Catilina's Riddle: A Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome) - Softcover

Saylor, Steven

4.11

4,190 ratings by Goodreads

9780312982119: Catilina's Riddle: A Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312982119 ISBN 13: 9780312982119

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2002

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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.

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From the Publisher:

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. 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. 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.

With Steven Saylor's mysteries, we have that Roman behind the door. Set in ancient Rome before the rise of Julius Caesar, these are not your usual cozy reads. 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. 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. 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. You, the reader, will be left to judge.

--Margaret Sanborn, Senior Publicity Copywriter

From the Inside Flap:

"A sweeping and marvelously evocative story . . ." Booklist.
A mystery of ancient Rome by the author of "Arms Of Nemesis."
When Gordianus the Finder deserts the fierce intrigues of Rome for domesticity on an Etruscan farm, his brilliant patron, the orator Cicero, draws him back with a curious proposal: keep Catilina, Cicero's radical rival, under a watchful eye.
Reluctantly, Gordianus complies -- and soon, despite himself, becomes intrigued by the notorious populist politician. Could Catilina really be conspiring against the Republic? Or are Cicero's accusation no more than vicious lies? Questioning his loyalty to his own patron, Gordianus comes to question even more when he discovers a headless corpse in his stables and is suddenly swept into a mystery more dangerous than any he has ever known.

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