Daughter of the Rebellion | A Fictional Retelling Of Rome’s Last Gladiator Games

Daughter of the Rebellion is an heart-pounding retelling of the last gladiator games in fourth century Rome, featuring female gladiator Adel, gladiator medic Felix, and Telemachus, the monk determined to see the games end. 

Main Themes

This is a fantastic historical/biblical fiction novel from Jamie Ogle! I really enjoyed it. When Adel is captured and sold to a gladiator school, she quickly becomes a crowd favorite. But the favor of the city and its patrons isn’t enough to make her forget that she is still a slave at the mercy of her masters. When promises of fame and riches fall flat and she is seriously wounded, she finds that the only person who truly cares about her is one of the gladiator school’s medics, a Christian named Felix. 

When Felix helps the monk Telemachus rescue injured gladiators who are supposed to be killed when they can’t recover fast enough, he knows he has to do everything he can to assist Telemachus’ goal of eliminating the games entirely. But some of the female gladiators refuse to leave without Adel’s blessing. Felix realizes that if he wants to help, he needs to get Adel to trust him. It’s a daunting task when she repeatedly refuses his medical administrations for fear they will make her look weak in front of the others.

The main themes in this novel would be a very light romance between Felix and Adel that grows slowly and naturally, the theme of what it means to find home, doing good to others even when it hurts, and coming to understand just how powerful the love and grace of God truly is. Nothing can keep a person away from God, not even the evils of a gladiator school. 

Faith Elements

One of the main themes in Daughter of the Rebellion was questioning if God can reach into the darkest and most destructive parts of society. Adel wonders if God can enter an evil place like a gladiator school and if all her mistakes and sins are too much for God. The monks have told her that God loves her anyway, but when the only love she has known is the fickle adoration of the crowd, she struggles to even desire spiritual or physical freedom. 

Felix has to double down on his own commitment to holding fast to his faith, especially when the church tells him not to worship with them because of his medic work in the gladiator school.

Family Friendly Considerations

There was a fair bit of sexualized content, not with the intent to glorify it, but to paint a realistic picture of the humiliation and de-humanization the female (and male) gladiators faced. Those scenes might be a little much for younger readers, so this is definitely a novel for adults. 

Interest in Similar Reads?

Here are some other biblical times novels for you to enjoy!

• Daughter of Rome by Angela Hunt
• A Deeper Well by Jill Eileen Smith
• Splendor of the Land by Connilyn Cossette