Third in the Roma Sub Rosa ancient Rome historical mystery series revolving around Gordianus the Finder. It's seventeen years since Roman Blood, 1.My TakeI have to confess this one was tedious, and I kept putting it down. Although, I did love the sound of his farm and the baths...and Gordianus' library...lovely...Saylor educates us on the mechanics of campaigning and politics in Rome. And, yes, there's graffiti to protest one candidate or another. It seems the primary purpose of being elected to office is to enable the officeholder to "bleed enough taxes from the locals" to enrich him. So, nothing much has changed over the past 2,000 or so years.It's also eye-opening to read of the proper behavior of a son, a wife, a daughter to the patriarch of the house. ---Thank you for today's manners! --- The rituals surrounding a young man's coming-of-age celebration. It's also eye-opening how poorly the Claudii behave.Poor Gordianus. His dreams are conflicted as is his younger son. It's a universal blindness that has come down through the ages, that of a father who refuses to see that his son has grown up. That of a son who is frustrated that his father does not see or treat him as an adult. And yet it is the bright spot in all this: it's Meto's coming of age day. Well worth a celebration."...when he left the room just now, it wasn't worry I was feeling. I was feeling rather proud of him, actually---and a little ashamed of myself."I don't understand why Cicero's bodyguards come pounding on Gordianus' door. After events are explained, I agree wholeheartedly with Gordianus about staying away from Cicero. What a schmuck!God, what a character! Has no shame in plotting and planning. Killing and poisoning and kidnapping. Such greed! And no regret at all… This person seems so typical of the time, and when you think of all that the Romans have, how "civilized" they are...well, it's just too scary.How very political of Cicero:"Change is the enemy of civilization, Gordianus. What is the point of innovation, when things are already in the hands of the Best People? What you might consider progress can only be decay and decadence."Words that finally sound like the truth from his lips. Unlike his campaigning speeches... The StoryLuck finds Gordianus living the country life on an amazing farm. It couldn't have come at a better time for Gordianus is fed up with the corruption and lies in Rome. He wants the simple life. Only, life is too simple and too dangerous.Especially when Cicero calls in a favor in this election month: for Gordianus to play host to his enemy. When Gordianus balks, a sign appears. A headless man. With his family to think of, Gordianus concedes only to plunge ever deeper.The CharactersGordianus the Finder has inherited an Etruscan farm from his friend, Lucius Claudius, and has moved his family to the country. Yep, family, for Gordianus freed Bethesda when she got pregnant, and then he married her. Mummius (from Arms of Nemesis, 2) rescued Meto, and Gordianus adopted him as his son as well; he'll be sixteen in a few days. They also have a little six-year-old girl, Gordiana whom they call "Diana". Aratus is the farm foreman, a slave, and not very happy with Gordianus' anxieties. Congrio is their excellent cook. Eco, his adopted son, is 26 and now lives on the Esquiline Hill with his new very tactful wife, Menenia. Belbo is now Eco's guard. Claudia Claudius is Gordianus' neighbor on the farm next door and Lucius' cousin, and the only Claudii to accept Gordianus; Publius, Manius, and Gnaeus are the male cousins who surround and harass Gordianus. The entire family is upset that Lucius willed the farm---the best in the family---outside the family and even more upset that Cicero won in court for Gordianus. Dragonfly is Publius' sex slave. He certainly has some disgusting notions... Gnaeus is the one with the silver mine on his almost useless property. Forfex is his head goatherder. Manius is a bigot and kleptomaniac. Marcus Caelius is, off and on, a protégé of Cicero's and Crassus' and spying on Catilina for Cicero. Cicero is a consul of Rome now, and Gordianus is disgusted with his machinations to gain office and while in office. Quintus is Cicero's brother.Lucius Sergius Catilina is opposed to Cicero and running in this election for consul. Gordianus is cautious around him for his reputation says he is a man of varied appetites. Gaius Manlius, a military man in Faesulae, is Catilina's principal ally outside of Rome. Tongilius is Catilina's companion and informs Gordianus, jokingly, that telling riddles is Catilina's only vice. Yeah, right... some of Catilina's sillier cronies include Lentulus Cornelius and Cethegus; others include Sulla's old supporters, including Sulla's grandsons. Aurelia is Catilina's wife.Crassus is Rome's wealthiest man; we first met him in Roman Blood with more intimate dealings in Arms of Nemesis. Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus from Roman Blood is one of the augurs and is running for praetor this year. He aligned with Julius Caeser, the current Pontifex Maximus, the head of the state religion. Marcus Mummius (from Arms of Nemesis) was once one of Crassus' protégés, and now he looks to Pompey. Apollonius is still with Mummius. Nemo is Nobody, a headless man buried in a grave. The Allobroges are a tribe in Gaul unhappy with how Rome treats them.The CoverThe cover of the version I read is a set of abstract blocks framing a split-screen of a few senators seated in the Roman Senate on the left, and a bust of Cicero? on the right. The blocks which frame it on top and bottom hold the title, the author's name, and taglines.The title reflects the mysteries posed within, puzzles as a result of the antagonist's love for teasers, Catilina's Riddle.
Originally published on my blog here in November 1999.The third novel in Saylor's series about Gordianus the Finder - a series also including several short stories - tells of one of the most famous events of the last years of the Roman Republic, the Catiline Conspiracy. Now well into middle age, Gordianus has retired to a farm north of Rome, inherited from a friend in the teeth of opposition from the friend's family, who own all the farms surrounding Gordianus' new one.Gordianus rejoices in leaving behind the corrupt politics of the city, but starts to find that there is something missing from his new life. Then he receives a visitor, who is an agent of Cicero, now consul of Rome, and also of Catilina, his populist opponent. Catilina is looking for somewhere to stay outside Rome, and Gordianus' farm would be an ideal location. Catilina has come up with a political riddle, about whether the current head of the Roman state is to be preferred to the headless body (the common people); Gordianus is to use this as the basis of a message to send to Rome to signify his acceptance or rejection of the proposition. But then a headless body is discovered in the stables. Gordianus takes this to be a threat from Catilina because of the riddle, and so, frightened for his family, he sends the message that he prefers the headless body, thus accepting the proposal.The investigation in this crime novel is into the provenance of the headless corpse. This is in fact a fairly obvious mystery; Catilina's Riddle has one of the easiest to unravel plots that I have read. It is the political aspect of the story which is more interesting, and this is very well done indeed. It is common to regard the Roman Republic as virtuous by comparison with the Empire; Saylor reminds us that the last years of the Republic were hardly commendable. As well as the rather seedy machinations of the politicians, the way they flattered and manipulated, there are also more petty, private, sordid matters that Saylor highlights. The treatment of slaves, for example, often served as an outlet for both cruel and depraved appetites.From a historical point of view, it is hard to know the true events of the Catiline conspiracy. The only accounts we have come from his political enemies and could hardly be said to be models of reporting, consisting to a large degree of rhetorical denunciations. Saylor has created a plausible story, with none of the historical characters painted as pure black or white.
What do You think about Catilina's Riddle (2002)?
It's gratifying that the Sub Rosa series holds up so well. This may be in part due to the books being set in ancient Rome; I imagine it will be some decades before we envision the late Republic differently enough that the series seems really dated, although at some point I suppose that some of the emphases will begin to look very late-20th-century. In any case, this particular book deals with the infamous Catilina, whose role in history was written up by his enemies and is thus somewhat suspect. Was Catilina a menace or a genuine reformer? As the author notes, we will never know the full truth about this much-maligned figure, but that allows latitude for fiction. Thus, here Catilina is an alluring yet not fully trusted figure, and Cicero, a largely positive figure at the beginning of the series, has grown power-hungry and manipulative, a genuinely dangerous man. In this portrayal, Catilina is a brilliant, reckless, ultimately tragic figure, and it's left open whether his defeat was necessary or merely expedient for the elite. One thing I don't recall noticing in the past, because it is more delicately handled than would have been the case with other characters: Catilina almost certainly seduces the ordinarily heterosexual and monogamous Gordianus. And as Gordianus narrates, he neither straight-out reveals this nor quite hides it; very much in character that he doesn't admit but doesn't conceal such a deviation.
—Spotsalots
This is the longest, densest, and oddest of the Roma Sub Rosa series. It contains relatively little dialog, much introspection on the nature of Roman politics and Roman virtue, detailed accounts of the processes of Roman government and legal life (voting, debate in the senate, the extremely detailed and obscure campaign laws, coming-of-age ceremonies, process and applications of augury, etc.), and Hamlet-like vaccilation over whether Gorianus, as pater familias is doing the right thing by his family and raising his son Meto properly.What Catalina's Riddle doesn't contain, however, is a mystery. Technically, there is one: across 500 pages we have three bodies left on Gordianus' farm, clearly intended as a threat of some sort. It gets mentioned every few chapters. Gordianus doesn't do any actual "finding" (his word for what we'd call "detecting") until the last few pages of the book, after the real story is over.The real story in the book is the Cataline Conspiracy. It's one of the most famous, fascinating, and important events in all Roman history. One can even make a clear argument that it's the no-turning-back point in the collapse of the Republic. Plus, it has some of the most wonderful muck-raking in history. Cicero's nasty hyperbole about the co-conspirators (gathering to drink blood, plotting to kill people in the night to incite revolution, killing husbands to seduce wives and extract their money, etc.) is matched only by Cicero's peacock-proud parading of himself as the only true servant of Rome.If you want a readable account of the conspiracy (Sayler has never been a Cicero apologist, so expect a sympathetic view of Catalina's motives, if not his actions), a good account of details of Roman life (including some harsh observations on the Roman ideal of country living), some good observations on Roman morals, and a great time with the Gordianus family, it's a great book. The history lessons are a bit excessive, but never go on too long. The navel-gazing gets a bit much at times, but that has always been a trait of the character. There isn't nearly enough Bethesda, although we get a *lot* of just-of-age Meto and his trying to find his own way in the world, being unsuited to following in his father's and Eco's footsteps and his family not understanding what he truly wants to do.If you only want the mystery, skip to the next book. It makes what happened clear enough (you really just need to know where Meto wound up and that's abundantly clear when you need to know it). But be warned, from this point on the series gets more political and introspective. The action level does pick up a lot, though.
—Seth
“A calúnia é um estilo aceite em qualquer campanha eleitoral”“para que serve tanto dinheiro numa campanha eleitoral, a não ser para subornar pessoas?”Acho que com o tempo a colecção está a perder o fôlego. No entanto vale a pena lê-lo pelos diálogos e dialéticas entre Giordano e Catilina, onde este último chega quase a convencer o leitor das suas teses.“- Os livros são como os amigos, não achas? Constantes, imutáveis, fiáveis. É reconfortante. Pegamos num livro que pusemos de lado há um ano, e as palavras são as mesmas.”“nunca se deve responder a uma pergunta de <> quando ambas as respostas são prejudiciais. Deve-se mudar de assunto.”“Reúne uma série de loucos no mesmo sítio e terás aquilo a que se chama uma cidade”“A modéstia é uma excelente virtude [...] embora me pareça que é mais louvada do que praticada.”“Voltar completamente as costas ao mundo é perder a oportunidade de dar forma ao futuro do mundo.”“por que razão homens que não têm apetite hão de sentir tanto despeito por homens que comem por prazer?”“uma coisa é envelhecer e outra [...] é amolecer”“qualquer actividade torna-se respeitável desde que seja bem sucedida [...] especialmente se proporcionar lucros à classe adequada de pessoas.”“é mais difícil ter 45 anos do que ter 16, quanto mais não seja porque vemos com mais clareza todas as possibilidades que estão para sempre fora do nosso alcance.”“O home que viaja sozinho tem um louco por companheiro” (antigo provérbio)
—Fernando Delfim
