The Twelve Tables: A Novel of Ancient Rome

"Part history lesson, part love story, and part coming-of-age tale, this stimulating novel is likely to have wide-ranging appeal." -Kirkus Reviews

The blood of the bulls on Jupiter's hill gave them liberty-the words graven unto these Twelve Tables made them equal.

ROME, 462 BC. To save his family's failing farm, sixteen-year-old Marcus Atilius is sold into debt servitude by his own father. Plunged into the city's underbelly, Marcus must endure a world of cutthroat trading stalls and gritty warehouses, all while navigating a forbidden entanglement with a woman far above his station. Survival demands sharp guile and moral compromise.

As a bitter class struggle pushes Rome toward the brink of civil war, Marcus vows to beat the elites at their own ruthless game to win his freedom and a fortune worthy of the woman he loves.

Yet his rise brings a fateful choice. A historic demand sweeps the city for the Twelve Tables-a revolutionary legal code to protect plebeians from patrician tyranny. With a corrupt aristocrat holding the tether to his trading empire, will Marcus protect his hard-won power, or risk everything for the soul of Rome?

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Koehler Books
Published: 11/17/2026
ISBN: 9798897475230
Pages: 280
Weight: 0.83lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d