Garden of the Gods
Rowland C. Johnston
Type: Beta project
Genre: Historical fiction, literary
Word count: 116,000
Warnings: Graphic violence
Garden of the Gods is a novel about Titus, an intelligent, neurologically diverse boy, who grows up traumatized by the socio-political violence plaguing the centuries-old Roman Republic as its crumbling institutions descend into autocracy. He eventually joins an Epicurean society at Herculaneum and writes an anti-Roman poem that sets off dire consequences. Based on the historical figure Titus Lucretius Carus.
Garden of the Gods is a fictional biography set in ancient Rome about the tortured Roman poet Titus Lucretius and his struggle to change the world through his art. As a boy, Titus grows up traumatized by the violence and cruelty of a centuries-old republic disintegrating into authoritarianism.
He rejects his traditional family, then joins a peace-loving community of Epicureans and becomes a passionate disciple. Later, he decides to spread the good word of serene hedonism by writing a poem beautiful enough to capture the attention of the Roman elite who, if converted, might change the world for the better.
But his plan entangles him in the viperous intrigues of Rome’s powerbrokers, including the beautiful, dangerous daughter of Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, all of which puts his mission and even his life in danger, the very antithesis of Epicurean bliss.
A few lifetimes ago, I wrote an honors thesis on Lucretius (“Man and Art: a study of Lucretian Furor,” U.C. Berkeley). Some years after that, I read The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone and thought: “I can do better for Lucretius.” I failed miserably.
Then I discovered Colleen McCullough’s “First Man in Rome” series. She showed me the way, and I remain in her debt. These days, I’m retired from teaching college writing and literature (Northwestern Michigan College). My wife and I live in a small village where I write, play chess, and volunteer at a history museum.
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