11-01-2007, 10:19 PM
I have just finished this novel and found it to be quite good, especially for a first novel. It is set during the reigns of Diocletian and Maximian, not too long before they resigned their positions and passed them along to their chosen successors. The hero, Aelius Spartianus, a Pannonian officer, is sent by Diocletian to Egypt as a part of his writing a biography of Hadrian. He is to look into the strange death of Hadrian's favorite, a young man named Antinous, who drowned in the Nile and to whom Hadrian raised several temples and after whom Hadrian named a city in Egypt, Antinoopolis. While there, Aelius is put on the trail of a letter from Hadrian that had turned up and had, apparently led to at least two murders in Antinoopolis. The trail leads eventually to Rome and to Hadrian's villa at Tibur before Aelius tacks things down and discovers the reason for Antinous' death and for Hadrian's zeal in commemorating him.
The flavor of the story and the author's apparent knowledge of Late Roman military and civil society impressed me. She, and the author is a woman despite the name, has impressive knowledge of this not so well-known time in Roman history as well as apparent knowledge of the social history of Hadrian's time. I recommend the book.
The flavor of the story and the author's apparent knowledge of Late Roman military and civil society impressed me. She, and the author is a woman despite the name, has impressive knowledge of this not so well-known time in Roman history as well as apparent knowledge of the social history of Hadrian's time. I recommend the book.
