Ancient World Books in Order

The Ancient World series gathers the prequel novels that follow Gordianus before he ever calls himself "the Finder." These books show him as an impulsive young traveler, moving through a Mediterranean that is already restless with the tensions that will later explode in the late Republic.

In The Seven Wonders, set in the early 90s BC, eighteen-year-old Gordianus leaves Rome with his tutor, the poet Antipater of Sidon, on a grand tour. Their plan is to visit each of the legendary wonders, from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus to the Lighthouse of Alexandria. At every stop Gordianus stumbles into a fresh mystery, and the journey slowly reveals that Antipater has his own dangerous secrets and enemies.

Raiders of the Nile finds Gordianus settled in Alexandria a few years later, living with his beloved slave Bethesda. When she disappears, he discovers she has been taken by bandits and is forced to infiltrate a gang planning to steal the golden sarcophagus of Alexander the Great. The plot unfolds against a backdrop of street riots and a vicious struggle for Egypt's throne.

In Wrath of the Furies the horizon widens again. Still in his twenties, Gordianus travels to Ephesus after receiving a desperate message from Antipater, who has attached himself to the court of King Mithridates. Rome's enemies are planning a coordinated massacre of Roman citizens across Asia Minor, and Gordianus has to move through a city boiling with anti-Roman feeling while pretending he is not Roman at all.

Together the three books chart a coming of age story. Gordianus learns new languages, falls in and out of love, makes bad bargains, and gradually discovers what kind of risks he is willing to take for truth or for the people he cares about. The tone is a little lighter and more adventurous than in the later Roma Sub Rosa entries, with travelogue pleasures, exotic festivals, and glimpses of monuments that will not survive into Gordianus's middle age.

At the same time, the Ancient World novels quietly set up the world of the main series. Familiar names and factions appear in younger form, from Mithridates to the Ptolemaic dynasty, and readers see early cracks in Roman power abroad. By the time Gordianus returns to Rome, he and the reader both understand that the wider world is far more dangerous and complicated than any one city.