It is 753 BCE and the new city of Rome exists on the edge of a knife. The young King Romulus reels from the loss of his mother’s counsel, turning to his father—Mars, the god of war—and his city’s new chief Vestal, Tarpeia, to fill the void. The city is constantly at war. As bad, it is a city of men, set to die out within a generation.
Thus, the knife slips, setting into motion an infamous crime that will entangle Tarpeia and resound throughout Latium and beyond, pitting Rome against its enemies and allies alike, and showing the settlement by the Tiber, and its young king, what it will ultimately take to rule the world.
TARPEIA is the second novel in The First Vestals of Rome, an epic trilogy about the founding Vestal Virgins of ancient Rome.
About The First Vestals of Rome Trilogy
Set in the 8th century BCE, The First Vestals of Rome is an action-packed trilogy that dramatizes the sensational, often perilous lives of three legendary women who gave rise to Rome’s powerful order of Vestal Virgins. All of them central to the life of Romulus, Rome’s founder, these tectonic women were fated to shape the history of the Eternal City as much as any Caesar who came after them.
Debra May Macleod is an author of seven historical fiction novels set in Ancient Rome and featuring the esteemed order of Vestal Virgins. Her novels chronicle the Vestal Order's history over a thousand year period, from its earliest days to its emotional end.
Her trilogy The First Vestals of Rome is set in the 8th century BCE and dramatizes the legendary lives of the founding Vestal Virgins of Ancient Rome.
Her trilogy The Vesta Shadows takes place from 45 BCE to 14 CE and follows the life of the Vestal priestess Pomponia Occia, who is inspired by the real Vestal Occia who lived during this time—the years that saw the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, and beyond.
And finally her novel COELIA CONCORDIA: THE LAST VESTAL VIRGIN OF ROME dramatizes the end of the great Vestal Order... and the end of the Roman Empire itself.
Debra has a Bachelor of Arts in English and Classics, and a Juris Doctor. She welcomes readers to visit her website at DebraMayMacleod.com.