Aaron

Overall Fun but deeply flawed

Revisado: 10-15-11

This was a fun little book about Rome. If you are a Rome fanatic, you will love this book.

Not much of a mystery, but then, if you know anything about Rome, the murder on the Appian Way was not a mystery.

I liked the surprising characters who where in this very character driven story. Tiro, for instance, very different from his characterization in Imperium or Lustrum.

I really didn't like the characterization of Cicero as a vain pawn of Pompey and Caesar. And, the characterization of Caesar as such a hero was simply shocking. Caesar was no hero anymore than Sulla was...he just wasn't as blatantly bloodthirsty to his opponents. But then, Caesar for me will always be as he was in Rome...on HBO.

And, well, I just can't do Rome with an American accent! I know...it sounds awful, and many Americans are wonderful people. Hell, I'm NOT married to one. :) But, I was once, which is why I am a freed slave, I suppose.

But, they just sound so...well...not Roman. And, I know that sounds stupid...Latin sounds more like Spanish or Portuguese (both that I speak) than the British and Irish accents that I love for all Ancient World audiobooks.

It is just such a Midwestern accent is just, well, not Roman in my mind! I'm as American as Tiro, I suppose...but I don't wear my toga as a freedman with much pride.

But, still...a fun ride...well researched and interesting. He got so many details so well. I still suggest Imperium and Lustrum by Robert Harris for the best Roman novels. He celebrates Cicero while seeing his flaws, like Tiro did in this book. And, of course, a noble Plebeian like Gorgianius would never have married an Egyptian slave or adopted slaves and freed them, and probably would have killed his slave and possibly his daughter for her getting pregnant. I'm just saying. Maybe a low-born pleb who did not live near Cicero would have done that.

I'm glad he saw that Clodius and Milo were both horrible people but Cicero would never have locked up someone like that. As for Clodia...she really came alive and her grief for her horrible brother was genuine. But, what about Milo being a little more sympathetic?

Pompey was shallow and the whole "great one" really annoyed me. He would have called him "Emperado" or "General" or maybe "Counsel"

At least he avoided glorifying violence like so many Roman books written by American men seem to love. What is it with you Yanks and violence?

It was unclear what Gorgianus was exactly. Was he in the Equestrian order? The class conscious Roman world would have talked about this a little more.

Gotta love poor Daves and the two little slave boys were hilarious. This was a character driven story...not a mystery, not a drama, more or a period piece with a narrator who "finds" things, as detectives didn't exist back then. But, why wasn't it Clodius's defence attorney that hired him? Why would Pompey care? He HATED Clodius, who once laid siege to his house and threatened his life daily.

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