The Triumph of Caesar

by Steven Saylor

Reviewed by Coral

Returning home from his adventures in Egypt, Gordianus has settled himself into a quiet life of retirement. But with the 4 triumphs awarded to Caesar for his many military victories approaching, Caesar’s wife Calpurnia summons Gordianus to meet with her. Convinced of a plot against her husband, she had previous hired Hieronymus to investigate. Though the reports sent to her were reassuring, Hieronymus has just been found, murdered.

Convinced that his murder has something to do with a possible plot against Caesar, Calpurnia demands that Gordianus come out of retirement, to trace the steps Hieronymus took in his investigation in order to find the killer and uncover the danger to Caesar.

Gordianus first goes to Hieronymus’ apartment and discovers the personal notes he made on the case, including one where he claims to have uncovered the conspirator, who he hears to name even in writing until he gathers further proof and a claim that the danger will come from the least expected person.

Following the steps of his friend’s investigation, Gordianus finds himself interviewing both friends and enemies of Caesar. With the triumphs underway, can Gordianus find the and prevent Caesar’s death, keeping the fragile peace that has settled on Rome since the end of the Civil Wars from shattering?

I love Steven Saylor’s books and I am sad that he has written more and that they are so hard for me to find.

The books require a certain suspension of disbelief to accept that Gordianus can find himself in the presence of both important people above his station (like Cleopatra and Octavius) and highly guarded prisoners (like Vercingetorix and Arsinoe). Weirdly enough, though this was one of the reasons I disliked Rome, I find it easier to accept in these books.

Though this isn’t really contained to this book, I am a little sad to see the trend of the secondary characters in Gordianus’ family being minimized continue. At the beginning of the series we had his son Eco, but when Eco became an adult he mostly disappeared from the book to be replaced by Gordianus’ son in law Davus. Now that Gordianus has adopted another son, Rupa , Davus’ role in the stories is relegated to the background. Though I have nothing against Rupa’s character, I do miss both Eco and Davus.

I was satisfied with the ending (I hadn’t figured it out by the time of the reveal) though I didn’t really like the talk Gordianus had with his dead friend. Though I guess it’s better than a scene we get in so many mysteries, where the good guy stands around and exposits everything the killer did.

I have always appreciated how Steven Saylor has handled the same-sex relationships of his characters. I tend to dislike books where you can feel the author’s personal bias reflected in their characters’ behaviour, when it doesn’t feel like a natural reaction that character would have had in the setting of the book. I also dislike those books where the gay characters won’t even be mentioned without some variance of effeminate thrown in there. In Steven Saylor’s books I have always felt that he addresses it in a way that seems natural to the time setting, having his character’s sexuality be one aspect of their personality and not what defines them overall. I think it makes his characters stronger and richer, overall.font>