I just finished book #6 in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series:
What a talented woman!!!
It is a novelized history of the last years of the Republic, with an in-depth knowledge of Marius, Sulla, Pompey Magnus, Caesar, Cato, Cicero, Marco Antonius and their wives. And of course Cleopatra.
Serie:
The First Man in Rome (Masters of Rome, #1)
The Grass Crown (Masters of Rome, #2)
Fortune's Favorites (Masters of Rome, #3)
Caesar's Women (Masters of Rome, #4)
Caesar (Masters of Rome, #5)
The October Horse (Masters of Rome #6)
Antony and Cleopatra (Masters of Rome, #7)
As a user of the Spanish blog (https://www.hislibris.com) of historical books used to say:
"I know three kinds of fans of historical novels: those who almost revere Colleen McCullough, those who detest her, and those who have yet to meet her. For the first ones, the reading of "The First Man of Rome" was possibly a real find, a happy encounter that pushed them to read inexorably (as if some hidden spring had sprung when they started reading it), the no less than 5,000 pages that make up one of the most famous and commented series of "Roman novels". The second ones were probably shipwrecked among dozens of characters, dizzying changes of scenery, constant explanatory digressions and a seemingly endless string of historical events. And the third ones... have most likely been living on some distant planet for the last few years."