6 reasons more historical romance should be set in Ancient Rome

People often ask me why I choose to write historical romance set in Ancient Rome, so here's a summary of the top 6 reasons I love it so much!

1. Clothing (or lack thereof)

We're all busy people—we don't have time to read paragraph after paragraph of unlacing corsets, unfastening petticoats, unbuttoning waistcoats.! All Ancient Roman characters have to do is whip off that tunic and they're getting down to business.

2. No aristocratic titles

The upper class of Ancient Rome didn't use titles, so you don't have to keep track of Lord Whatever, Duke of Somewhere. Also you don't have to figure out why one character is addressed as "My lady" while someone else is "Your grace" or whatever. It's a lot simpler!

3. Interesting social class structures

If you love the class dynamics of the Regency Era, Ancient Rome is for you. They had an exclusive upper class called the patricians who were supposedly descended from the first hundred senators chosen by Romulus at the city's founding. But lower class families could become just as wealthy or powerful, which created a really interesting old money/new money dynamic, with snobby patricians looking down their nose at the nouveau riche. 

4. Divorce

Unlike in the Regency era, divorce was common and relatively easy to do, especially among the upper classes. Either spouse could initiate a divorce, and a wife would actually reclaim her dowry upon divorcing which could have huge financial implications for the husband. This can really change the stakes of tropes like marriage of convenience. If characters can just decide not to be married, what will truly keep them together?

Check out my take on a supposed-to-be-temporary marriage of convenience in The Tribune Temptation (Roman Heirs #1).

5. Adoption

I love a "make an heir" plotline as much as the next person, but they didn't really need to worry about that as much in Ancient Rome. You could easily designate inheritance through adoption, so having a biological son was not as much of a necessity as it is in other eras. It became especially notable in the imperial era where emperors are adopting people they're not even related to in order to pass the succession to the most suitable candidate. In fact, from the beginning of the empire it takes 10 emperors and 106 years before an emperor passes the throne to his son (Vespasian > Titus), and the next instance didn't happen for another ~100 years (Marcus Aurelius > Commodus). This allows for the creation of interesting, unconventional family dynamics, and puts a different spin on many tropes in historical romance.

6. Badass women

It's easy to assume that the further back you go in history, the worse it was to be a woman. But Roman women were more empowered than you might think. They owned property, ran businesses, represented themselves in court, invested money, served as regents during the empire, and even fought as gladiators. Did you know they actually had to pass a law to ban freeborn women from fighting in the arena?I have six books full of badass women, but the most badass one is probably this chick on the cover of Gladiator's Beloved (Imperial Games #2). Yes, she's the gladiator!

I hope I've convinced you to give Ancient Roman historical romance a shot! You can check out my books in ebook, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited, and sign up for my newsletter to get a free novella.