Santiago Posteguillo tours the ruins of Bibracte, a cold and foggy terrain, surrounded by a beech forest and located in the heart of Burgundy. From time to time he stops and tells an anecdote from the times of ancient Rome, because in Bibracte it was precisely where Julius Caesar defeated the Helvetii in the first great battle of the Gallic War, back in the year 58 BC.
“It is known for certain that the confrontation occurred in this place, which later became an important city for its reserves of minerals, wood and water and for being a commercial enclave that received goods arriving from Marseille. What has not been found is the exact point where the battle took place. The Roman legionaries wore studded sandals, which they left along the way and which have always been a clue to know where the fighting took place. The tacks have not been found here, but Caesar's first victory against the Celts took place in this place, which is where Julius began writing The Gallic War,” says Posteguillo.
The author is already well versed in the area, as he has traveled on several occasions to write Maldita Roma (Ediciones B / in Catalan in Rosa dels Vents), the second installment of the biography of Julius Caesar, which today reaches Spanish bookstores. . It is by no means the only site that he has visited to illuminate this exciting novel of almost 900 pages, which fans will read almost in one sitting. “I have gone to Rome several times to look for specific things and also to Egypt, Rhodes, Jerusalem and Ephesus, because I like to see first-hand the places where my novels take place,” he explains in an interview with La Vanguardia.
And Damned Rome begins with Caesar exiled along with his inseparable Labienus on the way to Rhodes to learn oratory with the famous Apollonius Molón, who was Cicero's teacher. The trip is not smooth at all, because the pirates kidnap the Romans and demand a priceless ransom for them. Thanks to a cunning that Ulysses would envy, Caesar overcomes the trance and reaches his destination. There he learns the art of speaking, which will be very useful in the future in the Senate of Rome.
But for now his home is very far away. And very agitated, because Spartacus has risen up against Rome with an army of slaves that grows day by day. “Thanks to Spartacus, Caesar was able to leave exile and return home,” says Posteguillo. Pirates, rebellious slaves, gladiators, battles, betrayals, high politics... Ancient Rome has everything romantic and that is why Posteguillo chose it to set his novels.
“I always wanted to write, but my books never surpassed the publication barrier. When I got my doctorate and had my place at the university, I tried again, because what I am most passionate about is writing and telling things. Since I am also enthusiastic about history, I decided to take a turn and unite the literary with the novel and I opted for Rome, because we come from there and we have to understand where you come from.”
It began with Scipio, “because he wanted to narrate his confrontation with Hannibal.” He continued with Trajan, “a relatively unknown character” and then he looked at Julia, “whom he had his eye on for a long time.” Eight novels and 8,000 pages of Roman history later, Posteguillo has dared to take on the great Gaius Julius Caesar, feeling that “I was at a moment of knowledge of the Roman world and of narrative maturity, which allowed me to undertake this project that is going to take me ten years, because I am going to tell the story of Caesar in six books.”
Fans will have to be patient, but for now they can enjoy in the pages of Damn Rome the confrontation, dialectical and political, between two of the most intelligent men of their time and perhaps of all times, Caesar and Cicero.
“Despite everything, they both respected each other, they were two very smart men and their political confrontation is amazing, due to their cultural level, their oratory, what they said and how they said it. How well they spoke, for God's sake!” In the Senate, sometimes Cicero won and other times Caesar, but Julius was always victorious among the people of Rome. “The people loved Mario's nephew, the man who, despite having his career on track, refused to leave his home and lived in the most humble neighborhood of the city. Caesar was a popular leader and had many traits of what we define today as populist. Caesar was the first populist because of his way of using propaganda and communication.”
In fact, he could be attributed “the invention of journalism.” “He realized the importance of the people knowing what each senator voted for when he presented the agrarian reform, so he invented some minutes, huge wooden boards, where the votes were written with wax. And he put some soldiers to guard them to prevent fraud. Later he added information to those minutes about, for example, plays, and also criticism, explaining how the actors had been. From there he moved on to papyri, which would later be distributed throughout the empire and recited by criers to inform people who did not know how to read.
Posteguillo never ceases to be surprised by Caesar's "political astuteness" and also by the ideas he expressed in some of his speeches "which are extremely topical", such as the one he gave on December 5, 63 BC. defending that a person cannot be executed without a prior trial. “When I read it I had a moment of epiphany, I didn't know if I was in Rome 2,000 years ago or in the United States Congress a few months ago.”
César's life is like a novel, but the success of Posteguillo, which is a best-seller, lies not only in what he tells, but in how he tells it: “I explain the unknown of the known and I do it from dramatic irony, in such a way "so that the reader has more information than the characters," concludes the author, who in Maldita Roma covers 18 years of Caesar's life. An exciting time in which the mythical Gaius Julius refined his strategy to take power. For him to cross the Rubicon, fall in love with Cleopatra or be the victim of a conspiracy, there are still four more installments to go.
