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    Roman Games
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    Roman Games
    Unavailable
    Roman Games
    Ebook356 pages5 hours

    Roman Games

    By Bruce Macbain

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "Macbain's debut novel convincingly re-creates everyday life in ancient Rome, weaving real and fictional characters with aplomb."—Kirkus Reviews

    When the body of Sextus Verpa, a notorious senatorial informer and libertine, is found stabbed to death in his bedroom, suspicion falls on his household slaves—a potential death sentence for all.

    The cruel emperor, Domitian, orders Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus—known to history as Pliny the Younger—to investigate. However, the Ludi Romani (the Roman Games) have just begun, and for the next fifteen days the law courts are in recess. If Pliny can't identify the murderer in that time, Verpa's entire slave household will be burned alive in the arena.

    Pliny teams up with Martial, a starving author of bawdy verses and hanger-on to the city's glitterati, to unravel a plot that involves Jewish and Christian "atheists," exotic Egyptian cultists, Rome's own pantheon of gods, and a missing horoscope that forecasts the emperor's death....

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateNov 30, 2011
    ISBN9781615952557
    Unavailable
    Roman Games
    Author

    Bruce Macbain

    Bruce Macbain holds a BA in Classics from the University of Chicago and a PhD. in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught Greek and Roman history at Vanderbilt and Boston University. He lives with his wife in Brookline, MA.

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    Reviews for Roman Games

    3.5/5

    24 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Though dealing with approximately the same period, this first entry is much drier than Lindsey Davis' Flavia Alba series.
    • 3/5
      Historically, mildly interesting; novelistically, not so much. Pliny Secundus is appointed a special investigator into the murder of the dissolute and little loved imperial informer, Verpa. There are plenty of suspects, plenty of red herrings, and plenty of Latin vocabulary larding the pages.Sadly there is little vividness in the writing which at time is overwhelmed by pedantry. Real historical characters other than Pliny walk through the book. One of them is Martial, the Roman epigrammist who seeks to make himself the protege of the wealthy and connected Pliny. The device doesn't really add to the heft of the novel; Martial seems to have been introduced as Pliny's possible sidekick but ends up feeling like a walk-on or a one man Greek chorus in the story. This is a novel one wants to really like but the impression is that increased editing and pruning would have made that easier for readers. It might be worthwhile for readers enamored of novels set in ancient Roman to stick around a read more Pliny stories to see if Macbain's skills as a novelist grow and develop.