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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Rome, September AD 96. When the body of Sextus Verpa, a notorious senatorial informer and libertine, is found stabbed to death in his bedroom, his slaves are suspected. Pliny, a very respectable young senator and lawyer, is ordered by the emperor Domitian to investigate. However, the Ludi Romani, "the Roman Games," have just begun, and for the next fifteen days the law courts are in recess. If Pliny can't identify the murderer in that time, Verpa's entire slave household will be burned alive in the arena.

Pliny teams up with Martial, a starving author of bawdy verses and denizen of the Roman demimonde. Pooling their respective talents, they unravel a plot that involves Jewish and Christian "atheists," exotic Egyptian cultists, and a missing horoscope that forecasts the emperor's death. Their investigation leads them into the heart of the palace, where no one is safe from the paranoid Domitian. As the deadline approaches, Pliny struggles with the painful dilemma of a good man who is forced to serve a brutal regime—a situation familiar in our own age as well.

The novel provides an intimate glimpse into the palaces and tenements, bedrooms and brothels of imperial Rome's most opulent and decadent age.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 28, 2010
      Pliny the Younger turns sleuth in Macbain's less than successful debut, a whodunit set during the turbulent reign of the Roman emperor Domitian in the first century C.E. The emperor charges Pliny, a senator and acting vice-prefect, with discovering the truth about the murder of Sextus Ingentius Vespa, a senate colleague and informer whose bloody corpse was found in his bedroom. Those who might gain from Vespa's death include his son, Lucius; his concubine, Turpia Scortilla; and Ganymede, a handsome young slave who was no stranger to his master's bed. The stakes are certainly high, since Vespa's slaves face execution for murder if the real culprit isn't caught. Unfortunately, Pliny isn't a natural investigator, and the author's bloodless portrayal of him puts this book a step below the work of a first-rate historical writer like Steven Saylor. Hopefully, Macbain, a professor with a Ph.D. in ancient history, will match his knowledge of the time with better characterizations and pacing in the sequel.

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  • English

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