By Paul Carrier
Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger continues to climb the ladder of Roman politics in The Sacrilege, but murder and mayhem remain a constant in his life, even as he wins appointment to the Senate in this third volume in the SPQR mystery series.
Set in 61 B.C., The Sacrilege finds Decius pondering a failed attempt to poison him at a luncheon whose patrician host is murdered while Decius and the other guests chat in a nearby room. As with the earlier installments, Decius recalls the story in flashback, as a much older man living during the reign of the emperor Augustus.
A natural-born investigator, the young Decius sets out to find out who wants him dead and who took the life of Mamercus Aemilius Capito. His task becomes even more complicated when he is assigned to figure out how a notorious Roman gang leader infiltrated a sacred women’s religious ritual.
More murders follow, and a link between the multiplying deaths and the sacrilege becomes increasingly apparent.
There are some fine touches here, including new examples of Decius’ sense of humor. In fact, Decius comes across as a more complex and well-rounded character in The Sacrilege than in the earlier books in the series, partly because his wit is more biting this time around.
Noting that he once found himself stuck on the island of Rhodes “during one of my numerous periods of exile,” for example, Decius recalls that he decided to attend a series of lectures on history while he was there because the only alternative was to study philosophy, “which I avoided like any sensible man.”
We also get a glimpse of Decius’ chauvinistic view of the world as it exists beyond Rome’s gates. As the novel opens, Decius is newly returned from a year in Gaul, “where the climate is disagreeable and people do not bathe,” he laments. “They do not eat well, and a thousand years of Roman civilization will never teach the Gauls to make decent wine.”
A refreshing addition in this round is Decius’ newly acquired slave Hermes, a gift from his father. The cocky but loyal 16-year old boy looks “shifty and villainous, with a touch of surly arrogance,” Decius announces. “I liked him instantly.”
Also new this time out is the fact that Decius acquires an assistant of sorts, and a woman to boot - Julia, the niece of Gaius Julius Caesar (yes, that Julius Caesar). Julia is naive about the ways of the city, but intrepid and inquisitive, and she proves to be an asset as Decius tries to tease out how the murders and the male invasion of the all-female religious ritual are related.
Caesar, who at this point in his life has yet to achieve the prominence of later years, plays a major role in the plot. A recurring theme, and one that is humorous in light of subsequent events, is Decius’ conviction that Caesar is nothing more than a heavily indebted libertine who will never amount to anything.
The explanation of the sacrilege, once it is revealed, is plausible, but strained. Still, this well-paced story is filled with charm and intrigue, and its climax includes a bizarre chase scene that you will not soon forget.
