It is AD 186, and Britain is the northernmost province of the hugely successful Roman Empire. In Glevum (modern Gloucester), Libertus, a freedman and pavement-maker, lives under the patronage of Marcus Septimus. When a body is found in the furnace room of a nearby villa, and identified as that of...
Glevum, AD 188. Lying in his sick bed, weak and disoriented, Libertus is strictly forbidden visitors. But when Marcus Septimus forces his way in, desperate to speak to the pavement-maker, Libertus knows that something is seriously wrong. Marcus’s beloved wife Julia and their baby son have disappe...
Rowe's clever whodunits continue to delight fans of historical crime, with Libertus and Junio proving a formidable and popular detective team.In Roman Britain, AD 189, every slave knows his lot in life depends solely on the morals - or lack of morals - of his master. Fortunately for one young Gle...
It's AD 188, and the wild, forested outskirts of the Empire is the last place Libertus, freedman and pavement-maker, wants to visit. But he'd rather face a wolf or bear than an angry patron, so he agrees to accompany Marcus Septimus to the garrison town of Isca (now Caerleon in South Wales). Paus...
Libertus, freedman and pavement-maker, finds himself in Londinium at the invitation of the Roman Governor when news arrives of the brutal murder of Caius Monnius, the chief corn-officer. Libertus is asked to investigate but his enquiries lead him in disparate directions. Who is the guilty one? Th...
Pavement-maker Libertus, a former slave who is now a Roman citizen, is not entirely surprised to witness a stabbing near the chariot race ground in bustling Corinium (modern Cirencester). Luckily the victim, the wealthy decurion Quintus Ulpius, has a personal physician on hand and tragedy is aver...
‘Not convincing, citizen,’ he said. ‘You’ve got a slave. He was a slave. Saw the rest of him.’ ‘His body was lying in the pit. I found it,’ Lercius interrupted eagerly. ‘When I found the beans and nuts. There were just some branches pulled back over him.’ ‘Had there been a struggle? Were there ot...
Minimus, who had accompanied me, had already gone round to the back to join the other slaves in the servants’ quarters there, and I was left to walk up to the front entrance on my own, clutching the piece of silver plate and trying to look as if I often did this sort of thing. In fact it was the ...
Then, I leaned over and grasped my smelly trophies in both hands, bundled them into the filthy linen, and, abandoning all thoughts of dignity, a moment later was rushing like a war envoy through the streets towards Marcus’s apartment. My head was spinning with my discovery. The quickest route to ...
‘In a little while, Trullius. I have not finished here.’ The drink was sour and unpleasant – clearly inferior to the vintage they’d offered me before. I put the goblet down. ‘There are some further questions I would like to ask your wife, since it seems you are not willing to tell me everything y...
Now all eyes were on the flamboyant messenger from the provincial governor in Londinium, who was already waiting on the bench when I arrived. Even when he had been shown up the steep stone staircase at the back, which led up to the commander’s offices, none of the junior officers gathered in the ...
Florens did not have lictors as he might have done in Rome, but he had the next best thing – a band of burly attendants all bearing clubs and arms. They were not even dressed in household livery but variously attired in different shades of brown, which matched their bronzed faces and their muscle...
I was safe – for the moment, anyway! But even as I felt relief wash over me, I knew that I could not really afford to relax for an instant. If Junio was right, my pursuers would not give up easily. They were probably already on my trail. And if they found me . . .! I shuddered. Think, foolish pav...
‘That will be Maximus and the messenger,’ he said. ‘They were on their way. I was about to tell you when I first came in, but then I was distracted by discovering the corpse.’ ‘So you found the boy who brought the message to the roundhouse yesterday?’ He nodded. ‘We asked around and it was easier...
Of course, it was by now half an hour past dawn, so the gates were open and the whole colonia was waking for the day. An enterprising tradesman had set up a booth inside the arch, selling leafy garlands and strips of cloth on which the legend ‘Long Live the Emperor Pertinax’ had been daubed, and ...