The Throne of Caesar

By: Steven Saylor

Narrated by: John Curless

It's Rome, 44 BC, and the Ides of March are approaching.

Julius Caesar has been appointed dictator for life by the Roman Senate. Having pardoned his remaining enemies and rewarded his friends, Caesar is now preparing to leave Rome with his army to fight the Parthian Empire.

Gordianus the Finder, after decades of investigating crimes and murders involving the powerful, has set aside enough that he's been raised to the Equestrian rank and has firmly and finally retired. On the morning of March 10th, though, he's first summoned to meet with Cicero and then with Caesar himself.

Both have the same request of Gordianus - keep your ear to the ground, ask around, and find out if there are any conspiracies against Caesar's life. Caesar, however, has one other important matter to discuss. Gordianus's adopted son Meto has long been one of Caesar's closest confidants. To honor Meto, Caesar is going to make his father Gordianus a Senator when he attends the next session on the 15th of March.

With only four days left before he's made a Senator, Gordianus must dust off his old skills and see what conspiracy against Julius Caesar, if any, he can uncover. Because the Ides of March are approaching....

©2018 Steven Saylor (P)2018 Recorded Books

best book from Taylor in years, really enjoyed it

his description of the the poems and the players was excellent. not just the same characters in old stories, made me want to go find the classic works and read them

Another Outstanding Roma Sub Rosa!

I greatly enjoyed Steven Saylor's latest book and hope that it signals future books in the hands of the next generation!

British accent?

Wish they could have chosen a different narrator here. I have all of the audiobooks in this series, and have enjoyed them tremendously, but I really had a problem with this one. Why in the heck did they choose a narrator with a British accent??? Ancient Romans with a strong British accent?? Give me a break. It made it really hard to enjoy the work.

It really bothered me that they changed narrators frequently throughout the series, changing pronunciations and such makes for more difficult listening in my mind, but this last change just takes the prize for pure silliness. Somebody did Mr Saylor’s tremendously well researched and written work a very poor turn with this one.

Pronunciation / continuity problems

I’m a fan of Steven Saylor’s Gordianus the Finder series. I really wanted to love this one too, but I just could not get past the narrator. I admit that for me there really is only one Gordianus, and that’s Ralph Cosham. I was prepared to be open minded about this narrator, but Mr. Curless really mispronounces the names of the main characters Davus and Gordianus. I suppose you could make an argument for “creative interpretation” but it really does nothing for continuity of the overall series. I made it to chapter 3 before I stopped and returned the book. Unfortunately, I will have to buy this one and read it for myself.

Masterful Novel of Ancient Rome

Very good description of events around Caesar's demise. Great writing and performance. Give it a try!