First Man In Rome

By: Colleen McCullough

Narrated by: Stanley McGeagh

Brought to you by Penguin.


The first book in the epic Masters of Rome series.

Rome. 110BC. A city which is home to Gaius Marius, prosperous but lowborn, a proud and disciplined soldier emboldened by his shrewdness and self-made wealth. It is also home to Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a handsome young aristocrat corrupted by powerty, a shameless pleasure seeker.

Two men of extraordinary vision, men of ruthless ambition, both blessed and cursed by the special favour of Fortune. men fated to lay the foundations of the most awesome empire ever known, and to play out a mighty struggle for power and glory - for Marius and Sulla share a formidable ambition: to become First Man in Rome.


© Colleen McCullough 1990 (P) Penguin Audio 2012

Critic reviews

The author's narrative flows as easily as Father tiber . . . A grandly meaty historical novel . . . rich with gracefully integrated research and thundering to the beat of marching roman legions

Beware - mangled audiobook

What would have made First Man in Rome, Part 2 better?

A usable audiobook!
The downloadable files are grotesquely mangled.
Blocks of the text (sometimes a few sentences, sometimes whole chapters) are repeated, popping up at seemingly random places in later parts of the file. This happens dozens of times, and it makes for a maddening listening experience.

brilliant book ruined

As reported by Ken, this brilliant book has been utterly mangled by poor editing of the download files. how this was achieved is difficult to imagine as the repeated sections and interruptions seem to happen almost randomly.
Do not buy until this has been fixed!

Epic saga!

I love this series! I wished all of them were on audible in the unabridged versions!
The series begin a generation before Caesar. And the author manages to give a look into the Roman upper class; their ambitions, their restrictions, their family life, their military careers and the superiority of the Roman army - if led properly...
I read the first book age 15 and have reread them inumerable times; this year I turn 49 and I still love to revisit them,
Please let us have them all unabridged!