The Dolphins of Laurentum
Encyclopedia
The Dolphins of Laurentum is a historical novel
by Caroline Lawrence
published on February 6, 2003 by Orion Books
. It is the fifth novel in the The Roman Mysteries
series.
: Flavia Gemina and her friends Nubia, Jonathan, and Lupus, are enjoying dinner together at Flavia’s home, when a bedraggled stranger stumbles through the front door. To Flavia’s horror, the man is her own father, Geminus, who has been shipwrecked and severely injured. With the aid of Jonathan’s father, Dr. Mordecai, Marcus makes a gradual recovery. But more bad news arrives: not only has her father’s ship been lost with all hands and its cargo, Marcus’s bank announces that it is calling in the loan on the ship immediately, or else they will seize his house and property. Flavia’s uncle Gaius convinces the bank to give them one extra week, but the bank flatly refuses.
Everyone is suddenly in need of money: Gaius doesn’t feel able to marry Jonathan’s sister, Miriam, after his farm was lost in the eruption of Vesuvius
; Nubia is shocked to recognize her elder brother, Tarhaqo, among a group of slaves being sold in the market; Lupus is enraged to learn that his hated enemy, the slave dealer Venalicius, has bribed his way out of prison. Lupus wants to hire an assassin
, but the man names an impossible price for his services.
The family’s dismal mood is lifted by the arrival of a young stranger: Pliny the Younger
, the nephew of Admiral Pliny
, who has just inherited his uncle’s property. Remembering their friendship with his uncle before his death, and keen to hear their accounts of his last days, Pliny invites Marcus to his villa in Laurentum
to recuperate, including the children, Miriam, and the children’s teacher Aristo. Mordecai endorses the suggestion gratefully, while Gaius remains behind in Ostia to sort out the financial mess.
When the family arrives at Laurentum, they are delighted to meet Phrixus, Admiral Pliny’s slave, who has just received his freedom. Over dinner, the family play music and tell stories to entertain each other, and Marcus, with coaxing, tells of how he was shipwrecked. As he regrets the loss of his cargo, Pliny muses about the treasures lost under the sea, mentioning that there is a shipwreck visible under the water, just off the coast from the villa. It was rumored to be carrying a cargo of gold, but it is sunk too deep for any of the local fisherman to reach it.
Elated, Lupus reveals to the others that he is Greek
in origin, born on the island of Symi
, and, like his father before him, is a trained diver. With his instruction, the others equip a boat to take to the wreck site. During his first dive, he manages to reach the wreck, something no other local has managed to do, though he considers himself out of practice.
Pliny insists on having a celebratory feast on the beach. That night, the four friends are enchanted to see phosphorescent plankton
lighting up the beach, and when they all jump into the ocean, find themselves swimming with dolphin
s. Aristo is cajoled to tell several Greek myths having to do with dolphins during their lessons, including the stories of Arion
and Delphinus
, and of Poseidon
and Amphitrite
.
With practice, Lupus makes several dives of increasing duration, managing to reach the wreck several times, but unable to retrieve any of the amphorae he finds inside. With Aristo’s help, Jonathan designs a float rope to attach to the vessels, but everyone becomes alarmed when Lupus begins showing signs of pressure sickness. Aristo orders him to rest before his next dive, but Lupus becomes sullen and obsessed with retrieving the treasure, even snubbing his friends when they want to play music or go swimming with the dolphins again.
On his last dive, Lupus is attacked by an octopus
inside the wreck, losing his lifeline. He fights off the octopus, but loses consciousness underwater. A friendly dolphin nudges him to the surface, and Jonathan is able to revive him with artificial respiration
.
When they return to the villa, Aristo misconstrues an exchange between Miriam and Pliny, and the two men begin fighting over her. Furious, Miriam tells them to stop and runs off by herself.
Then Gaius arrives at the farm with grave news: the “assassin” that Lupus tried to hire was in fact an agent of the local magistrate, Bato, who deliberately named an impossible sum to prevent Lupus from trying to hire him. Gaius is now worried that Lupus is obsessed with finding enough money to have Venalicius killed, so much that he will injure or kill himself diving to the wreck.
When Flavia and the others wonder why Lupus hates Venalicius so much, Gaius has a startling document to show them: last month, Mordecai was in jail on a wrongful charge (during The Assassins of Rome
). Venalicius was his cellmate, and narrated a confession that Mordecai wrote down:
Venalicius’s real name is Phillippos, Lupus’s uncle. When he was a boy on Symi, he was abused and laughed at because of his ugliness, except by one girl, Melissa. Because he was a good diver, Phillippos wanted to find a pearl for Melissa being so nice to him, but ended up rupturing one of his eyes from pressure sickness. Now even uglier, he was even more abused by his father, who later sold him as a slave. Years later, Phillippos returned to the island, now free, and a rich and ruthless slave dealer. He was enraged to find that his handsome younger brother had married Melissa, and killed him. Melissa’s son yelled that he would tell on his uncle, and Phillippos grabbed the boy and cut his tongue out, telling Melissa that the boy would die if anyone followed him. He then sailed away, and the boy escaped when the ship reached Ostia.
Lupus has overheard Gaius’s reading, and adds one detail: Venalicius had told him that his mother was also dead; now knowing that this isn’t true, Lupus realizes she may be alive somewhere.
Now more determined than ever to retrieve the treasure, Lupus sneaks out of the villa and hires one of the fishermen to take him to the wreck. When he gets there, he is shocked to see Dr. Mordecai and Venalicius together. Venalicius dives into the water, and Mordecai yells at Lupus to stop, Venalicius is trying to help them. Ignoring this, Lupus dives and races his uncle to the wreck. Once there, Lupus sees the octopus attacking his uncle.
Somewhat to his own surprise, Lupus stabs the octopus and drives it away. When Venalicius is brought up, he begins to suffer terrible pains, as he has made many more dives that day than is safe. Lupus realizes his uncle is dying; before he does, he begs his nephew to forgive him. Lupus does, reluctantly, and agrees to perform the last rites.
The treasure is never recovered, but the family’s problems are still solved: Flavia secretly sells her most prized possession, a kylix
she received from Publius Pollius Felix (in "The Pirates of Pompeii
") to Pliny in exchange for enough money to anonymously pay off her father’s loan; Pliny makes Gaius tenant on one of his farms, so he can afford to marry Miriam; and Mordecai informs Lupus that, before he died, Venalicius accepted Christian
baptism
and willed all of his money and possessions to his nephew, including his ship. Lupus makes Marcus the new captain of his ship (re-christened the Delphina), and agrees to carry out his uncle’s dying wish of rescuing all the children he abducted and sold into slavery. The only one saddened is Nubia, who learns that her brother was sold to a gladiator
school in Capua
.
The next morning, Flavia, Jonathan, and Nubia read a note left by Lupus telling what little he remembers from that terrible night: after his uncle’s ship left Symi, some of the other sailors had to stop the bleeding in his mouth by cauterizing the stub of his tongue: "I opened my mouth because I thought that it couldn’t hurt any worse than it already did. But I was wrong.”
They look up and are heartened to see Lupus out at sea, lifted of the burden of his hate, and taking a carefree ride on a dolphin.
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 February 6, 2003 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 fifth novel in the 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
October, AD 7979
Year 79 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Vespasianus...
: Flavia Gemina and her friends Nubia, Jonathan, and Lupus, are enjoying dinner together at Flavia’s home, when a bedraggled stranger stumbles through the front door. To Flavia’s horror, the man is her own father, Geminus, who has been shipwrecked and severely injured. With the aid of Jonathan’s father, Dr. Mordecai, Marcus makes a gradual recovery. But more bad news arrives: not only has her father’s ship been lost with all hands and its cargo, Marcus’s bank announces that it is calling in the loan on the ship immediately, or else they will seize his house and property. Flavia’s uncle Gaius convinces the bank to give them one extra week, but the bank flatly refuses.
Everyone is suddenly in need of money: Gaius doesn’t feel able to marry Jonathan’s sister, Miriam, after his farm was lost in the eruption of Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not currently erupting...
; Nubia is shocked to recognize her elder brother, Tarhaqo, among a group of slaves being sold in the market; Lupus is enraged to learn that his hated enemy, the slave dealer Venalicius, has bribed his way out of prison. Lupus wants to hire an assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
, but the man names an impossible price for his services.
The family’s dismal mood is lifted by the arrival of a young stranger: Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Younger
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo , better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him...
, the nephew of Admiral Pliny
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
, who has just inherited his uncle’s property. Remembering their friendship with his uncle before his death, and keen to hear their accounts of his last days, Pliny invites Marcus to his villa in Laurentum
Laurentum
Laurentum was an ancient Roman city of Latium situated between Ostia and Lavinium, on the west coast of the Italian Peninsula southwest of Rome. Roman writers regarded it as the original capital of the Latins, before Lavinium assumed that role after the death of King Latinus...
to recuperate, including the children, Miriam, and the children’s teacher Aristo. Mordecai endorses the suggestion gratefully, while Gaius remains behind in Ostia to sort out the financial mess.
When the family arrives at Laurentum, they are delighted to meet Phrixus, Admiral Pliny’s slave, who has just received his freedom. Over dinner, the family play music and tell stories to entertain each other, and Marcus, with coaxing, tells of how he was shipwrecked. As he regrets the loss of his cargo, Pliny muses about the treasures lost under the sea, mentioning that there is a shipwreck visible under the water, just off the coast from the villa. It was rumored to be carrying a cargo of gold, but it is sunk too deep for any of the local fisherman to reach it.
Elated, Lupus reveals to the others that he is Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
in origin, born on the island of Symi
Symi
Symi also transliterated Syme or Simi is a Greek island and municipality. It is mountainous and includes the harbor town of Symi and its adjacent upper town Ano Symi, as well as several smaller localities, beaches, and areas of significance in history and mythology...
, and, like his father before him, is a trained diver. With his instruction, the others equip a boat to take to the wreck site. During his first dive, he manages to reach the wreck, something no other local has managed to do, though he considers himself out of practice.
Pliny insists on having a celebratory feast on the beach. That night, the four friends are enchanted to see phosphorescent plankton
Plankton
Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...
lighting up the beach, and when they all jump into the ocean, find themselves swimming with dolphin
Dolphin
Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...
s. Aristo is cajoled to tell several Greek myths having to do with dolphins during their lessons, including the stories of Arion
Arion
Arion was a kitharode in ancient Greece, a Dionysiac poet credited with inventing the dithyramb: "As a literary composition for chorus dithyramb was the creation of Arion of Corinth," The islanders of Lesbos claimed him as their native son, but Arion found a patron in Periander, tyrant of Corinth...
and Delphinus
Delphinus
Delphinus is a constellation in the northern sky, close to the celestial equator. Its name is Latin for dolphin. Delphinus was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains among the 88 modern constellations recognized by the International Astronomical...
, and of Poseidon
Poseidon
Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
and Amphitrite
Amphitrite
In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite was a sea-goddess and wife of Poseidon. Under the influence of the Olympian pantheon, she became merely the consort of Poseidon, and was further diminished by poets to a symbolic representation of the sea...
.
With practice, Lupus makes several dives of increasing duration, managing to reach the wreck several times, but unable to retrieve any of the amphorae he finds inside. With Aristo’s help, Jonathan designs a float rope to attach to the vessels, but everyone becomes alarmed when Lupus begins showing signs of pressure sickness. Aristo orders him to rest before his next dive, but Lupus becomes sullen and obsessed with retrieving the treasure, even snubbing his friends when they want to play music or go swimming with the dolphins again.
On his last dive, Lupus is attacked by an octopus
Octopus
The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
inside the wreck, losing his lifeline. He fights off the octopus, but loses consciousness underwater. A friendly dolphin nudges him to the surface, and Jonathan is able to revive him with artificial respiration
Artificial respiration
Artificial respiration is the act of assisting or stimulating respiration, a metabolic process referring to the overall exchange of gases in the body by pulmonary ventilation, external respiration, and internal respiration...
.
When they return to the villa, Aristo misconstrues an exchange between Miriam and Pliny, and the two men begin fighting over her. Furious, Miriam tells them to stop and runs off by herself.
Then Gaius arrives at the farm with grave news: the “assassin” that Lupus tried to hire was in fact an agent of the local magistrate, Bato, who deliberately named an impossible sum to prevent Lupus from trying to hire him. Gaius is now worried that Lupus is obsessed with finding enough money to have Venalicius killed, so much that he will injure or kill himself diving to the wreck.
When Flavia and the others wonder why Lupus hates Venalicius so much, Gaius has a startling document to show them: last month, Mordecai was in jail on a wrongful charge (during The Assassins of Rome
The Assassins of Rome
The Assassins of Rome is a children's historical novel by Caroline Lawrence published on 17 October 2002 by Orion Books. It is the fourth book of The Roman Mysteries series.-Plot introduction:The novel is set in Ostia and Rome in September AD 79...
). Venalicius was his cellmate, and narrated a confession that Mordecai wrote down:
Venalicius’s real name is Phillippos, Lupus’s uncle. When he was a boy on Symi, he was abused and laughed at because of his ugliness, except by one girl, Melissa. Because he was a good diver, Phillippos wanted to find a pearl for Melissa being so nice to him, but ended up rupturing one of his eyes from pressure sickness. Now even uglier, he was even more abused by his father, who later sold him as a slave. Years later, Phillippos returned to the island, now free, and a rich and ruthless slave dealer. He was enraged to find that his handsome younger brother had married Melissa, and killed him. Melissa’s son yelled that he would tell on his uncle, and Phillippos grabbed the boy and cut his tongue out, telling Melissa that the boy would die if anyone followed him. He then sailed away, and the boy escaped when the ship reached Ostia.
Lupus has overheard Gaius’s reading, and adds one detail: Venalicius had told him that his mother was also dead; now knowing that this isn’t true, Lupus realizes she may be alive somewhere.
Now more determined than ever to retrieve the treasure, Lupus sneaks out of the villa and hires one of the fishermen to take him to the wreck. When he gets there, he is shocked to see Dr. Mordecai and Venalicius together. Venalicius dives into the water, and Mordecai yells at Lupus to stop, Venalicius is trying to help them. Ignoring this, Lupus dives and races his uncle to the wreck. Once there, Lupus sees the octopus attacking his uncle.
Somewhat to his own surprise, Lupus stabs the octopus and drives it away. When Venalicius is brought up, he begins to suffer terrible pains, as he has made many more dives that day than is safe. Lupus realizes his uncle is dying; before he does, he begs his nephew to forgive him. Lupus does, reluctantly, and agrees to perform the last rites.
The treasure is never recovered, but the family’s problems are still solved: Flavia secretly sells her most prized possession, a kylix
Kylix (drinking cup)
A kylix is a type of wine-drinking glass with a broad relatively shallow body raised on a stem from a foot and usually with two horizontal handles disposed symmetrically...
she received from Publius Pollius Felix (in "The Pirates of Pompeii
The Pirates of Pompeii
The Pirates of Pompeii is a children's historical novel set in Roman times by Caroline Lawrence. The novel is the third in the Roman Mysteries series.- Plot :...
") to Pliny in exchange for enough money to anonymously pay off her father’s loan; Pliny makes Gaius tenant on one of his farms, so he can afford to marry Miriam; and Mordecai informs Lupus that, before he died, Venalicius accepted Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
and willed all of his money and possessions to his nephew, including his ship. Lupus makes Marcus the new captain of his ship (re-christened the Delphina), and agrees to carry out his uncle’s dying wish of rescuing all the children he abducted and sold into slavery. The only one saddened is Nubia, who learns that her brother was sold to a gladiator
Gladiator
A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
school in Capua
Capua
Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now...
.
The next morning, Flavia, Jonathan, and Nubia read a note left by Lupus telling what little he remembers from that terrible night: after his uncle’s ship left Symi, some of the other sailors had to stop the bleeding in his mouth by cauterizing the stub of his tongue: "I opened my mouth because I thought that it couldn’t hurt any worse than it already did. But I was wrong.”
They look up and are heartened to see Lupus out at sea, lifted of the burden of his hate, and taking a carefree ride on a dolphin.