Overview

In 190 A.D., Commodus Antoninus has ruled the Roman Empire for eleven years and replaced the measured government of his immediate predecessors with the capricious behavior of a madman. He is universally hated and feared. Four people scattered across the Empire-in Rome, Ostia, Spain, and Germany-have been struggling to understand the altered circumstances of their lives. Born into a stable world, they recognize it less and less. Little by little, the time-honored principle of gravitas-restraint, decency, service to country, respect for tradition, and care for others-is vanishing, and they wonder whether Commodus is the cause of their dilemma or its consequence. How they find their way in this altered world is the subject of this novel.

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9781953728098

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Reviews

""Gravitas is an intricate, richly textured novel that follows the intersecting lives of five central characters from various walks of life as they struggle to endure and find meaning in a society that has lost its moral compass and is rapidly descending into political and social chaos. With deep compassion and profound insight, the author presents an array of scheming businessmen, patrician ladies, senators, musicians, seasoned soldiers and passionate prostitutes, each of whom is fully rendered: complex and sometimes unpredictable, flawed yet always tragically human. As they navigate a web of ambition, greed, and betrayal, we can see nobility in some and the casual cruelty of others. In carefully restrained but vivid prose, Sheinkopf invites us to enter into a world which is, for all its exotic strangeness, not dissimilar to our own. This wise and wonderful book will continue to resonate with readers long after they have reached its quietly devastating conclusion."" -Robert Lavett Smith, author of This Late in the Season and Smoke in Cold Weather

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