About the Book
- Graphic novel
- 233 illustrated pages
- 256 pages total
- History / Drama / Horror
- True Roman History
- Adaptation of Shakespeare’s MacBeth
Born of blood and a witch’s curse, then driven by his power-hungry wife, an outsider rises through the military ranks, seizes the Empire, and brings it crashing down in a bloody civil war as he pursues a mad quest to destroy the gods of Rome.
Roman historian Herodian cites that soothsayers proclaimed Maximinus Thrax – a barbarian of low birth, a wrestler, born of wild spirits in contempt of Roman religion – would grow so lustful of power and blood that he would bring the Roman Empire to its knees. So he did, as the first of thirty emperors over sixty years spanning the “Military Crisis” that led to the collapse of Rome and its religion. Herein we tell the true story of Maximin’s birth, rise to power, chaotic three-year rule, and violent death, just as Queen Elizabeth I retold the same tale. Shakespeare used figures from her recent history as a warning to the inheritors of her empire: we must learn these lessons of history, or we will repeat its tragedies.
When she hears of the Witches’ prophecy, ambitious wife Caecilia Paulina prods and goads reluctant Maximin to murder his friend, the boy-king Alexander Severus. As the last of the Severan Dynasty, Alexander struggled to hold Rome together against incursions by Gauls and Germans to the north and Persians to the east. Maximin and Paulina frame the Praetorian Guard for Alexander’s death. Loyal soldiers under Maximin’s command declare him Emperor. The Senate acquiesce for fear of civil war. Maximin sets out to destroy the Roman state religion that he despises, and melts down their idols to pay his armies. Maximin fears nothing, since the Witches tell him he is invulnerable. Are they real, or hallucinations of a madman? As Rome decays into fear and unrest under Maximin’s ruthless fist, the Senate secretly anoint Severan cousins the Gordians as Emperor and Caesar. Only the grand-nephew Gordian III escapes, who enlists fugitive general Pupienus Maximus in rebellion. Maximus joins upon learning that Maximin brutally murdered his wife and family. Maximin’s army crumbles as he descends into insanity. Maximin retreats to a fortress where General Maximus pursues him to his bloody doom. His death solves nothing for the financially and morally bankrupt Empire, which descends into anarchy.
EMPIRE OF BLOOD is a true story of the start of the Roman military crisis of the third century. It is also a retelling of Shakespeare’s MacBeth, which seems to be based on this historical figure.
