The Seven
Wonders
(Roma Sub
Rosa 0.5)
The year is 92 B.C. and the youthful Gordianus has just turned
eighteen, and is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime: a far-flung
journey to see the Seven Wonders of the World. Gordianus is not yet called “the
Finder”—but at each of the Seven Wonders, the wide-eyed young Roman encounters
a mystery to challenge his powers of deduction.
Accompanying Gordianus on his travels is his tutor, Antipater of
Sidon, the world’s most celebrated poet. But there is more to the apparently
harmless old poet than meets the eye. Before they leave home, Antipater fakes
his own death and travels under an assumed identity. Looming in the background
are the first rumblings of a political upheaval that will shake the entire
Roman world.
Teacher and pupil journey to the fabled cities of Greece and Asia Minor,
and then to Babylon and Egypt. They attend the Olympic Games, take part in
exotic festivals, and marvel at the most spectacular constructions ever devised
by mankind. Along the way they encounter murder, witchcraft and ghostly
hauntings. Traveling the world for the first time, Gordianus discovers that
amorous exploration goes hand-in-hand with crime-solving. The mysteries of love
are the true wonders of the world, and at the end of the journey, an Eighth
Wonder awaits him in Alexandria. Her name is Bethesda.
Roman
Blood
(Roma Sub
Rosa #1)
Elena asks that you come to the House of Swans at once . . .
Compelled by this message, the wealthy, sybaritic Sextus Roscius goes not to
his harlot, but to his doom—savagely murdered by unknown assassins. In the
unseasonable heat of a spring morning in 80 B.C., Gordianus the Finder is
summoned to the house of Cicero, a young advocate staking his reputation on
this case. The charge is patricide; the motive, a son's greed. The punishment,
rooted deep in Roman tradition, is horrific beyond imagining.
Gordianus's investigation takes him through the city's raucous, pungent
streets and deep into urban Umbria, unraveling layers of deceit, twisted
passions, and murderous desperation. From pompous, rouged nobles to wily slaves
to citizens of seemingly simple virtue, the case becomes a political nightmare.
As the defense proceeds toward a devastating confrontation in the Forum, one
man's fate may be threaten the very leaders of Rome itself.
Arms of
Nemesis
(Roma Sub
Rosa #2)
The hideously disfigured body was found in the atrium. The only clues
are a blood-soaked cloak, and, carved into the stone at the corpse's feet, the
word Sparta . . . The Overseer of Marcus Crassus's estate has been murdered,
apparently by two slaves bent on joining Spartacus's revolt. The wealthy,
powerful Crassus vows to honor an ancient law and have his ninety-nine
remaining slaves slaughtered in three days. Gordianus the Finder is summoned
from Rome by a mysterious client to find out the truth about the murder before
the three days are up.
Catilina's
Riddle
(Roma Sub
Rosa #3)
Using scholarly, historical insight, and evocative storytelling
that brings to life the glories of ancient Rome, Steven Saylor takes the reader
from the bloody lines of clashing Roman armies to the backrooms of the Senate
floor, where power-hungry politicians wrestle the Fates for control of Rome's
destiny.
With the consular election drawing near, Rome is fiercely divided
between the conservative Cicero and the tempestuous Catilina, whose followers
are rumored to be plotting a blood-thirsty siege for power if their leader
fails to win office.
Gordianus the Finder, retired to his Etruscan farm, is happy to be free
of the intrigue and danger of the capital, but when his old friend Cicero
enlists the Finder in an elaborate plot to control Catilina, Gordianus is drawn
back into a familiar world. Now caught in a cloak-and-dagger political struggle
for the fate of the Republic, Gordianus finds himself strangely drawn to the
controversial candidate. Is Catilina really a subversive renegade, or are
Cicero suspicions part of an even greater conspiracy? When a headless corpse
ominously appears on his farm, Gordianus knows he must unlock the secret of
Catilina's Riddle before Rome tears herself apart.
The Venus
Throw
(Roma Sub
Rosa #4)
On a chill January evening in 56 B.C., two strange visitors to
Rome—an Egyptian ambassador and a eunuch priest—seek out Gordianus the Finder
whose specialty is solving murders, but the ambassador, a philosopher named
Dio, has come to ask for something Gordianus cannot give—help in staying alive.
Before the night is out, he will be murdered.
Now Gordianus begins his most dangerous case. Hired to investigate Dio's
death by a beautiful woman with a scandalous reputation, he will follow a trail
of political intrigue into the highest circles of power and the city's most
hidden arenas of debauchery. There Gordianus will learn nothing is as it
seems—not the damning evidence he uncovers, not the suspect he sends to trial,
not even the real truth behind Dio's death which lies in secrets—not of state,
but of the heart.
A Murder
on the Appian Way
(Roma Sub
Rosa #5)
This is the fifth in Steven Saylor's "Roma Sub Rosa"
series—murder mysteries set in classical Rome just before the fall of the Roman
Republic (1st century BCE). Once again, Saylor's sleuth Gordianus the Finder is
hired by the rich and infamous of Roman society to solve their personal and
political troubles.
This time the powerful politician Publius Clodius is murdered (53 BCE)
on the Appian Way (a major road leading south from Rome), and as riots break
out in Rome at the news of his death, the fate of the Republic is in doubt. All
of the major political figures of the time are involved: Pompey (the great),
Julius Caesar, Milo, and Cicero, plus any number of lesser figures. Surrounded
by intrigue and beset with problems, Gordianus seeks out the unpalatable truth
behind this death, and uncovers a complex and dangerous sequence of events.
The House
of the Vestals
(Roma Sub
Rosa #6)
It is Ancient Rome, and Gordianus the Finder has a knack for finding
trouble. Stalking about the city's twisting trails looking for clues and
finding bodies, Gordianus has had his share of misadventure with nobles and
slaves alike. Known to many as the one man in the ancient world who can both
keep a secret and uncover one, Gordianus has stories to tell.
Rubicon
(Roma Sub
Rosa #7)
Caesar crossed the Rubicon, and the Romans, governed by his rival
Pompey, fear for the future of their city. Patricians and senators fled the
city to escape the armies of the proconsul, leaving it defenseless against
thugs and looters. In such chaos, murder could almost go unnoticed, except when
the victim is related to Pompey himself. Steven Saylor raises major Roman
figures with astonishing virtuosity, and leads his characters in an exciting
plot, on a historical backdrop brilliantly documented.
Last Seen
in Massilia
(Roma Sub
Rosa #8)
In this mystery set in Marseilles in 49 B.C., master detective
Gordianus the Finder is on a personal quest to learn the truth about his
missing son, Meto. Plunged into the midst of the bloody Roman civil war, the
well-connected Gordianus and his son-in-law Davus survive adventure after
adventure as they penetrate the Gaulic city Massilia, which is walled against
Roman invasion.
From the first pages, author Steven Saylor is on sure ground with
his distinguished protagonist. Gordianus's careful, thoughtful musings are
infused with real pathos as he seeks out information about his son whom, he has
been informed, is dead. There is some speculation that Meto betrayed Caesar and
that death was his punishment. Lacking a corpse, Gordianus cannot bring himself
to believe that Meto is really dead.
Indeed, bonds between fathers and children—their betrayals,
promises, and legacies—play a key role in the twisting plot of Last Seen in
Massilia. Literally the title refers to Meto, but the motif extends to other
key characters as well. Apollonides, the imperious ruler of Massilia, has a
peculiar bond with his horribly deformed daughter. The city's
"scapegoat", Hieronymus, lives out the legacy of his parents' illegal
double suicide by being the human repositor of Massilia's collective sins. He
is expected to hurl himself from Sacrifice Rock to appease vengeful gods.
Sacrifice Rock is central to the book, the site of a tussle between man
and woman that ends, provocatively, in the woman's death. Was it suicide or
murder? The three witnesses—Gordianus, Davus, and Hieronymus—are sharply
divided on exactly what they saw. Gordianus pursues the truth of this mystery
almost as a diversion from the more compelling mystery of his son's
disappearance.
A Mist of
Prophecies
(Roma Sub
Rosa #9)
In the year 48 B.C., Rome is in the midst of civil war. As Pompey
the Great and Julius Caesar fight for control of the Republic, Rome itself
becomes a hotbed of intrigue, riven by espionage, greedy profiteering, and
bitter betrayals...
Against this background a beautiful young seeress staggers across
the Roman marketplace and dies in the arms of Gordianus the Finder. Possibly
mad and claiming no memory of her past, Cassandra—like her Trojan namesake—was
reputed to possess the gift of prophecy. For such a gift there are many in Rome
who would pay handsomely—or resort to murder.
Obsessed with Cassandra and her mystery, Gordianus begins to investigate
her murder. As he gradually peels away the veils of secrecy that surround
Cassandra's life and death, he discovers a web of conspiracy linking many of
the city's most ruthless and powerful women. Now Gordianus's pursuit of the
truth not only endangers his own life, but could change the future of Rome
itself.
The
Judgment of Caesar
(Roma Sub
Rosa #10)
In 48 B.C. the Roman generals Caesar and Pompey are engaged in a
battle to rule the world. Now, as Pompey plots a reckless stand on the banks of
the Nile, Gordianus the Finder—who has brought his dying wife Bethesda to the
Nile seeking a cure from its sacred waters—finds himself suddenly at the heart
of a series of treacherous and history-altering events.
While Caesar and Cleopatra embark on a legendary romance, Egypt
remains ravaged by the brutal contest between the Queen and her brother King
Ptolemy. Worst of all for Gordianus, Meto, his once disowned son and Caesar's
right-hand man, stands falsely accused of murder.
Caesar's judgment will decide his son's fate, and it is up to Gordianus
to somehow overcome malevolent forces to reveal the carefully obscured truth in
order to save his son's life.
A
Gladiator Dies Only Once
(Roma Sub
Rosa #11)
Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series of novels, set in the later Roman
Republic and featuring Gordianus the Finder, has garnered unusual acclaim from
readers and reviewers alike, establishing him as one of the pre-eminent
historical mystery writers. In A Gladiator Dies Only Once, the second
collection of his award-winning stories featuring Gordianus, Saylor more than meets
his own high standards. Set between the events of his novels Roman Blood and
Catilina's Riddle, these previously untold adventures from the early career of
Gordianus - when his adopted son, Eco, was still a mute boy and his wife,
Bethesda, was but his slave - will delight Saylor's many fans while
illuminating details of the ancient world like no other writer can.
The
Triumph of Caesar
(Roma Sub
Rosa #12)
The Roman civil war has come to its conclusion: Pompey is dead,
Egypt is firmly under the control of Cleopatra (with the help of Rome's
legions), and for the first time in many years Julius Caesar has returned to
Rome itself. Appointed by the Senate as Dictator, the city abounds with rumors asserting
that Caesar wishes to be made King: the first such that Rome has had in
centuries, but not all opposition to his rule has been crushed.
Gordianus, recently returned from Egypt with his wife Bethesda, is
essentially retired from his previous profession of 'Finder', but even he
cannot refuse the call of Calpurnia, Caesar's wife. Troubled by dreams
foretelling disaster and fearing a conspiracy against the life of Caesar, she
had hired someone to investigate the rumors. but that person, a close friend of
Gordianus, has just turned up dead—murdered on her doorstep.
With four successive Triumphs for Caesar's military victories scheduled
for the coming days, and Caesar more exposed to danger than ever before,
Calpurnia wants Gordianus to uncover the truth behind the rumored
conspiracies—to protect Caesar's life, before it is too late. No fan of Caesar,
Gordianus agrees to help, but only to find the murderer of his friend. Yet,
once an investigation is begun, there's no controlling what it will turn up,
who it will put in danger, and where it will end.
