Enjoying HBO’s new Rome series? Then you’ll want to read Steven Saylor’s books too.
Many of
us find it easier to get a handle on complex historical eras by
approaching them first through fiction and later tackling the labyrinth
of historical facts. If that’s your preferred approach, then
Steven Saylor’s Rome Sub Rosa series is made to order.
Saylor’s
mystery novels are set in the 1C BC and they star Gordianus the Finder
as a Roman “detective” with a nose for truth and an uncanny ability to
find himself in unusual predicaments. Roman Blood, the
first of the ten books in the series, throws Gordianus into cahoots
with the young Cicero and takes the reader deep into the political,
legal and family arenas of ancient Rome. Rome’s hottest new
lawyer, Cicero, is faced with defending a wealthy farmer accused of
killing his father. Cicero hires Gordianus to discover what
really happened and Saylor gives a lively rendition of Sextus’s trial
including Cicero’s defense speech.
Gordianus’s
work on the case will win him acclaim and through the course of
Saylor’s next nine books, his status in life will rise as he moves from
a middle class house on the Esquiline Hill to a noble abode on the
Palatine. His adventures will become ever-more exciting too - in
subsequent books Gordianus interacts with Rome’s major movers and
shakers, including Pompey the Great and Caesar.
Order Roman Blood from Powell’s
St Martin’s Press, 2000. ISBN 0312972962