Tarzan and the Lost Empire

Tarzan and the Lost Empire was published in 1929 and is the twelfth book in the sequence. The lost civilization this time is Castra Sanguinarius, a city of Africans-by-now descended from a Roman legion that had been lost in central Africa in the time of the Emperor Sangus. The empire has maintained Roman military discipline, gladiatorial games, and political infighting for nearly two thousand years.

A German archaeologist’s expedition led by a younger man named Erich von Harben gets lost in the same valley. Tarzan goes looking for the expedition and ends up enslaved as a gladiator in the Roman arena. The book features long action sequences in the gladiatorial games and a complicated political plot involving rival emperors. Like Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, this novel runs on the inherent novelty of the lost-empire setting. The Romans-still-alive-in-Africa premise is silly. Burroughs takes it absolutely seriously, which is what makes the book work. A solid entry in the lost-civilization sub-cycle.