The Adventures of Quintus Propertius ~ Paperback ~ Roy R. Johnson

Quintus Propertius Mala is a Roman investigator; or is he? His habit of coming out with obscure (to the narrator) quotations, sometimes in exotic languages, makes one wonder; so does his Zorro-like swordsmanship; so do his little 'inventions', so does. a great deal. In a succession of adventures, Quintus Propertius, accompanied by his Dr Watson, Marcus Vectorius, solves the mystery of the disappearance of a wealthy businessman; brings to book the murderers of an inoffensive minor official; reveals how skin-deep is the assimilation of a supposedly Romanised Gaul; and comes across potentially devastating evidence of the perfidy of the emperor himself. He travels to the thriving city of Ephesus, and to the backward south-west peninsula of a half-conquered land on the outskirts of civilization; he meets mysterious strangers from far, far beyond the eastern borders of the empire; he clashes with a heterogeneous variety of minor and not-so-minor villains, including some who wield terrifying power in the land. He takes to wife a slave-girl, who turns out to know more about medicine than all the learned physicians in Rome; befriends an untutored savage, who reveals an intellect of remarkable power; and sets out, in his own words, to give Rome "a much-needed kick-start into." Where? And where - or when? - does he come from, this Quintus Propertius Mala?