My final nomination is
Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert. This is set in Carthage. Rome conquered Carthage some time after this but this is on the periphery of the empire and during a time when Carthage was destitute due to the indemnities imposed by Rome as part of a peace treaty. It was a somewhat scandalous book because of descriptions of violence and sensuality. The only Flaubert I've read so far is Madame Bovary and I thought it'd be interesting to see what this one is like in comparison.
Goodreads,
Preview, 252 pages, 1862, France
Wikipedia:
Quote:
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Contemporary readers, familiar with Flaubert's previous realistic work, Madame Bovary, were shocked and, in some instances, appalled by the indiscriminate violence and sensuality prevalent throughout the novel, which is why, notwithstanding the praise it received for its style and story, Salammbô remains controversial in literary circles to this day. Nevertheless, it was a massive best-seller, which sealed the author's reputation as one of the most prominent French writers of the 19th century, with even some of the Carthaginian costumes described influencing contemporary French fashion
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Goodreads:
Quote:
The novel Salammbo (published in 1862) interweaves historical and fictional characters. The action takes place before and during the Mercenary Revolt, an uprising of mercenaries in the employ of Carthage in the 3rd century BC. --- An unfinished opera by Modest Mussorgsky, a silent film by Pierre Marodon and a play by Charles Ludlam are among the many adaptations of Flaubert's novel. --- In 1858, in order to gather material for Salammbo, Flaubert paid a visit to Carthage.
Flaubert insisted, in the face of scholarly criticism, that there was no detail in Salammbo for which he could not produce documentary authority.
Immediately after the protracted and crippling First Punic war with Rome, the Carthaginian army under Hamilcar was obliged to contend with a revolt by their unpaid mercenaries – an anarchic barbarian horde of mixed race – led by the Libyan Matho. It is a story of the most appalling savagery which Flaubert was anxious to render in spirit and detail. His invention of the exotic and chilling Salammbo, priestess in the temple of the Goddess Tanit, and her obsessive relationship with Matho, lends dramatic unity to a tale of epic grandeur in which Flaubert gave full rein to his love of the gorgeous, the voluptuous and the bizarre.
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