Did I recommend it Marj? I had mixed feelings about it. I like Roman history, so I didn't mind the descriptions too much. The story line was good, but it wasn't a book I couldn't put down. What I didn't like was the way Saylor treated Tyro and sometimes Cicero. I got my hands on two short story books which fill in between the next regular novel which occurs eight years later in time. I never finished the second set of short stories. I doubt I will be reading any further. There are a lot of people, including Ginny, who like the series.
I still very much prefer Lindsey Davis's Didius Falco series. There is description in there too, but much more interesting. In Silver Pigs, the first of that series, there were descriptions of the mines in Britain, how lead was considered a precious commodity and weighed and stamped much like gold bricks, and how it was used to make plumbing pipes. Falco and family traveled to Britain (where Falco met his future wife), Gaul, North Africa (I forget exactly where), Alexandria, Palmyra, and Greece for some of their adventures. Each book used as a background a different aspect of Roman life from the layout of Roman forts and the construction of villas and bathhouses to the tourist trade to the Greek games, from the Great Library of Alexandria to the banking system in Rome, and so on. Falco comes with an odd assortment family and friends that are easy to relate to and like (or not).
