Full Description
It is a perilous time for the Roman Republic. Victory over her nemesis Hannibal in the Second Punic War and the subsequent conquest of Greece have led to widespread debauchery and mayhem on the Italian peninsula. Into the breach steps Spurius Postumius Albinus, Consul of Rome in 186 BC, who turns detective to investigate a series of crimes attributed to the cult of the wine god Bacchus that, he argues, threaten the very heart of the State.
Based on events recorded by the Roman historian Livy and confirmed by a surviving bronze plaque in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, Spurius is at once an ancient political whodunit and the first major treatment of a cataclysmic event in Roman history: according to Livy, some 3,500 Romans perished in the witch hunts resulting from Spurius' investigation. In its finely balanced examination of freedom of belief and expression, and the manipulation of truth in times of national emergency, the novel has great relevance to today's troubled world.
Contents
'List of illustrations
Foreword by the author
Map: The Mediterranean in the Age of Spurius
The Novel
Prologue: Embassy to Ephesus: Spurius and Scipio Africanus encounter Hannibal, 193 BC
Chapter I: Affairs in Rome, 146 BC; Bacchic disturbances, 186 BC; consul's inquiry begins
Chapter II: Bacchanalians' murderous response; cult exposed
Chapter III: Rome terrorised; consul addresses Senate, Assembly; proscription of Bacchanalians
Chapter IV: Bacchic cult crushed in Latium and Rome; events in Ostia
Chapter V: Affairs in Rome, 146 BC; celebrations in Rome, 186 BC; war with Gauls; intervention in Bithynia
Epilogue: Northeast to Nicomedia: Spurius demands surrender of Hannibal, 185 BC
Beyond Spurius
Author's Note
Remembering Gore Vidal
Acknowledgements
Chronological Summary
Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus (the inscription on which the novel is based)
Select Bibliography
About the Author
