what you want youre willing to have other people pay, too, ” Demetrias

“The monks are right when they claim that in public life no one can keep free of sin.
The world is corrupt, and no one who tries to keep himself sinless can hold power in it, And yet, how can anyone who cares for justice leave all the power to those he knows are wicked, who rule corruptly and inflict ruin and death upon the innocent” Marcianus
Good stuff.
I'm going to read another one of hers now! I enjoyed this one a bit more than Beacon at Alexandria.
A weaver and her family get caught up in imperial intrigues, giving the reader peek into the halls of power without setting the story there.
I also liked all the detail about weaving and dyeing, Set in the fifth century Eastern Roman Empire, Imperial Purple is the story of Demetrias, a weaver in a state factory, and her husband Symeon who are inadvertently caught up in a plot to overthrow the emperor Theodosius II.


As ever with Gillian Bradshaw, the research is meticulous and the period is convincingly evoked, But what makes this book special is the fact that though the backdrop is high politics, the story is primarily about domestic life.
The central characters are ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events and the focus is on their struggle to remain a family unit despite the enormous pressures that seem determined to destroy them.


A richly detailed setting that makes the ancient world feel as real and immediate as the street outside your front door, strong, believable characters, and a compelling emotional narrative make this a really enjoyable read.
Plot:first half is an easybut second half is a contrived
Characters:welldeveloped motivations but behavior sometimes forced
Accuracy:captures the period well but doesnt obey its own rules

I love books that take place in obscure and littleseen periods of history especially when its my obscure and littleseen period and this book has a unique enough plot to be a real draw.
Basically, an imperial slave in a Tyrian weaving factory is commissioned to make a purple cloak, Purple is the imperial color, so only emperors can wear it, but the size and style is wrong for the current emperor.
Which means that shes being ordered to commit treason, and as a slave theres nobody she can turn to to get out of it.
The basic choices are to accuse her boss of treason and have him execute her, or to do it anyway and face death by slow torture if hes caught.
Its a terrible example of the horrors that come from being an unfree person in a society as unequal as Rome was.
As such the book provides a compelling look into what life in a Roman city bonus points for not even being Rome! was like for those not of the elite classes.
In this respect the book is well researched and takes us somewhere new, The complexity of the free/unfree relationship in Roman society is rarely explored outside of stories about Spartacus, which is basically its own subgenre about a very atypical moment in Roman history.
This book tries and often succeeds at bringing the complexities of what life meant for a slave, And it does so inth century Tyre, a time when the western empire is collapsing and the East is under the rule of various regents for the weak emperor Theodosius II.


The slave POV is probably the best thing about this novel, What does it matter to a slave even a state slave if one emperor kills another Neither one will give a moments thought to their plight.
It is, in fact, far safer to let the emperor die than stick out their necks for the conspirators to chop off.
Its not just the emperors, no nobles can really be trusted, Why should they care about a bunch of insignificant slaves This is one of the main themes of the book, and its a powerful one.
And yet as time goes by, this stark truth becomes fuzzier, Some of its a good fuzzy, As imperial slaves, they are substantially better off than private slaves and in many ways behave as regular citizens, They also have many opportunities to profit from their own labor and are in some ways better off than their poor yet free neighbors.
So how clear and important is the distinction between free and unfree persons in the end But some of it is a very bad fuzzy indeed since it dilutes the main point.
See, some nobles do care, implausible as that might actually be, and our leads are constantly relying on their selfless aid to survive.
Which is ruinous to the whole theme, The focus gradually shifts from being the system is rigged against us since we are viewed as nothing but disposable objects to good nobles do care about us but they just have bigger issues to deal with for the greater security of the empire.
By the end, the masters have actually become more sympathetic than the slaves, who seem to have no sense of gratitude and an utterly ridiculous notion of how much is owed to them.


The real problem with this book though is that there are no consequences, At no point do we genuinely believe that the author would let these characters come to harm, And thus we never really get involved in their artificial lives, This sense of invulnerability is created by the very interesting and complicated dangers that are otherwise a boon to the book.
Slaves are property, to be used as desired, And yet an immoral agent of the empire who legally stole an imperial slavegirl to punish her leaves her essentially unmolested with no rape which nothing done to a slave could legally count as since they had no right to their own bodies or worse.
Its not that I want the book to deal with rape, but this is the world as it existed and the author makes clear that shes following those rules.
In fact, the lead characters backstory involves just such a rape, but it happened in the distant past and therefore isnt something we have to witness.
To come up with convoluted or often no reasons to justify her survival untouched in the present is a cheat, and its so obviously a cheat that it makes the whole tale feel phony.
Actions have terrible consequences in this setting, and the fact that they all get off scotfree despite behaving rashly to put it mildly is a bad thing.
There are a number of other examples, Survivals not even a matter of stupendously implausible luck like in so many adventure novels, The sole reason these characters dont die horribly is because the bad guys who gain control over them just dont feel like doing the horrible things to them that theyve done to literally everyone else.
Im not a real fan of the George R, R. Martin approach where any character can die a horrible death at any moment, but there needs to be some sense of genuine peril for us to actually engage with the conflict.
Again, Im not so bloodthirsty as to really want to see

main characters get raped or murdered, but if youre going to place them in such situations then you damn well need to be honest to them.
Otherwise make the story about something else,

And what this lack of consequences ultimately leads to is a string of stupid decisions, After all, if nothing you do can kill you then why not just throw your arms in the air and drag your fiveyearold son directly into the villains lair while shouting very loudly that theyre bad men The kids basically invulnerable, so whats the harm And once people start behaving like this all the carefully developed realism of the setting just gets thrown out the window.
I really loved the first half of this novel, where we saw a different type of story in a different setting to your traditional Roman tale.
The intimate smallscale setting was a welcome change, and the character drama felt heartfelt enough to carry the plot, The story could probably have stayed there and been the better for it, But instead it felt the need to make the tale an empirewide quest, with detailed sections at the very peak of Roman government.
And the storys worse off for it, This novel has a unique premise, The effort to turn it into a standard nobles plotting to control the government for the good of all epic is what tears it down.


I really did enjoy the first half of this book, enough so that I can forgive many elements of the second half.
The book does provide enough unique elements to be worth reading, I just wish that it had had the courage to stick to those elements rather than try to make it a more traditional swashbuckling adventure full of high level backroom politics.
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