Two regicides, a fratricide, two scenes of incest, a rape, a charioteer race, a civil war between the gods of Olympus, a lot of opium mixed with wine, three or four military campaigns, trips to Mesopotamia, Britain and Egypt, three conspiracies, three vestales outraged and executed, a visit to Charon, a state autogolpe and an indefinite number of homicides and betrayals. And Julia challenged the gods (Planet) could be explained by accumulation. The new novel by Santiago Posteguillo, a continuation of Yo Julia (Planeta Prize in 2018), arrives today in bookstores with 150,000 copies and four million readers who already know the writer's Roman novels.

How to find a meaning that spins all that data? «Julia's end is very hard, her story ended in a bleak way. And I needed a literary device that allowed me to relieve readers of that pain. That is why I invented a plot related to the gods, a dialogue like those of Homer, which allowed us to change the approach to history, understand its success, ”explains Posteguillo.

Some information: the Julia who gives the title to the novels of Posteguillo was Julia Domna, historical character, Roman citizen of Syria and wife of Septimio Severo, founder of the dynasty of the severe. In Yo, Julia, the readers of Posteguillo discovered the rise to power of the couple (two outsiders of provinces) until they reached imperial glory. In Y Julia challenged the gods, the drama consists in conserving power. First, of the conspirators; later, of the Senate; beyond, of the self-destructive instinct of the sons of Severus and Julia, Roman canes and abeles.

"Julia's great drama is that she creates a monster of her son Antonino," explains Posteguillo. Antonino is, at the beginning of this story, a good boy whose mother, in order to survive, becomes an uncontrolled being. Antonino murders, betrays and rapes, but Julia does not stop supporting him "because that was his vital project: to create a dynasty and consolidate it. She says it several times: in Rome, power is the only way to guarantee survival.

Posteguillo speaks in England, a few kilometers from Newcastle, at the foot of the Hadrian's Wall, the border of the Roman Empire in Britain that separated Roman Britain from the barbarian tribes of present-day Scotland. The wall is also one of the key scenarios of Y Julia challenged the gods. Seventh Severe died on this island and on this island he was succeeded by his sons, Geta and Antonino, who went down in history with the name of Caracalla and who was one of the great military dictators of Rome. «There is a scene from the book in which Rome sends an emissary to speak with the king of Partia. And it turns out that the emissary speaks a mediocre Greek from the Roman. With the severe, Rome had become a state of soldiers and had renounced much of its sophistication.

It is not very difficult to read And Julia challenged the gods, so loaded with conspiracies and political theory that it is easy to remember some novel by Héctor Aguilar Camín about the PRI's Mexico or some essay on the USSR of the Jhrushchev years. «These types of similes are the demonstration that such novels not only serve to entertain, they serve to understand the world. Populism, for example, ” explains Posteguillo.

They also serve to understand what political audacity is. In the midst of the plot, Julia promotes a policy aimed at extending Roman citizenship among all the free inhabitants of the Empire. In that way, the Empire gains a great demographic source for its legions and new tax revenues, as well as popularity for emperors and against the Senate . Because the severe, the protagonists of this story, are not morally better than their enemies. Or if?

"Julia does tremendous things, but I would say there are reasons to empathize with her," explains Posteguillo. His political intelligence is pragmatic and flexible, facing the brutality of the men in his family. In addition, throughout the novel they are opening small cracks in that ethic of survival that has brought it to power. Little by little, Julia is discovering new ways of being a good person. "His sister Maesa is his Jiminy Cricket," explains Posteguillo. In addition, Lucia, her most beloved slave, discovers herself as a Christian "and although she knows that religion is not for her, she tolerates it." Enviuda, falls in love and discovers the value of romantic loyalty. And the consequences of his voracity in the behavior of his son Caracalla.

At the end of the novel, Julia appears faced with Charon, the little god of death: he negotiates with him, intimidates him and, in the end, he wins. After death, Julia achieved her purpose, creating a dynasty that represented one of the last moments of fullness of the Roman Empire. The gods were still on their side.

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