Book details

SPQR VII: The Tribune's Curse

A Mystery

The SPQR Roman Mysteries (Volume 7)

Author: John Maddox Roberts

SPQR VII: The Tribune's Curse

SPQR VII: The Tribune's Curse

$18.99

About This Book

In his extensive series featuring the detecting feats of Decius Caecilius Metellus the younger, set in the ancient Roman Empire, Roberts achieves a very believable modern feeling with his well-researched...

Page Count
256
Genre
On Sale
04/14/2004

Book Details

In his extensive series featuring the detecting feats of Decius Caecilius Metellus the younger, set in the ancient Roman Empire, Roberts achieves a very believable modern feeling with his well-researched description of the stories' background. This seventh episode, however, combines a familiar view of the demands office-seeking makes on a candidate with a situation that is impossibly bizarre to us today. An entire city, versed in literature, music, and the other arts, ruled democratically, for its time, is thrown into panic by an enraged man's curse...

Decius Caecilius Metellus is happy. The weather is beautiful and he is standing for office (literally; standing, in the Roman Forum soliciting votes) with a sure chance of winning. And Caesar's ongoing dreary war is far off in Gaul. Decius is confident that another war looming over Rome, instigated by one Crassus against the Parthians (for no reason but possible worldly gain), will be voted down in the Senate. But the vote does not stop Crassus.

On the day he and his troops set out from Rome, the Tribune Ateius Capitus, leader of the opposition, shrieks an ancient and terrible curse over the huge crowd assembled -- a curse that frightens not only the man in the street but the highest Romans. When Ateius is murdered soon after, Decius, solver of past mysteries, has the ugly task of finding the killer.

Fascinating details of Rome's mixed attitudes about the power of magic and the practice of rational politics illuminate this latest of Roberts's strong historical mysteries.

Imprint Publisher

St. Martin's Griffin

ISBN

9780312304898

In The News

“Delightful ... Through the engaging, humorous voice of Decius, the author portrays such prominent figures of the Roman Republic as Cato and Cicero, while bringing to life the ancient city with its sights and smells, manners and customs, politics and religion.... Readers will surely look forward to Decius's future adventures.” —Publishers Weekly

“Smart, brisk writing and abundant historical color.” —Kirkus Reviews

About the Creators

SPQR VII: The Tribune's Curse

SPQR VII: The Tribune's Curse

$18.99