Outstanding! Nero's secret police stumble upon what they feel is information pointing to a conspiracy against Nero's life, from bits and pieces of conversation at a literary dinner given by Piso:
"The breaking of a dam of some kind. The assumption of a common mind all around. Everyone talking as if no secret police could be present. I was haunted by a feeling that there was some kind of readiness" [from a memo from Paenus, Tribune of Secret Police to Tigellinus, Co-Commander of Praetorians.]

From this slender thread, over a period of months the secret police unravel a conspiracy. The book consists of memos, letters, reports on Lucan [a poet] and Seneca [a philosopher and Nero's former tutor]; transcripts of interrogation sessions of various suspects. At a gala at Nero's Golden House conspirators begin to tip their hands. The investigation takes on more and more urgency. There are long sections on the deaths of Seneca and of Lucan. Finally conspirators are caught and punished. A Proclamation of Gratitude is disseminated. But...did the secret police imagine and then stir up the whole affair in the first place????

This novel lays out what **might** have happened, although the author admits in his Afterword that this book is intended as entertainment, not straight history. He has used his creative license in a brilliant manner using the primary sources. The novel was written in such a way the characters practically leapt off the page. I regret this work is not better known.

Very highly recommended. ( )

Historical Novel about the Pisonian Conspiracy against the corrupt reign of Emperor Nero, set in Rome, AD 64-65. The main protagonists are Tigellinus (Praetorian Prefect) and Paenus (Chief of Secret Police), with Seneca and Lucan playing roles. Was the conspiracy real? Those in charge of "protecting" Nero were motivated to make it up. ( )

Really interesting (and laugh-out-loud funny in places) epistolary novel about the Pisonian Conspiracy in AD 64-65 during the reign of Nero. The main protagonists are Tigellinus (Praetorian Prefect--real person) and Paenus (Chief of Secret Police--not sure if real person), and there is also some focus on Seneca & Lucan. Highlights the question of whether the conspiracy was real (at least to begin with), or if those in charge of "protecting" Nero made it up/forced people to action for their own reasons. I enjoyed this book. ( )

Treads somewhat the same ground as the very recent Imperium, but I would submit this is the better work. A "Conspiracy" of poets and soldiers working to unseat Nero and possibly install Seneca in his place. Told largely through the memorandum of two members of Nero's secret police (Tigellinus and Paenus) as they close in on the "conspirators." No dialogue of any kind, actually. ( )