The Tribune's Curse

This is another installment in the classical Roman mystery series that is closest to laugh-out-loud funny (cf. Lindsey Davis for the Brits). This episode finds our hero, Decius Caecilius Metellus, running for his first political office, that of aedile, the scut-workers at the bottom of the political ladder, but also responsible for exhausting his wealth to put on the humongously expensive public plays and gladiator games that pacified the plebians and attracted voters. That is what attracts the unwanted attention of Crassus, the richest man in the world, and accustomed to putting politicians into his debt to pay for their games. Crassus, one of the triumvirate with Pompey and Caesar, is the historical figure around which this story turns, for honest Decius must discover the circumstances that led a Tribune of the People to place a terrible, Rome-stopping curse upon Crassus. Decius has to quiz persons either magical or dissolute to understand the Tribune, and prevent the shocked and restive Roman populace compounding the catastrophe by erupting into riot and burning. I enjoy these stories for their smooth writing, hidden clues, historical settings, and engagingly expressed ancient customs. One trick the author uses to situate the story in the Roman continuum, in the end days of the Republic, is to have Decius refer to how something is "about to change," as if he is recording the story years later under the Empire. The appended Glossaries of Latin terms in these novels are the most amusing short ones you'll find. I dislike the crude cover art displayed in this part of the series.

This is a wonderfully intelligent mystery/history series. As a history buff the detail is accurate and intersting without being a dry rendition of a textbook. The characters are believable and human. I truly enjoy the sardonic humor of the main character and the author's honesty regarding how a person of that time would have viewed issues such as slavery, mass executions and imperialism. I am recommending this series to all my friends and family. I love these books so much I am even lending (gasp) them out to friends to read. I highly recommend anyone with intelligence who wants to read for enjoyment begin this series immediately!

John Maddox Roberts is the pseudonym of Mark Ramsay, author of numerous works of science fiction and fantasy, in addition to his successful historical SPQR mystery series. He lives in New Mexico with his wife. This is the seventh book in the SPQR series of books about Ancient Rome in the late Republican era. They all feature Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger as a solver of mysteries. All of the books have been consistently good and I had no reason to doubt that this book would be the same. I certainly was not disappointed. The author always manages to come up with a different slant to the story that usually includes some of the more famous people who were about at that period of Rome's history. This book features a curse as its theme. Something that should always be taken seriously in Ancient Rome. Magic and sacred rites were prevalent in Roman society at the time and a curse would have been taken very seriously.

The year is AUC 700, or 56 BC by our calendar. Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger, back from several years in Gaul and happily married to his longtime love, the niece of Julius Caesar himself, is plunged into a whirlpool of intrigue when a tribune attempts to derail a powerful politician by invoking a curse on him, using religious elements he had no business using. Reading this, the reader gets a sense of how alien the Romans really were---and how much they really believed in their religion.

I must confess I eagerly awaited the publication of John Maddox Roberts latest SPQR, and other than the fact that the hardback leaf jacket would have us believe the events within happen in 80.BC, when they occur (as the author accurate places them) in 56, the seventh installment of Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger leaves me glad he decided to continue the SPQR series after such a long absence.Decius is back in Rome after his trip to Caesar's Gallic camp in `Nobody Loves A Centurion' and is happily married to Caesar's niece, Julia. Hermes has matured and become an effective personal bodyguard (as evidenced by Silvanius' attempt on Decius life). The opening finds our erstwhile hero in the Forum canvassing for the post of plebian aedile for the coming year, 54BC.It is also the time where Crassus is pushing hard for his province and Parthian War, Pompey is effectively running Rome as senior consul and both Clodius and Milo have called a truce to their open urban warfare, the latter being praetor.The first eighty pages of JMR's latest novel is spent building a lengthy picture of the political situation of the time, focusing acutely on Decius status as both patron and client as he builds his political career. In some respects you begin to wonder where the plot will take form, then JMR swiftly launches into it as Decius (and most of Rome) witnesses the tribune Ateius Capito calling down a dreadful curse on Crassus as he leaves Rome, but, more importantly, using the secret name of Rome (apparently known only to a privileged few) during his diatribe. Pompey orders Decius to investigate how such Ateius came about such knowledge. Delving into eastern cults epitomised by Eschmoun, Elagabal and Ariston to find the truth, Decius' search swiftly turns into a murder hunt as the politically inviolable Ateius turns up dead in the Tiber bearing the marks of mauling by wild animals. Pompey's instruction to find the murderer(s) before the funeral and potential riot in Rome, leads Decius delving once more into the highest echelons of Rome's politics and provincial mismanagement to find the culprit(s). With the ever helpful physician, Asklepiodes to eventually point him away from the confusion of suggestion and fact to the simple truth, Decius eventually gets his culprit(s) with not much time to spare.A lengthy aside on his participation in the purification of Rome as the senators race three times round the Servilian walls bearing a huge platform together with his dry wit make this latest adventure for Decius an absolute delight to read. JMR combines mystery with accurate historical fact admirably. As a forerunner of this subgenre he is also peerless in his ability to deliver a fast-paced, gripping page turner.Highly recommended. I eagerly await the next one.