This is a humorous novel in which the detective Silenus, the newspaper editor Balbus, and the astrologer Hocus (i.e. a clown) set out to solve the mystery of Julius Caesar's death. It is essentially set in Britain in the 1940s, with a lumpy veneer of classical Roman names and cardboard stage sets over the seedy offices and nightclubs of post-war London, with a second part in which the Roman Civil War is used as a vehicle for tired jokes about the life of an army conscript. In terms of humour, whether slapstick or satirical, it ranks somewhat below the standard set by the publisher's star author (P. G. Wodehouse), and is vaguely reminiscent of Asterix the Gaul, but without the funny pictures. There are numerous facetious anachronistic quotations and references (such as "Come up and see me", quoted from the Roman female entertainer Maevestia). The details of the Roman setting, and of the historical background to the plot, are no more than could have been lazily gleaned from the notes at the back of an old schools edition of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". I guess it was funny in its day, but the humour is dated. The Falco novels of Lindsey Davis have rendered the whole book redundant.

MB 10-vi-2015 ( )