Antonia By Brenda Jagger

 I've just been re reading a book I read years ago, but found hard to find again, as I could not remember the author.  It is called Antonia, and is set in Rome in 69 AD which was known as the "Year of the Four Emperors".  After Nero,  the Empire was claimed by Galba, and within a year there were coups and overall 4 emperors ruled.

Brenda Jagger wrote this novel in the late 1970s and then wrote several other family sagas set in Victorian Yorkshire.  She was from Yorkshire and had worked as a probation officer...

Although Im not an expert on Roman history I enjoyed this book and it seems to be quite an accurate historical novel. 

Antonia is the daughter of a wealthy patrician family and a relation of the Emperor.  Although she is quite young and still has to mature, she has already been engaged more than once; her family arrange alliances for their children in order to further the family's interests and arrange divorces if the marriage proves unsuitable for improving the family fortunes.

  Her brother Clarus however has insisted on marrying for love, to a girl who is flighty and unfaithful.  She is a cousin of the family and does not love Clarus.. but she and her mother have been living on charity as poor relations.   Clarus and Antonia's father go to war in Judea, leaving the women of the family to manage their business interests in Rome.. which was considered more of a woman's role.  Antonia's mother manages the household, the social events like attending chariot racing and parties and the family businesses.. with efficiency but Antonia has always found her cold and seemingly obsessed with money and social position.  

During the course of the novel Antonia falls in love, experiences the death of one of her suitors in one of the coups, and also fears being murdered or possibly raped when soldiers are running riot.  She takes a lover, takes care of him when he is wounded and learns about running a household and managing the family's properties.   She also finds that her seemingly cold mother was once deeply in love with one of the claimants to the Imperial throne.  She loses the man she loved but finds a new husband whom she is fond of....so it is a muted happy ending.....