Political Intrigue in Ancient Rome

Political Intrigue in Ancient Rome moves between the Julio-Claudian court and the transformed empire of Constantine I. Domina follows Agrippina the Younger’s struggle for influence as wife of Claudius and mother of Nero. The four Claudia mysteries then shift to the early fourth century, where an imperial agent investigates killings that expose the tensions surrounding Constantine’s rule and Christianity’s new public position.

The books combine murder investigation with the machinery of Roman power: palace households, courtesan guilds, military veterans, informers, bishops and imperial officials. Religious disputes and dynastic ambition repeatedly shape apparently private crimes. Read together, the sequence spans two very different imperial courts while retaining a common interest in how women, freed people and covert servants manoeuvre around rulers whose favour can determine life or death.