Alexander Julius Sacerdotus is not the most pious Jew in Rome, but even he can recognize the unique slash of a kosher butcher. Until today, though, he has never seen it on a human throat. 

 

Alexander deals with ink, not blood. He is a scribe, writing anything for anyone, solemn or sinful, just to keep his wife and six children one step ahead of starvation. Not an easy task, since Rome in 410 is stricken with drought and a deadly barbarian siege. Now, with the Eternal City abandoned to fear and famine, the poor scribe cannot scrounge up a single client.

 

Someone seeks him out, though: Lucius Claudius Valerius, the most corrupt, dissolute and Jew-hating member of the Senate. He informs the scribe that the ancient statue of Laocoön, Rome’s symbol of divine protection, has been stolen, its guardians butchered in a bizarre rite. If the populace should hear of its disappearance, panic will spread faster than wildfire. The Senate commands Valerius to find the fateful statue within three days, or undergo a gruesome public execution. His only hope is Alexander, whose clientele is a cross-section of Rome; in other words, everyone that the elitist senator doesn’t know. Alexander dares not refuse to help, for fear of the senator’s wrath against the defenseless Jewish community. 

 

Valerius resents needing a Jew’s help, and the scribe doubts this politician will ever show a shred of gratitude. However, the fates of this ill-matched duo are now bound together. Their desperate quest leads them from the opulence of the Imperial Forums to the squalor of prostitution and gambling dens. Each clue they uncover - whether from a one-armed Nubian ex-gladiator or Greek and Jewish healers or the last of the Vestal Virgins - only produces more questions, more blood and more poison. One thing is certain: this mystery is about much more than a missing statue. Someone is trying to bring down Rome itself. As time begins to run out, the senator and the scribe must somehow find a way to work together; if not, they will surely die along with their Eternal City.