History Literature / TheEmpressOfRome

''The Empress Of Rome'' by Kate Quinn is a series of 4 historical novels set in Ancient Rome published between 2010 and 2015. The first book, Mistress of Rome, chronicles the story of Thea, a Jewish slave girl who survived Masada, as well as the various trials and tribulations that she goes through to achieve happiness. There is also a prequel involving Domitian's wife and two sequels that follow Thea's son Vercingetorix (or Vix for short).

* Didn'tThinkThisThrough: Lepida fails to realize that threatening to accuse Paulinus of rape will be less effective the more time passes (as well as the more people she screwed over.)

** Lepida seduces her stepson Paulinus, starting a years-long affair with him just to spite Marcus. This puts a massive strain on the father and son's relationship, in part because Marcus refuses to hold it against his son, making Paulinus feel guiltier about the situation.

* ReallyGetsAround: Lepida has slept with dozens of people over the years. [[HoistByHerOwnPetard This backfires on her]] after Marcus, sick of her treatment of him and his family, finally decides to divorce her towards the end of the first book. [[spoiler:Having become Domitian's mistress by that point]], her well-known reputation as a glorified whore ensures that she can no longer threaten to accuse Paulinus of rape (which was the threat she used the first time Marcus attempted to divorce her) and of being Sabina's true father and removes whatever leverage against Marcus she has left.

* AbusiveParents: Lepida Pollia is at best neglectful towards her daughter, and at worst physically abusive. Thea meanwhile does love her son but is not above using coporal punishment.

%%* AristocratsAreEvil: Lepida Pollia,

* DisappointedByTheMotive: Pretty much everyone's reaction when they learn that the reason [[Spoiler: Pedanius murdered Antinous]] was because the later had clocked him over the head once and called him a child.
%%* DomesticAbuse: Domitian does this to Thea.

* NotSoAboveItAll: When Thea encounters Lepida again after becoming Domitian's mistress she shamelessly rubs it in Lepida's face. She also subtly trolled Lepida during her service by speaking greek and writing when Lepida could do neither.
* RagsToRiches: Thea goes from being a slave girl to Domitian's mistress......although given how much of a psychopath he is this isn't much of an improvement.
* ReallyGetsAround: Lepida has slept with dozens of people over the years.

%%* IllGirl: Sabina starts out as this. She gets better after being rubbed with Vix's blood.

* NotSoAboveItAll: When Thea encounters Lepida again after becoming Domitian's mistress she shamelessly rubs it in Lepida's face.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: While Lepida doesn't bother to hide her true spiteful nature most of the time she is capable of putting on a mask of kindness to win people over. Pedanius Fuscus also qualifies

* GreenEyedMonster: Lepida. First, she sells Thea into slavery simply because the latter managed to win over Arius. And it gets much worse when Thea becomes Domitian's mistress

%%* SpoiledBrat: Pedanius Fuscus. Taken to murderous extremes.

''TheEmpressOfRome'' by Kate Quinn is a series of 4 historical novels set in Ancient Rome published between 2010 and 2015. The first book, Mistress of Rome, chronicles the story of Thea, a Jewish slave girl who survived Masada, as well as the various trials and tribulations that she goes through to achieve happiness. There is also a prequel involving Domitian's wife and two sequels that follow Thea's son Vercingetorix (or Vix for short).

!Tropes for this work include

* AristocratsAreEvil: Lepida Pollia,

* DomesticAbuse: Domitian does this to Thea.

* GreenEyedMonster: Lepida. First she sells Thea into slavery simply because the later managed to win over Arius. And it gets much worse when Thea becomes Domitian's mistress
* IllGirl: Sabina starts out as this. She gets better after being rubbed with Vix's blood.

* Sadist: Domitian.
* TheSociopath: Lepida Pollia; Domitian too.
* SoleSurvivor: Thea survived Masada at 6 years old.
* SpoiledBrat: Pedanius Fuscus. Taken to murderous extremes.
* TraumaCongaLine: Thea's life is....traumatic to say the least.

''TheEmpressOfRome'' by Kate Quinn is a series of 4 historical novels set in Ancient Rome published between 2010 and 2015. The first book, Mistress of Rome, chronicles the story of Thea, a Jewish slave girl who survived Masada, as well as the various trials and tribulations that she goes through to achieve happiness. There is also a prequel involving Domitian's wife and two sequels that follow her son Vercingetorix (or Vix for short).

* WouldHurtAChild: Lepida outright slams Sabina's head into a table at one point

* BitchInSheepsClothing: While Lepida doesn't bother to hide her true spiteful nature most of the time she is capable of putting on a mask of kindness to win people over. Pedanius Fuscus is also capable of hiding his truly selfish nature behind a pleasant mask.

* EvilIsPetty: Lepida and Pedanius are easily the biggest examples in the series. Lepida sells Thea into slavery for winning Arius and daring to be happy, seduces Paulinus in part because Thea likes him and reveals her adultery to Marcus in the cruelest way possible just to hurt him. Pedanius meanwhile, murders Antinous for clocking him over the standing up to him and clocking him over the head years before.

* ReallyGetsAround: Lepida.