Across the River Styx

Across the River Styx is the 6th in the series of highly acclaimed and best selling Judge Marcus Flavius Severus mysteries in Ancient Rome. This story takes place in the year 168 CE during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Severus has just returned from Athens (Mission to Athens) where he took his family to escape the Antonine plague in Rome and while there to solve a murder. Now, a year and a half later, the plague in Rome has subsided and Judge Severus has resumed his place on the panel of judges in the Court of the Urban Prefect. Across the River Styx opens on the first day of October as Judge Severus takes his seat on the Tribunal to decide a case of illegal possession of weapons within the city of Rome in violation of the law against public violence. On the same day, he is called to a murder scene across the Tiber where an official of a Jewish synagogue has been strangled and a valuable chalice stolen. The chalice was on loan from the museum in the Temple of Peace and is part of the loot taken during the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem almost 100 years earlier. The Jewish community in Rome at the time of the story is about 50,000 strong and has 12 known synagogues. Just as he begins his investigation into the murder, Judge Severus catches yet another case -- what appears to be the theft of water from one of Rome’s major aqueducts. Then a person under the protection of his Court is thrown out the window of his apartment building. These crimes seem on the surface to be unrelated. Or are they? As the multiple investigations unfold, a different reality emerges. The investigations lead Severus and his aides through the City of Rome, to the turbulent region across the Tiber, to the teeming Subura behind the center of the City, to one of Rome’s best brothels, to a glass store in Trajan’s market and to other places throughout the City. In addition, Severus sends his assessor Flaccus to the city of Carthage to track down a suspect. As in previous cases, Judge Severus is aided by his judicial assessor, Flaccus, his private secretary and freedman Alexander, his police aides Vulso and Straton, his court clerk Proculus and his wife Artemisia. This book, as the others in the series, is not only a mystery, but also captures the daily life of ancient Rome and is a sojourn into the world of courts, police and criminal law of the period. All laws, rescripts and legal procedures are from Roman law sources. Alan Scribner was an Assistant District Attorney in the office of Frank S. Hogan in New York County and a criminal defense attorney. He is also an independent scholar of Ancient Rome, co-author with J.C.Douglas Marshall of Anni Ultimi: A Roman Stoic Guide to Retirement, Old Age and Death. Scribner is the author of the Judge Marcus Flavius Severus Mysteries in Ancient Rome series: Mars the Avenger, The Cyclops Case, Marcus Aurelius Betrayed, The Return of Spartacus and Mission to Athens.