Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • SPQR VII: The Tribune's Curse

  • By: John Maddox Roberts
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (35 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
SPQR VII: The Tribune's Curse cover art

SPQR VII: The Tribune's Curse

By: John Maddox Roberts
Narrated by: John Lee
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The King’s Gambit cover art
Warrior: The Epic Story of Caratacus, Warrior Briton and Enemy of the Roman Empire cover art
Marius' Mules I: The Invasion of Gaul cover art
The Noble Outlaw cover art
The Great Game cover art
The Fort cover art
The History of the Peloponnesian War cover art
Tyrant cover art
Good Intentions cover art
Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle cover art
Father Paolo Baldi Mysteries cover art
Ratking cover art
Home Front: The Complete BBC Radio Collection, Volume 1 cover art
A Plague of Heretics cover art
Vindolanda cover art
The King's Justice cover art

Summary

I was happier than any mere mortal has a right to be and I should have known better. The entire body of received mythology and every last Greek tragedy ever written have made one inescapable truth utterly clear: If you are supremely happy, the gods have it in for you. They don't like for mortals to be happy, and they will make you pay.

In his extensive series featuring the detecting feats of Decius Caecilius Metellus the younger, set in the Rome of 70 BC, Roberts achieves a very believable modern feeling with his well-researched description of the stories' background. This seventh episode, however, combines a familiar view of the demands office-seeking makes on a candidate with a situation that is impossibly bizarre to us today. An entire city, versed in literature, music, and the other arts, ruled democratically, for its time, is thrown into panic by an enraged man's curse.

The Consul Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome, frustrated by the Senate's vote against his leading Rome in a war against Parthia, plans to march his private army to invade the country himself. Almost all of Rome turns out to watch him carry out his threat and lead his troops out of the city. But before he can, a powerful tribune called Ateius leaps to the top of the city's gate and invokes all the gods to put a curse on Crassus and his army. Rome is terrified. Ateius has called down a forbidden curse - the worst and most frightening blasphemy ever perpetrated. It seriously threatens the entire populace, and drastic steps to propitiate the gods must be taken immediately. Worse even, someone kills Ateius - perhaps in the vain hope that this will lighten the curse? It will not.

After joining the other men of the city in a daylong cleansing ritual that left every able-bodied male citizen, Decius included, in a state of half-collapse, Decius learns that he has been chosen to uncover the person responsible for the murder. The culprit must be found in order to complete the cleansing, and there is no one better equipped to do that than Decius. Roberts skillfully blends the playboy and the serious sleuth in Decius just as he combines what we see as contradictions in the Rome of 80 BC. He spices his story with humor and suspense, with characters charming and wise and foolish and very much like we are today. And he presents listeners with a look into another world that has them eagerly awaiting more visits.

©2003 John Maddox Roberts. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about SPQR VII: The Tribune's Curse

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    24
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

"The best parties ever seen in Rome"

We are back in Rome again with elections coming up and our main protagonist, Decius Caecilius Metellus the younger, is one of the candidates, having left Julius Caesar's troops warring in Gaul. But, as usual, things do not go smoothly when Rome itself falls under a virulent curse directed at the richest man of that fair city as he leaves to embark on his own war in search of glory and greater wealth. When the senator who performed the curse is, himself, found apparently murdered, it falls to our luckless and flawed hero to investigate.

Another excellent, puzzling mystery to unwind without the help of modern forensics. The writing is very visual as we are led through the streets of Rome, meeting sometimes strange and exotic characters. The dialogue is filled with wry humour and fascinating titbits of Roman life and culture are revealed. John Lee does a good narration as he becomes the voice of Decius.
It's fun, it is exciting and it even teaches without preaching. Highly recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful