The interaction among the children: Jonathan, whose Jewish family is secretly Christian converts Nubia, who is learning Latin poetry and speaks like it Lupus, only eight and fierce, just learning to read and the spirited Flavia keeps the story moving. When they arrive, the youngsters overlook tremors and strange animal behavior while they try to puzzle out the riddle Pliny had given them. Before they leave, the youngsters help rescue a swimmer who turns out to be the historian, Admiral Pliny. Flavia, her neighbor Jonathan, Lupus, a boy slave who had his tongue cut out, and Nubia, the freed African slave, still learning Latin, are going to stay the summer at Flavia’s uncle’s farm near Pompeii. Four young friends in ancient Rome, 79 C.E., and environs attempt to solve a riddle at a time of great historic import in this absorbing sequel to The Thieves of Ostia (2001).
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