ROMA SUB ROSA
THE INVESTIGATIONS OF GORDIANUS THE FINDER

In ancient myth, the Egyptian god Horus (whom the Romans called Harpocrates) came upon Venus engaged in one of her many love affairs. Cupid, her son, gave a rose to Horus as a bribe to keep quiet; thus Horus became the god of silence, and the rose became the symbol of confidentiality.
A rose hanging over a council table indicated that all present were sworn to secrecy.
Sub Rosa (‘under the rose’) has come to mean ‘that which is done in secret.’
Thus ROMA SUB ROSA: the secret history of Rome, as seen through the eyes of Gordianus.

“Steven Saylor’s engrossing series of popular novels centered around Gordianus the Finder—
a kind of Roman Sherlock Holmes.” (Wall Street Journal)

“Saylor puts such great detail and tumultuous life into his scenes that the sensation of rubbing elbows with the ancients is quite uncanny.” (New York Times Book Review)

“Steven Saylor is so at home in ancient Rome that you can almost imagine him sitting in a tree-sheltered atrium writing with a stylus and a clay tablet.” (Tampa Tribune & Times)

“The detail is meticulous.” (Archaeology Magazine)

**“...brings alive the last days of the Roman Republic in a manner evocative of Robert Graves’s Claudius novels.” (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)

“If you want to visit Rome—ancient Rome—this is the way to go!” (Oklahoman)**

The 12 volumes of the ROMA SUB ROSA series
in chronological/historical order:

ROMAN BLOOD
The novel that began the series, in a new trade paperback edition. Rome, 80 B.C.: When an aspiring young advocate named Cicero takes on his first big murder case, he draws the wrath of the dictator Sulla...and turns for help to Gordianus the Finder. “Gripping...A combination of Hitchcock-style suspense and vivid historical details.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) • Order this book or order the audiobook.

THE HOUSE OF THE VESTALS
Volume II in the series collects nine short stories; all take place in the period between the novels ROMAN BLOOD and ARMS OF NEMESIS. “Intriguing adventures set in Rome’s ancient, grimy and bustling streets, full of a brilliantly-drawn cast of characters. Murder and thievery, blackmail gone horribly wrong and the ghosts of dead heroes throng the pages.” (Gay Times/London) • Order the paperback or the large-print edition.

A GLADIATOR DIES ONLY ONCE
A second collection of short stories finds the young Gordianus investigating suspicious doings at gladiator matches and chariot races. “Intriguing puzzles....The stories are admirably varied—some are extensive mysteries; others offer short, sharp slices of life. All are marvelous reads in themselves and marvelous reflections of ancient Rome.” (Booklist). Order the hardback or paperback or kindle.

ARMS OF NEMESIS
As the Spartacus slave revolt rages through Italy, Gordianus is summoned to the Bay of Naples by Rome’s richest man, Marcus Crassus. Two escaped slaves appear to have murdered their master...and unless Gordianus can prove otherwise, every slave in the household will be slaughtered in retribution. Order this book or order the audiobook.

CATILINA’S RIDDLE
Gordianus and his growing family become enmeshed in the political conspiracies of Cicero (on the right) and the charismatic radical Catilina (on the left). Why do headless bodies keep turning up on Gordianus’s property? And which side in the bloody conflict will he ultimately choose? “The solution of the whodunit is a textbook example of the Least Suspected Person.” (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine) • Order this book or order the audiobook.

THE VENUS THROW
Gordianus is drawn into the decadent circle of the poet Catullus and his amoral lover Clodia. Who poisoned the philosopher Dio? What does the eunuch Trigonian secretly desire? As the crumbling Roman Republic spins out of control, Gordianus confronts temptations he never dreamed of. “The best mystery novel of 1995...a work of art.” (The Oregonian) • Order this book or order the audiobook

A MURDER ON THE APPIAN WAY
As civil war between Caesar and Pompey looms, lesser demagogues wage gang war in the streets of Rome. When the rabble-rouser Clodius is killed on the Appian Way, Rome erupts in flames. His arch-enemy Milo is the obvious suspect...or is he? Sir Derek Jacobi calls it “an enthralling re-creation of its time and place, a fascinating piece of story-telling.” • Order this book or order the audiobook

RUBICON
Caesar marches on Rome, the Senate flees in panic, and Gordianus the Finder is faced with the most unusual investigation of his career. A murder in his garden and a cryptic secret message lead the Finder into a deadly maze of wartime espionage. “A conclusion as shocking as it is unexpected....A gripping read that’s as intense as it is satisfying.” (Booklist) “Saylor meticulously re-creates a chaotic world...What’s most memorable, though, is the brilliantly simple solution.” (Kirkus) • Order this book

LAST SEEN IN MASSILIA
In search of his missing son, Gordianus travels to the besieged seaport of Massilia and finds himself entangled in a deadly web of wartime espionage and intrigue. “Stellar...A vivid tableau of an ancient city under siege.” (Publishers Weekly) “Exemplary...Matchless elegance.” (Kirkus) • Order this book

A MIST OF PROPHECIES
The death of a beautiful seeress and the wartime intrigues of Rome’s most powerful women propel Gordianus the Finder into a web of deceit, murder and forbidden passion. “It would be impossible to imagine a more stellar lineup of suspects in all imperial Rome.” (Kirkus ) • Click here for more reviews. • Order this book • Order the large-print edition

THE JUDGMENT OF CAESAR
Gordianus travels to Egypt, even as Julius Caesar arrives for his first encounter with Cleopatra in the turbulent city of Alexandria. “A political thriller of the first order!” (Booklist) •Click here for more reviews. • Order the hardback • paperback • large-print edition

THE TRIUMPH OF CAESAR
Rome, 46 B.C.: Now dictator for life, Julius Caesar prepares to celebrate his triumphs with stupendous pageantry. But Caesar’s wife Calpurnia, having fallen under the spell of an Etruscan soothsayer, is convinced of a plot on her husband’s life. Once again, murder and intrigue draw Gordianus into the vortex of history. • Order the hardback

Books on Audiotape: These titles are on unabridged audio cassettes, available from Amazon.com or directly from Blackstone Audiobooks: ROMAN BLOOD, ARMS OF NEMESIS, CATILINA’S RIDDLE, THE VENUS THROW, and A MURDER ON THE APPIAN WAY.

Also by Steven Saylor:

	HAVE YOU SEEN DAWN? Austin American-Statesman: A “rocket of a read...with enough red herrings and things that go bump in the night to keep you entertained all the way.” • For more reviews, click here • Steven says: “This is my most autobiographical work, because it draws deeply on my own past growing up in a small town in the heart of the Texas hill country. But the plot is pure contemporary suspense — a definite change of pace for me.” Check for used copies at Amazon.com • Order the large-print edition.
	A TWIST AT THE END New York Times Book Review: “A riveting historical mystery...fascinating and provocative.” A gripping novel based on the serial murders that terrorized Austin, Texas, in 1885, and the scandalous trials that followed. Drawing on a decade of research, Steven recreates a forgotten era, and (with O. Henry as his hero) finds a solution to the first recorded serial murders in U.S. history. • For reviews and an interview, click here. • Order from Amazon.com.
	LONE STAR SLEUTHS An excerpt from Steven’s novel A Twist at the End appears in this anthology of Texas crime fiction from the University of Texas Press. Other authors in the collection include Kinky Friedman, Mary Willis Walker, Carolyn Hart, Nevada Barr, and Jesse Sublett. • Order from Amazon.com.
	A CASUALTY OF WAR Steven’s early short story “Kinder, Gentler” (from 1989) appears in this anthology of gay fiction edited by Peter Burton. Other authors include Francis King, Richard Zimler, Hugh Fleetwood, and Neil Bartlett. • Order from Amazon.com.

Scholars look at Steven’s work...

THE DETECTIVE AS HISTORIAN: History & Art in Historical Crime Fiction ed. by Browne & Kresier is a collection of twenty-five scholarly essays about crime fiction ranging throughout recorded history, from ancient Egypt to 19th century America. Among the highlights: Terrance L. Lewis’s “John Maddox Roberts and Steven Saylor: Detecting in the Final Decades of the Roman Republic.” Order from Amazon.com.

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO CRIME FICTION by Barry Forshaw ventures fearlessly down the mean streets and blind corners of mystery fiction, including the back alleys of ancient Rome, with an entry on Steven Saylor and his sleuth Gordianus the Finder. Order from Amazon.com.

A student looks at Steven’s work...

PRENTICE HALL REFERENCE GUIDE (6th Edition, 2005) by Muriel Harris includes, as its model essay for writing about literature, an award-winning student essay by Claire Sonntag of the University of Delaware, “PUDD’N HEADWILSON and ARMS OF NEMESIS: Two Portraits of Slavery,” in which Steven does not come off badly compared to the great Mark Twain (pp. 534-538). The book is a standard guide for English usage, writing style, and research techniques for college students. Order from Amazon.com.

All the Gordianus short stories can be found in
The House of the Vestals and A Gladiator Dies Only Once.
Some stories previously appeared in these anthologies:

FELINE FELONIES edited by Abigail Browning, features over 400 pages of the best in feline sleuthing. Steven Saylor contributes “The Alexandrian Cat.” Other authors in the collection include Ruth Rendell, Patricia Highsmith, P.G. Wodehouse, Theordore Sturgeon and Lilian Jackson Braun. Order this book.
	THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF ROMAN WHODUNNITS edited by Mike Ashley, includes an introduction by Steven Saylor, “The Long Reach of Rome,” and the Gordianus novella, “A Gladiator Dies Only Once.” Other authors in this 500-page collection include Simon Scarrow, Tom Holt, John Maddox Roberts, Marilyn Todd, and Caroline Lawrence. Order from Amazon.com.
	DEATH COMES EASY: The Gay Times Book of Murder Stories edited by Peter Burton, includes Steven Saylor’s “Death by Eros,” in which Gordianus encounters the powers of love and death on the Bay of Naples. Other authors in this wide-ranging 400-page collection include Perry Brass, Francis King, Josh Lanyon, Felice Picano, and Michael Wilcox. Order from Amazon.com.
	THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF MORE HISTORICAL WHODUNNITS edited by Mike Ashley, includes Steven Saylor’s “Poppy and the Poisoned Cake,” in which Gordianus is called on to help one of Rome’s leading citizens, who fears his closest relatives may be plotting to kill him — but seems to fear the scandal more than the crime. Other authors in this big (500 pages) collection include Michael Kurland, Peter Tremayne, and Marilyn Todd. Order from Amazon.com.
	CRIME THROUGH TIME III edited by Sharan Newman with an introduction by Anne Perry, “leads off with a solid new case for Steven Saylor’s Gordianus the Finder” (Jon Breen, EQMM). In “The Consul’s Wife,” foreign intrigue and an illicit love affair play out against the backdrop of the chariot races in the Circus Maximus. Other authors in this all-new collection include Harry Turtledove, H.R.F. Keating, Jan Burke, Andrew Greeley, and Sharon McCrumb. Order this book.
	CREME DE LA CRIME edited by Janet Hutchings, features 27 stories, all by award-winning authors, all culled from the pages of America’s leading mystery magazine, Ellery Queen. In Steven Saylor’s “Poppy and the Poisoned Cake,” Gordianus is called on to help one of Rome’s leading citizens, who fears his closest relatives may be plotting to kill him — but seems to fear the scandal more than the crime. Other authors include Ruth Rendell, Lawrence Block, Joyce Carol Oates, and Andrew Vachss. Order this book.
	PAST POISONS The Ellis Peters Memorial Anthology of Historical Crime, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, features Steven Saylor’s “Death by Eros,” in which Gordianus encounters the powers of love and death on the Bay of Naples. Others among the 20 authors joining in this homage to the late creator of Brother Cadfael include Edward Marston, Peter Lovesey, Lindsey Davis, Anne Perry, Michael Pearce, Peter Tremayne, and (with her final story) the late Kate Ross. Order this book.
	CLASSICAL WHODUNNITS edited by Mike Ashley, features 20 cases solved by sleuths from ancient Greece and Rome. Authors include Lindsey Davis, Anthony Price, and Brian Stableford. In Steven Saylor’s “The White Fawn,” Gordianus travels to Spain, where the rebel commander Sertorius is waging war against Rome with the help of a supernatural fawn. The volume also features a preface by Saylor, “A Murder, Now and Then...”, about the allure of the classical whodunnit. Check for used copies at Amazon.com.
	CRIME THROUGH TIME edited by Miriam Grace Monfredo and Sharan Newman, features historical mysteries from Ancient Egypt to WWII by 21 writers, including Anne Perry, Laurie King, and the late Kate Ross. In Steven Saylor’s “Archimedes’ Tomb,” Gordianus and Eco venture to Syracuse to help Cicero find a lost tomb...and solve a particularly nasty murder. Order this book.