You know how this ends.
You do not know who set the stage.
The Cost of Victory is the last decades of the Roman Republic: Sulla's march on the city, Spartacus, Catiline, the triumvirate, Gaul, Carrhae, and the Ides of March. Every name changed. Every event moved into an Edo-Japan of samurai clans, yokai and living theatre.
The historic character analogies are by design.
From the Author's Note
You don't need to know any Roman history to read it; every name is changed. But if you do know it, this is who you are reading about. The cards say who each character echoes, never what happens to them in the book.
Who is who
Tenka no Kishi
The general who conquered Gaul, crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC and made himself dictator of Rome.
Julius CaesarKotoba no Kenja
Rome's greatest orator, consul in 63 BC, the year he exposed the conspiracy of Catiline.
CiceroKage no Fude
Born enslaved, freed by Cicero, credited with an early shorthand. Much of what we know of the age survives because he kept the letters.
Tiro, Cicero's secretaryMeifumado
The last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt. Plutarch says she reached Caesar smuggled in a roll of bedding.
CleopatraKaijō no Taishō
Rome's most celebrated general before Caesar, who swept the pirates from the Mediterranean in 67 BC. First Caesar's ally, then his rival.
Pompey the GreatŌgon no Kōshu
The richest man in Rome. He crushed the revolt of Spartacus and joined Caesar and Pompey in the First Triumvirate.
CrassusHōki no Hoshi
A Thracian gladiator who led the great slave revolt of 73 to 71 BC and beat several Roman armies in the field.
SpartacusIkazuchi
The first Roman general to march his legions on Rome itself, in 88 BC. Later dictator, remembered for his proscription lists.
SullaNanado
The general who reformed the Roman legions and held the consulship more often than anyone before him.
Gaius MariusThree are not in the history books
Three of the six voices are in the history books. Three are not. The Ghost, the Actor and the Fox appear in no Roman record. History never wrote them down. The Scribe did. Meet the six voices.
The years the book covers
- 88 BCSulla marches his army on Rome.
- 73–71 BCThe revolt of Spartacus.
- 63 BCCicero's consulship and the conspiracy of Catiline.
- 60 BCCaesar, Pompey and Crassus form the First Triumvirate.
- 58–50 BCCaesar's war in Gaul.
- 53 BCThe battle of Carrhae.
- 49 BCCaesar crosses the Rubicon.
- 44 BCThe Ides of March.