When one of the guests, at a banquet thrown by Libertus’s patron Marcus Aurelius
Septimus, is found dead in the Vomitorium (what an amazing thought this word
conjures) all fingers point towards the host. Although the recitation of the
local poet Loquex, which such renderings as
Marcus Aurelius Septimus, just and fair
Has hooded eyes and curly hair
Gaius Praxus came from Gaul
He’s very brave and very tall…
could just have caused the guest to lose the will to live..
It appears that in Roman times, to ensure guilt, all the servants, and slaves of the accused are immediately rounded up and tortured until they confess to their masters wrong doings. So not much has changed then over a couple of thousand years. .
So Libertus finds himself on the run, and his experiences are far from pleasant. Although, this book doesn’t seem to have as much of the humour of the earlier books, Rosemary Rowe does paint an incredible picture of life for the really poor in Roman times. I thought that the slaves were the saddest and lowest form of life but apparently not. The really poor, the freaks and thieves ranked well below the slave, who seemed to me to have quite good life after reading this book.
I missed Gwellia, Libertus’s wife who made a significant appearance in the
last book, and I was hoping for much from her, maybe in the next book. I’d like
to know what happened to her in the intervening years, but maybe that’s a whole
different series.
------
Lizzie Hayes
Other books in the series are The Germanicus Mosaic,A Pattern of Blood,Murder
in the Forum