Tros of Samothrace

About This Book

First published as a series of novellas in Adventure magazine in 1925–1926 and collected in book form in 1934, Tros of Samothrace is a historical adventure novel by Talbot Mundy (1879–1940). Set in 55 BC during Julius Caesar's first invasion of Britain, the novel follows Tros, a Greek seafarer from the island of Samothrace, as he joins forces with the Britons to resist Roman conquest.

The story was controversial from the start: Mundy portrayed Caesar not as a heroic conqueror but as a ruthless imperialist, and Roman civilization as a system built on slavery and exploitation. Adventure magazine's editor later called the Tros stories the most debated the magazine ever published. Over the course of the sprawling narrative, Tros travels from the shores of Britain to Spain and finally to Rome itself, building alliances and confronting treachery at every turn.

Fritz Leiber praised Tros of Samothrace as a landmark of imaginative historical fiction. Mundy, who spent years traveling in India and the Middle East, brought an outsider's skepticism toward imperial power to all his work. The novel is in the public domain.

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