Gordianus the Finder
Created by Steven Saylor

Now here's something new! A gumsandal! GORDIANUS THE FINDER, citizen of Rome, circa 80 B.C., is a professional finder, a "consorter with assassins and a professional ferret". Gordianus is a bit more respectable than Lindsey Davis' Marcus Didius Falco, but not by much. Gordianus lives on Esquiline Hill, in the city of Rome, in a small house with a tiny garden and a half-Jewish housegirl, Bethesda, who doesn't seem to know her place, and of whom Gordianus is quite fond of.

He's also quite chummy with nobleman Lucius Claudius, a "one-time client and since-then friend," and a young lawyer named Cicero - yes, that Cicero. A more recent addition to the cast of characters is Eco, a ten-year old mute whom Gordianus has adopted, after rescuing him from a gang of bullies. And eventually he succumbs to Bethesda's charms, and she becomes his manubitted legal wife, and eventually, the mother of his daughter, Gordiana.

And don't sneer, and think this is some cozy in togas. Gordianus is suitably hard-boiled, and the distance between ancient Rome and our present-day society is a mite closer than you'd think. A well-written series, recommended. And by gum, it's educational!

UNDER OATH

• "Faithful and entertaining historical novel(s) and...compulsively entertaining whodunit(s)." (The New York Times)

NOVELS

• Roman Blood (1991)
• Arms of Nemisis (1992)
• Catalina's Riddle (1993)
• The Venus Throw (1995)
• A Murder on the Appian Way (1996). Buy this book
• Rubicon (1999). Buy this book
• Last Seen in Massilia (2000) ..Buy this book
• A Mist of Prophecies (2002). Buy this book
• The Judgement of Caesar (2004). Buy this book

SHORT STORIES

• "A Will is a Way"(March 1992, EQMM)
• "Death Wears a Mask" (July 1992, EQMM)
• "The Lemures" (October 1992, EQMM)
• "The House of the Vestals" (April 1993, EQMM)
• "The Tale of The Treasure House" (Spring 1993, TAD)
• "The Disappearance of the Saturnalia Silver" (Mid-December1993, EQMM)
• "The Alexandrian Cat" (February 1994, EQMM)
• "Little Caesar and the Pirates" (March 1995, EQMM)
• "King Bee and Honey" (October 1995, EQMM)
• "The White Fawn" (December 1996, EQMM)
• "Poppy and the Poisoned Cake" (December 1998, EQMM)
• "If a Cyclops Could Vanish in the Blink of an Eye" (September 2002, Candis; also August 2003, EQMM)
• "A Gladiator Dies Only Once," (2003, The Mammoth Book of Ancient Roman Whodunnits)
• "Death by Eros," (2003, Death Comes Easy: The Gay Times Book of Murder Stories)
• "Something Fishy in Pompeii," (July 2003, Candis; September/October 2003, EQMM)
• "The Cherries of Lucullus" (May 2005, EQMM)

COLLECTIONS

• The House of the Vestals (1997). Buy this book
• A Gladiator Dies Only Once (2005). Buy this book

RELATED LINKS

• Steven Saylor's Web Site
  The author's official web site.

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. And thanks to W. A. Billingsly for the update.