For a quaestor, the lowest level of elected official in ancient Rome, ca. 690 BC, Decius Caecilius Metellus gets around. He is invited to the grandest of parties thrown by Rome’s ultra-elite and seduced by the most beautiful, voluptuous and insatiable women. In the Roberts’s novel with Decius, The King’s Gambit, he is taken on a wild night of carnal exercise by the beautiful sister of his enemy and her incredibly flexible female companion. In The Cataline Conspiracy, the second novel in the ancient Rome series, it is the nineteen year-old stepdaughter of his friend Catalina.
Alerted by the murders of several equites, money-lenders and hated by the populace, Decius suspects a link between the seemingly unconnected deaths and there is something more than somebody carrying out an extermination of a group of men to whom nearly everyone was indebted.
Against the wishes of his emotionally distant father, Decius investigates and uncovers a plot to overthrow the Republic, but it seems doomed to fail on the surface. The leaders are a group of men who do not have the organizations skills or the resources to pull off anything remotely successful.
Decius concludes that there are powerful and wealthy men behind the rebellion, who pull the strings and push the cash, but keep themselves an anonymous distance away to keep form being implicated with their fall guys. Decius manages to infiltrate the group but to show his dedication to the cause, he must kill his best friend, the Greek physician Asklepiodes. The good doctor agrees to conspire with Decius and fake his death, while remaining unflappable and keeping his wry wit, which makes him a loveable and endearing character.
As with The King’s Gambit, the mystery in The Cataline Conspiracy oftentimes takes a backseat to the events and daily lifestyle of Rome which form the basis for the story. Much of the time the basis is more prevalent than the story. Roberts includes a glossary to help the reader navigate the ancient Roman terms that lace every page. Still, one tends to get bogged down among the secondary and peripheral characters with similar names, but this isn’t Roberts’s fault. Blame the Roman who thought naming all his offspring and descendants the same name was a good idea.
There are still many references to the environment of southern Italy of that time that are not expounded upon in the book, leaving the reader more confused.
Overall, I enjoyed The Cataline Conspiracy more than The King’s Gambit and that’s as much Roberts’s writing improvement as my becoming more familiar with ancient Rome through Decius.
John Maddox Roberts also infuses more than a little humor into this second novel. The conversation and plotting that takes place between Decius and Asklepiodes when they discuss the Greek’s fake demise is very enjoyable as the doctor chides his friend to not grieve too much when he’s ‘gone’. The blurb on the back of the book made this sound more ominous than the scene actually was. And few authors can deliver a line like “They don’t make tyrants like Sulla anymore” with great comedic timing.
I feel that with The Cataline Conspiracy, Roberts has developed Decius a bit more, who realizes that he has a terrible weakness for beautiful and voluptuous women, but we also see him as a soldier. Although the climatic battle was a very short scene in the final pages of the book, we get to know this other side of Decius that has only been hinted at in these first two novels. It gives the reader a stronger bond with the flawed and vulnerable hero, but as a result, he becomes more human.
Alerted by the murders of several equites, money-lenders and hated by the populace, Decius suspects a link between the seemingly unconnected deaths and there is something more than somebody carrying out an extermination of a group of men to whom nearly everyone was indebted.
Against the wishes of his emotionally distant father, Decius investigates and uncovers a plot to overthrow the Republic, but it seems doomed to fail on the surface. The leaders are a group of men who do not have the organizations skills or the resources to pull off anything remotely successful.
Decius concludes that there are powerful and wealthy men behind the rebellion, who pull the strings and push the cash, but keep themselves an anonymous distance away to keep form being implicated with their fall guys. Decius manages to infiltrate the group but to show his dedication to the cause, he must kill his best friend, the Greek physician Asklepiodes. The good doctor agrees to conspire with Decius and fake his death, while remaining unflappable and keeping his wry wit, which makes him a loveable and endearing character.
As with The King’s Gambit, the mystery in The Cataline Conspiracy oftentimes takes a backseat to the events and daily lifestyle of Rome which form the basis for the story. Much of the time the basis is more prevalent than the story. Roberts includes a glossary to help the reader navigate the ancient Roman terms that lace every page. Still, one tends to get bogged down among the secondary and peripheral characters with similar names, but this isn’t Roberts’s fault. Blame the Roman who thought naming all his offspring and descendants the same name was a good idea.
There are still many references to the environment of southern Italy of that time that are not expounded upon in the book, leaving the reader more confused.
Overall, I enjoyed The Cataline Conspiracy more than The King’s Gambit and that’s as much Roberts’s writing improvement as my becoming more familiar with ancient Rome through Decius.
John Maddox Roberts also infuses more than a little humor into this second novel. The conversation and plotting that takes place between Decius and Asklepiodes when they discuss the Greek’s fake demise is very enjoyable as the doctor chides his friend to not grieve too much when he’s ‘gone’. The blurb on the back of the book made this sound more ominous than the scene actually was. And few authors can deliver a line like “They don’t make tyrants like Sulla anymore” with great comedic timing.
I feel that with The Cataline Conspiracy, Roberts has developed Decius a bit more, who realizes that he has a terrible weakness for beautiful and voluptuous women, but we also see him as a soldier. Although the climatic battle was a very short scene in the final pages of the book, we get to know this other side of Decius that has only been hinted at in these first two novels. It gives the reader a stronger bond with the flawed and vulnerable hero, but as a result, he becomes more human.
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