The Eighth Book in the Sub Rosa Series

books:


	• Last Seen in Massilia: A Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome) Steven Saylor St. Martin's Minotaur, 2001 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Stellar!

This series is totally superior and this eighth installment is just wonderful! The story is set in Massilia (Marseilles) in 49 B.C. Gordianus and his son-in-law Davis find themselves in Massilia behind a blockade. Massilia had declared for Pompey, and Caesar's troops are at the gate. Gordianus is trying to find out what happened to his son Meto who he had been told was dead. He finds himself in a political hot pot, and he and Davis have no idea how they will ever get out of a blockaded city. These books are beautifully written, and the stories are based on actual historical happenings. I absolutely love the series, and I highly recommend it. I am only sorry that I have only 3 more published books left.

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My God this author is excellent

I have read 62 books in the last year, and this book stands so high above them it makes one almost want to weep that other authors can not maintain the vibrancy and intuition that Saylor manages in book after book.

Not every book in this series is excellent, but every one is good, and a few (Catalina's Riddle, The Judgement of Caesar, and Last Seen in Massilia) are simply some of the best reading that there is on the earth at this time and in this language.

Every book of his studies deep philosophical problems. In this novel the question of responsibility and redemption are scrutinized. What does it mean to accept the sins of others? If you love someone truly, but are repelled by them physically, is there any form of redemption?

The backdrop of the siege lends an air of desperation to the city, and admittedly the Gods are a bit generous with Gordianus in his accessability to truth- but only in the sense of the mystery of the murder, in the sense of the mystery of this world we live in, Gordianus is riding straight to the heart of the questions.

There is no other author I have ever read who has consistently written such excellent books and I am saddened there is only one more of Saylor's works I haven't had the pleasure to read. Many other authors pen a few excellent books but eventually wear out. Saylor gets better and better.

If you are thinking of reading the series, start at the beginning and commit to reading at least three of the books. (The first book chronologically is good, but does not grip you until you get further into the series)

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Search for Meto

Last seen in Massila is every fathers nightmare - the death of his child. In this book Gordianus frantically hunts for his son Meto. He received an anonymous note form Massilia claiming that Meto was dead. The pursuit of Meto drives most of the emotional stress and action in this book.
While in Massilia Gordianus is hired by a merchant named Arausio to find his daughter Rindel who went missing soon after a women fell to her death from sacrifice rock. The search for Rindel is complicated and filled with intrigue.

The story begins with Gordianus and Davus approaching Massilia. Tribonius, the Roman general charged by Caesar to manage the siege to conquer Massilia, explains to Gordianus that he will not be able to enter the town. Tribonius commands Gordianus and Davus to depart and return to Rome. The general promises to send official word concerning Meto as soon as it is available. Needless to say, Gordianus finds an imaginative and dangerous way to enter Massilia to continue his mission.

This is a fun novel filled with suspense and danger. The exacting details, especially of the engineering attempts to breach the city's walls are interesting and graphic. The efforts to protect the walls by the leaders of Massilia are equally fascinating. Gordianus' investigations are engaging and often frustrating. The resolution of each of the suspenseful plot lines is startling.
This is an enjoyable novel, but would be much more fun if the reader has first enjoyed the following books that present Meto's earlier years: Arms of Nemesis: A Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome),Catilina's Riddle: A Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome),The Venus Throw: A Mystery of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome)

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Last Seen in Massilia

A wonderful book by an author who knows his Roman
history and how to insert a colorful, detailed, and
suspenseful story into it. I am now hooked on Stevan Saylor's
serious of novels about the adventures of 'Gordianus
the Finder's' adventures as a hired-out investigator
in the post era of Sulla's dictatorship. Told in the first
person, the novels are reflective of what we now find in the
mordern versions of the private detective....

The Eighth Book in the Sub Rosa Series

Steven Saylor's fascination with Ancient Rome began at an early age. A history graduate and former newspaper and magazine editor, he lives in Berkeley, California. His series of books about Ancient Rome and featuring Gordianus the Finder are extremely popular both here in England and also in America. Anyone who is a fan of Lindsey Davis will love these books too. Steven Saylor brings Ancient Rome to life, so much so that the reader can lose himself in the sights and sounds of the ancient city.

Gordianus the Finder, the investigator of crimes, a man whose skill and integrity have made him much sought after by some of the most important men in Rome. Men who may need a secret to be kept, men who need to know that when Gordianus is working for them he will be discreet and not susceptible to bribery.

The civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great is threatening to engulf the whole of the Roman world, neither man will give an inch and in the middle of all this Gordianus the Finder receives word that his son has died. Gordianus begins an immediate investigation into how his son came to die and during these investigations he witnesses the fall of a young woman from a precipice. All is not as it would seem to be and strange events begin to puzzle Gordianus . . .

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

In the city of Massilia (modern-day Mareille), on the coast of Southern Gaul, Gordianus the Finder's beloved son Meto has disappeared?branded as a traitor to Caesar and apparently dead. Consumed with grief, Gordianus arrives in the city in the midst of a raging civil war, hoping to discover what happened to his son. But when he witnesses the fall of a young woman from a precipice called Sacrifice Rock, he becomes entangled in discovering the truth?did she fall or was she pushed? And where, in all of this, could it be connected to his missing son? Drawn into the city's treacherous depths, where nothing and no one are what they seem, Gordianus must summon all of his skills to discover his son's fate?and to safeguard his own life.

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