Ode to a Banker

by Lindsey Davis Book 12 in the Marcus Didius Falco series.

First published 2000

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Falco's public poetry reading brings him into contact with Aurelius Chrysippus, a banker who finances and publishes writers. When Chrysippus is killed in his scriptorium, Petronius asks Falco to investigate the author's clients and business partners.

The inquiry exposes debt, vanity and exploitation within Rome's literary trade. Manuscripts and publishing agreements become evidence as Falco distinguishes professional resentment from financial motives.

The murder reveals a recognisable commercial side of Roman literary culture. Authors depend on money, copying labour, patronage and distribution, while publishers can profit from writers whose social ambitions exceed their income. Falco’s inquiry turns those relationships into motives and shows that the production of books in Rome is as vulnerable to debt and vanity as any other trade.