The Assassins of Rome is a children's historical novel

Historical novel

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...

 by Caroline Lawrence

Caroline Lawrence

Caroline Lawrence is an English American author, best known for The Roman Mysteries series of historical novels for children. The series is about a Roman girl called Flavia and her three friends: Nubia , Jonathan and Lupus...

 published on 17 October 2002 by Orion Books

Orion Publishing Group

Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...

. It is the fourth book of The Roman Mysteries

The Roman Mysteries

The Roman Mysteries is a series of historical novels for children by Caroline Lawrence. The first book, The Thieves of Ostia, was published in 2001, finishing with The Man from Pomegranate Street, published in 2009, and 17 more novels were planned, plus a number of "mini-mysteries" and companion...

 series.

Plot introduction

The novel is set in Ostia

Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica is a large archeological site, close to the modern suburb of Ostia , that was the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, which is approximately 30 km to the northeast. "Ostia" in Latin means "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but, due to...

 and Rome

Rome

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...

 in September AD 79. Jonathan is the primary character in this novel, as he seeks out the mother he believed long dead and learns the tragic secrets of his family history.

Scroll I

The story begins on Jonathan ben Mordecai 11th birthday. He is gloomy, saying that something bad always happens on his birthday. He opens the presents and is not satisfied with any except a jar of lemon oil.

Scroll II

He breaks the jar of lemon oil, and the scent reminds him of his mother, who died in the Siege of Jerusalem. Officials turns up to warn Jonathan's father that an assassin, ben Jonah, has been asking for him.

Scroll III

Jonathan wonders why his mother did not escape with them, which leads him to hear his father talking with a stranger. The stranger mentions that his mother didn't escape with them 'because of Jonathan'.

Scroll IV

The stranger turns out to be ben Jonah. Jonathan head butts him and tells his father to knock him cold before he gets up. Jonathan's Father, ben Ezra, tells him ben Jonah is the brother of Jonathan's mother, Susannah.

Scroll V

Jonathan thinks about the conversation before, and thinks that ben Ezra must hate him for making Susannah not leave. That night, he dreams that his mother is sat at her loom in the Cyclops cave and tells him that she is still alive.

Scroll VI

The next day, he and ben Jonah have disappeared, with a message: Gone to Rome. The official returns and arrests ben Ezra for hiding ben Jonah. His friends Flavia and Nubia set of after Jonathan.

Scroll VII

This chapter is mainly about the trip that Flavia and Shepenwepet (everyone calls her Nubia) took to Rome with their bodyguard, Caudex and cart driver, Feles.

Scroll VIII

Meanwhile, ben Jonah decides to take Jonathan with him to Rome, where he admits to his nephew that he a messenger to the Emperor Titus Flavius Vespanius.

Scroll IX

Flavia's mother Myrilla has a sister who is the wife of the great senator Aulus Caecilius Cornix, so they go to his house to find it empty except for his secretary Sisyphus.

Scroll X

In the rental room of ben Jonah, he shows Jonathan that he is a very talented musician by playing the bass lyre to him. Meanwhile, Flavia tells Sisyphus why they had come.

Scroll XI

ben Esra's other friends go to ask the official, Bato, why ben Ezra has been arrested. Bato tells them that ben Jonah had been involved in a plot to kill the emperor. If ben Ezra helped him, it was treason.

Scroll XII

They visit ben Ezra in the prison. ben Ezra tells them that ben Jonah really was an assassin, but had changed his ways years before. In Rome, Flavia is surprised when Sisyphus tells her he will help them.

Scroll XIII

Jonathan's friends Miriam, Aristo and Lykos (Lupus) find a message from Jonathan: Susannah is alive and at the Golden House. Meanwhile, ben Jonah tells Jonathan that he has been the first in 3 hired to kill the Emperor.

Scroll XIV

ben Jonah asks Jonathan if he wants to go with him to the palace disguised as musicians, and help him kill the Emperor. Jonathan agrees, since it would provide a chance to see his mother.

Scroll XV

Aristo and Lupus go to Rome to tell Flavia and Nubia the news and help them. At the palace, ben Jonah is allowed in to perform because of his exceptional musical talent. While he is playing he is recognized.

Scroll XVI

In Rome, Flavia meets up with Aristo and Lupus. In the palace, ben Jonah and Jonathan are arrested. Jonathan is branded as a slave and sent to work at the Golden House.

Scroll XVII

Jonathan meets the eight year old Ripzah, who knows all the passages, or 'cryptoporticuses', of the Golden House. Sisyphus went to see the races and sees Celer, designer of the Golden House.

Scroll XVIII

Ripzah tells Jonathan that there is a woman called Susannah here. Susannah turns out to be Jonathan's mother. Discovering that she is visited by the Emperor he at first thinks she is his mistress.

Scroll XIX

Ripzah tells Jonathan that it was woman called Berenice had hired ben Jonah and other assassins, but the target was Susannah, not the emperor Titus Flavius Vespanius.

Scroll XX

Jonathan tells Ripzah abut his mother in the Golden house. At the same time, Flavia tricks the Golden House's guard into telling them that the second assassin (after ben Jonah) has been arrested and crucified.

Scroll XXI

The group of Sisyphus and Aristo are hired to perform music for Titus at the Golden House's Octagonal Room because they are 'talented musicians'. Jonathan hides behind a bush and sees Susannah visited by the Emperor again.

Scroll XXII

Susannah finds Jonathan and realizes that he is a slave here. She tells him that ben Jonah is okay and that the emperor is sorry that he sieged Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the 'Musicians' start performing.

Scroll XXIII

Lupus spots the assassin Porcius and chases him. Susannah tells Jonathan that she stayed because her lover was in the city. His name was Jonathan. Jonathan realizes that that Jonathan was what ben Jonah was speaking of.

Scroll XXIV

Porcius escapes and climbs up to the roof, and Flavia throws a tambourine at him. He goes through the glass roof, falls and dies. Meanwhile, Susannah says she could not go back because Titus needs him.

Scroll XXV

Titus gives all the slaves and women of the Golden House an option. They could stay or leave. Susannah, Ripzah and her mother Rachel stays ,the others leave.

Scroll XXVI

Susannah explains why she stays: She could persuade Titus to rethink evil ideas because he is not so bad that he could not repent. ben Jonah becomes the steward to the Golden House.

Scroll XXVII

Titus apologizes for the brand and frees him as a reward for saving his life from the assassins. He also gave him a ring with Titus' seal imprinted on it. He also thanked Sisyphus.

Scroll XXVIII

All the characters (except Titus) are invited to a feast. At the feast, Clio shows up. Everyone is surprised that Clio survived the volcano. Felix shows up too, and Jonathan invites them to dinner as well. All is well.
The End

Allusions to history

Queen Berenice of Judaea, the Roman emperor Titus

Titus

Titus , was Roman Emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own father....

, his brother Domitian

Domitian

Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...

, and the historian Josephus

Josephus

Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...

 are historical characters who appear in The Assassins of Rome.

The novel is set about nine years after the siege and fall of Jerusalem

Siege of Jerusalem (70)

The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was the decisive event of the First Jewish-Roman War. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by its Jewish defenders in...

 during the First Jewish-Roman War

First Jewish-Roman War

The First Jewish–Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt , was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews of Judaea Province , against the Roman Empire...

 and refers to those events and the subsequent enslavement of thousands of Jews. Characters describe the siege and also the love affair between Berenice and Titus.

Flavia and her friends also witness contemporary events such as the building of Vespasian's new amphitheatre - now known as the Colosseum

Colosseum

The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...

 - and the chariot races at the Circus Maximus

Circus Maximus

The Circus Maximus is an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium and mass entertainment venue located in Rome, Italy. Situated in the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest stadium in ancient Rome and its later Empire...

 during the Ludi Romani

Ludi Romani

The Ludi Romani were a religious festival in ancient Rome. They were held annually starting in 366 BC from September 12 to September 14, later extended to September 5 to September 19. In the last 1st century BC, an extra day was added in honor of the deified Julius Caesar on 4 September...

. The unusually hot weather that autumn, a consequence of the eruption of Vesuvius, is frequently mentioned. Some of the action is set in Nero

Nero

Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....

's Golden House

Domus Aurea

The Domus Aurea was a large landscaped portico villa, designed to take advantage of artificially created landscapes built in the heart of Ancient Rome by the Emperor Nero after the Great Fire of Rome had cleared away the aristocratic dwellings on the slopes of the Palatine...

, which the book suggests was used as a palace for Berenice and her Jewish handmaidens (its actual use at this period is unknown).

External links

• The Assassins of Rome at the Roman Mysteries website