A Body in the Bath House
Encyclopedia
Plot introduction
Set in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
in AD 75, A Body in the Bath House stars Marcus Didius Falco
Marcus Didius Falco
Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the concepts of modern detective stories , Davis portrays the world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian...
, Informer and Imperial Agent. It is the thirteenth in her Falco
Marcus Didius Falco
Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the concepts of modern detective stories , Davis portrays the world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian...
series.
Explanation of the novel's title
The title is a reference to the discovery of a corpse hidden beneath the floor of a bath house and a murder which takes place in another.Plot summary
When Marcus Didius FalcoMarcus Didius Falco
Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the concepts of modern detective stories , Davis portrays the world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian...
discovers a corpse hidden under the floor of his new bath house he starts to track down the men responsible - Glaucus and Cotta. He also receives a commission from the Emperor Vespasian. A building project for the British Chieftain Togidubnus
Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus
Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus was a 1st century king of the Regnenses or Regni tribe in early Roman Britain.Chichester and the nearby Roman villa at Fishbourne, believed by some to have been Cogidubnus' palace, were probably part of the territory of the Atrebates tribe before the Roman conquest of...
is running late and over-budget. Suspecting that the men he seeks have fled to Britain Falco accepts the mission and travels there with his wife, two baby daughters, their nurse and his two brothers-in-law Aelianus and Justinus.
Falco arrives at Fishbourne
Fishbourne Roman Palace
Fishbourne Roman Palace is in the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex. The large palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain on the site of a Roman army supply base established at the Claudian invasion in 43 AD. The rectangular palace surrounded...
and starts by investigating corrupt practices. However events quickly take a turn for the worse when the Chief Architect is found murdered in the bath-house of the British King. Falco takes over the project and investigates the killings.
In Rome
- Aulus Camillus Aelianus - Younger brother of Helena
- Anacrites - Chief Spy
- Camilla Hyspale - Nursemaid to Julia and Favonia
- Marcus Didius Geminus - Father of Falco, Auctioneer
- Glaucus and Cotta - Bath House Contractors
- Sosia Favonia - Daughter of Falco and Helena
- Helena Justina - Wife of Falco, and daughter of the SenatorRoman SenateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
Decimus Camillus Verus - Julia Junilla Laeitana - Daughter of Falco and Helena
- Lucius Petronius Longus - Friend of Falco and Vigiles Officer
- Maia Favonia - Falco's widowed sister
- Marcus Didius Falco - Informer and Imperial Agent.
- Perella - Dancer and Spy
- Quintus Camillus Justinus - Younger brother of Aelianus
- Vespasian - Emperor of Rome
In Britain
- Alexas - Doctor
- Blandus - Painter
- Cyprianus - Clerk of Works
- Gaius - Clerk
- Lupus - Overseas labour force supervisor
- Magnus - Surveyor
- Mandumerus - Local labour force supervisor
- Marcellinus - Retired Architect
- Milchato - Marble Mason
- Philocles - Mosaicist
- Plancus - Assistant Architect
- Pomponius - Project Manager
- Rectus - Draining Engineer
- Sextius - Mechanical statue-seller
- Strephon - Assistant Architect
- T. Claudius Togidunus - Great King of the Britons
- Timagenes - Gardener
- Verovolcus - Briton working for Togidubnus
- Virginia - Barmaid
Major themes
- Investigation into corruption at the building of a palace of an influential Roman ally.
- The obsessive pursuit of Maia by Anacrites.
Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
- Set in RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and BritanniaBritanniaBritannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
, in AD 75, during the reign of Emperor VespasianVespasianVespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
. - Fishbourne Roman PalaceFishbourne Roman PalaceFishbourne Roman Palace is in the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex. The large palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain on the site of a Roman army supply base established at the Claudian invasion in 43 AD. The rectangular palace surrounded...
, in the village of FishbourneFishbourne-United Kingdom:* Fishbourne, Isle of Wight, a village* Fishbourne, West Sussex, a village.* Fishbourne Roman Palace, an archaeological site in West Sussex....
in West SussexWest SussexWest Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, is one of the most important archaeologicalArchaeologyArchaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
sites in EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. - Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus (or Togidubnus) was a 1st century king of the RegnensesRegnensesThe Regnenses, Regni or Regini were a British Celtic kingdom and later a civitas of Roman Britain. Their capital was Noviomagus Reginorum, known today as Chichester in modern West Sussex....
in early Roman BritainRoman BritainRoman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
.
Release details
- 2001, UK, Century Hardback ISBN 0-7126-8039-X
- 2002, UK, Arrow, Paperback ISBN 0-09-929830-9
- UK, Chivers/BBC AudioBooks, read by Christian Rodska, Cassettes ISBN 0-7540-9769-2 CD audios ISBN 1-4056-7048-7
- UK, Isis, Large Print ISBN 0-7531-6612-7
- 2002, US, Mysterious Press, Hardback ISBN 0-89296-771-4
- US, Mysterious Press, Paperback ISBN 0-446-69170-4