History v literature in Augustus

Sent from my iPhone yesterday, not published for technical reason:

Reading further into John Williams’s epistolary novel, Augustus (1973), and thinking about differences between reading literature and reading history. Part of the interest in reading A comes from its apparent veracity; we don’t feel so much that we’re meeting “characters” (tho I’m pretty sure that JW creates some character to fill gaps in his narrative - in particular A’s friend who become a resource and correspondent for the historian Livy) but we/I feel as if I’m learning about a fascinating era in western civ. I don’t think JW takes significant liberties w the known facts; compare w say the HBO series Rome, which told the story largely fro. The POV of 2 Roman soldiers/centurions, one of whom became a senator and the other who became one of Cleopatra’s lover (and father of a child? I don’t remember). JW in contrast stays for the most part w known figures such as mark Antony and A himself as the sources for info on these historical events. It’s been many years since I read/saw either of Shakespeare’s Roman dramas on the Caesars but I think his too were closer to the known facts. Big difference: the power of language in JC and the focus on the power of love in A&C - whereas JW plays it straight - none of the language calls attention to itself and he never - At least thru first half of the novel - turns minor characters into major figures or viewpoints for the history of ordinary roman citizens. There are no powerful crowd scenes and the accounts of battle are 2nd or 3rd hand. But what the novel does have is a clarity of vision and a good balance between using “documents “ such as correspondence and official pronouncements and using letters written some 30 years after the events to present a variety of vantages - noting of course that all of these documents are JW’s creations - he has much greater freedom of composition than does any historian, ancient or contemporary. Great way to learn more about Roman history; not sure yet how much we’ll get to know about the character of A, who remains at this point somewhat distant and enigmatic.