The Twelve Tables: A Novel of Ancient Rome

By Richard Barager

"Part history lesson, part love story, and part coming-of-age tale, this stimulating novel is likely to have wide-ranging appeal." -Kirkus Reviews

The blood of the bulls on Jupiter's hill gave them liberty-the words graven unto these Twelve Tables made them equal.

ROME, 462 BC. To save his family's failing farm, sixteen-year-old Marcus Atilius is sold into debt servitude by his own father. Plunged into the city's underbelly, Marcus must endure a world of cutthroat trading stalls and gritty warehouses, all while navigating a forbidden entanglement with a woman far above his station. Survival demands sharp guile and moral compromise.

As a bitter class struggle pushes Rome toward the brink of civil war, Marcus vows to beat the elites at their own ruthless game to win his freedom and a fortune worthy of the woman he loves.

Yet his rise brings a fateful choice. A historic demand sweeps the city for the Twelve Tables-a revolutionary legal code to protect plebeians from patrician tyranny. With a corrupt aristocrat holding the tether to his trading empire, will Marcus protect his hard-won power, or risk everything for the soul of Rome?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HF6TJPW2
• ISBN13: 9798897475247
• Release Date: November 2026
• Publisher: Koehler Books
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"