His client is Umbrian landowner, Sextus Roscius, accused of the unforgivable: the murder of his own father. On an unseasonably warm spring morning in 80BC, Gordianus the Finder is summoned to the house of Cicero, a young advocate and orator preparing his first important case. A thrilling puzzle from the ancient world with real historical characters and based on a case in Cicero's Orations - Roman Blood is a perfect blend of mystery and history by a brilliant storyteller.
Margaret Sanborn, Senior Publicity Copywriter From the Inside Flap:īook Description Paperback. Marcus Tullius Cicero, for one, appears in CATILINA'S RIDDLE not as a statesman but as an underhanded schemer obsessed with destroying Lucius Sergius Catilina, who has gone down in history, rightly or wrongly, as a man who attempted to bring down the Roman Republic. The noble Romans do appear in his books, of course, but they're a far cry from the bloodless statues who watch serenely from the covers of Latin books as students painstakingly translate their dry speeches. His detective, Gordianus the Finder, seems a scruffy sort, not a noble Roman from the history books by any means, and his Rome is a rough-and-tumble place full of noisy street vendors and con artists as well as more well-to-do, upstanding citizens, a city full of gossip and intrigue and nasty politics as vicious as anything we see today. Set in ancient Rome before the rise of Julius Caesar, these are not your usual cozy reads. With Steven Saylor's mysteries, we have that Roman behind the door. I heard an echo of her words many years later when I read THE FAR ARENA, in which the protagonist wished earnestly to be able to turn a doorknob in time and find the Roman behind the door. It was her hope, as she said, not only to teach us this beautiful language but to be able to bring to life for us the people who formed the vibrant culture that was Rome's.
My high school Latin teacher - Sister Ethelreda, are you out there in cyberspace? - enthralled her class for four years with her tales of ancient Rome, from culinary trivia to the deeds of the noble generals and the great Roman patriots.
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