The Melitans his agents (dodgy connections)

Perella an assassin who wants a new job (her boss’s)

Heracleides party-planner to the stars

Nymphidias his thieving chef

Scorpus a singer, spying on spies (an idiot)

Alis a fortune-teller who blames Mum (a wise woman)

Arrius Persicus a philanderer, oversexed and over-budget

A courier newly wed and newly dead

Volusius Mum’s boy, a numerate victim

In Latium

Januaria a waitress at Satricum, an all-rounder

Livia Primilla & Julius Modestus complainants in high dudgeon

Sextus Silanus their nephew in Lanuvium, in low spirits

Macer their loyal overseer, gone missing

Syrus their runaway slave, fatally roughed up

A butcher in Lanuvium a very careless creditor

The horrible Claudii neighbours from Hades:

Aristocles and Casta cold-natured, hot-tempered parents (deceased)

Claudius Nobilis so notorious, he has ‘gone to see his granny’

Pius and Virtus the twins, ‘working away from home’

Probus ‘upholding the family name’

Felix ‘lost’

Plotia and Byrta downtrodden wives

Demetria runaway wife of Claudius Nobilis (low esteem)

Costus her new boyfriend (asking for trouble)

Vexus her father (anticipating the worst)

Thamyris employer of Nobilis and Costus (over-confident)

Silvius an officer of the Urban Cohorts, undercover

Plus full supporting cast:

Jason the python, dogs, missing persons, slaves (non-persons), personal

beauticians, impersonal magistrates

And featuring:

The Praetorian Guards bastards!

ROME AND LATIUM: SUMMER, AD 77