Rome, AD 62. The execution of hundreds of enslaved people after the murder of their owner provokes unrest across the city, while Nero’s government fears that protest may become rebellion. Macro and Cato are drawn into the urban crisis as rival officials, guards and political factions exploit public anger. Their task is to prevent violence without becoming the instruments of a court increasingly prepared to treat fear as evidence of treason.
The unrest exposes the violence built into Roman slavery. Executing an entire household for one enslaved person’s crime is lawful under Roman custom, but the scale of the punishment makes public order itself uncertain.
Macro and Cato must enforce imperial authority while recognising that fear can turn protest into wider rebellion. Nero’s government treats dissent as a political threat, forcing the officers to distinguish genuine conspiracy from anger produced by the state’s own actions.
Bernard Cornwell
57 books
Robert Fabbri
14 books
M.C. Scott
11 books
K. M. Ashman
37 books
Griff Hosker
195 books