Steven Saylor’s Roma Sub Rosa series, 1991-ongoing, 10 novels & 2 short stories collections.
I own ten books by Steven Saylor all of them belong to his Roma Sub Rosa series featuring Gordianus the Finder: A private detective working in ancient Rome, and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, around the middle of the first century BC. Some are subtitled ‘A Mystery of Ancient Rome’ others as ‘A Novel of Ancient Rome’.
The Roma Sub Rosa books are a real delight to read, they offer some small historical incidents and characters-and also big ones-and they give a privileged look to the backstage of these events. All the books have nice historical maps, which for me make or break historical novels; they follow the career of Gordianus and show him from young manhood into old age, they also follow his relationship with his son.
The genre of the books themselves has changed from detective mysteries into thrillers: the first books chart the career of Cicero and cover some of his real cases, while the later books chart the rise of Caesar and his power struggle with Pompey-this change in the nature of the books, from detective mysteries to thrillers, caused the change in the subtitle.
Saylor’s grasp of history is the usual technical excellency one almost expects from modern American literature, but Saylor is better than the average in portraying the city (not only Rome, but others too), the ambience, the smells of the market: we hear of Caesar’s exploit from the fishmonger on market day. This humanistic approach to the setting is coupled with a living approach to the characters, after the first few books Gordianus leaves his stereotypical confines and develops into a real character with a history and a developing future that moves forward with every new book.
There are problems with the books; sometimes the sentiment seems too American for the times. The narration is also problematic: a mix between first-person, third-person and god view, and the problems are compounded when Saylor takes advantage of the narration style to enhance the mystery (although the result is a joy to read).
Here are the nine novels and the year when the events take place:
- Roman Blood, 80 (1991).
- Arms of Nemesis, 72 (1992).
- Catilina’s Riddle, 63 (1993).
- The Venus Throw, 56 (1995).
- A Murder on the Appian Way, 52 (1996).
- Rubicon, 49 (1999).
- Last Seen in Massilia, 49 (2000).
- A Mist of Prophecies, 48 (2002).
- The Judgement of Caesar, 48 (2004).
The tenth book, The House of the Vestals, is a collection of short stories published in `97, in the ‘historical notes’ at the end he talks about his vision for the series and hints that there will be a change in the pacing of the books. Saylor seems to have crossed his Rubicon with the aptly titled Rubicon in `99; from this book onward the story becomes very episodic. The early books were good but the development in the last four improved on them considerably.
There are two books that I haven’t read yet; one is another short stories collection and the other one picks up the story of Gordianus two years after the last instalment:
- A Gladiator Dies Only Once (2005).
- The Triumph of Caesar 46 (2008).
If you want an entertaining novel set in ancient Rome then read any book in the Roma Sub Rosa series.
