''Marcus Flaminius'' is a 1792

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to oth ...

by the British writer Cornelia Knight. It drew on Knight's classical learning and was dedicated to

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...

. Taking the form of a

epistolary novel An epistolary novel () is a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly di ...

it depicts a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

soldier Marcus Flaminius captured by the Germanic forces at the

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, also called the Varus Disaster or Varian Disaster () by Ancient Rome, Roman historians, was a major battle fought between an alliance of Germanic peoples and the Roman Empire between September 8 and 11, 9&nbs ...

. After spending several years as a prisoner and outsider amongst the

Cherusci The Cherusci were a Germanic tribe that inhabited parts of the plains and forests of northwestern Germania in the area of the Weser River and present-day Hanover during the first centuries BC and AD. Roman sources reported they considered thems ...

, he then returns to the corrupt

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Emperor Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius ...

. Knight uses the novel to reflect indirectly on the recent French Revolution.O'Brien pp. 208-9

References

Bibliography

* Looser, Devoney (ed.) ''The Cambridge Companion to Women's Writing in the Romantic Period''. Cambridge University Press, 2015. * Mitchell, Kate. ''Reading Historical Fiction: The Revenant and Remembered Past''. Springer, 2012. * O'Brien, Karen. ''Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain''. Cambridge University Press, 2009. 1792 British novels British historical novels Novels set in Germany Novels set in ancient Rome Novels set in the 1st century Epistolary novels {{1790s-novel-stub