The Pirates of Pompeii
First edition, 2002
|
|
| Author | Caroline Lawrence |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Peter Sutton Fred van Deelan (mosaic) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Roman Mysteries |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Orion Books |
|
Publication date
|
1 April 2002 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 208 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 59423010 |
| Preceded by | The Secrets of Vesuvius |
| Followed by | The Assassins of Rome |
The Pirates of Pompeii is a children's historical novel set in Roman times by Caroline Lawrence. The novel is the third in the Roman Mysteries series.
Flavia and Nubia look over the devastation of Mount Vesuvius. Their friend Jonathan ben Mordecai is in a coma, and Nubia and Flavia search for a type of flowering plant that his father (who is a doctor) needs for medicine. Flavia's dog, Scuto, finds the precious flower, as well as a little girl, Julia, who says that her big brother Rufus had been kidnapped by some “scary men.” He'd told her to hide in the cave while he drew them off, but had not returned.
Returning to the refugee camp, Flavia and Nubia help to medicate Jonathan, who awakens from his coma. While he is recovering, Nubia meets a runaway slave named Kuanto, from the same region of Africa as she. He asks her to run away and be free with him, but she hesitates.
The four friends learn that children are disappearing everywhere in the area of the camp, and Flavia guesses that some kind of organized kidnapping racket is operating. Hearing one of the refugees mutter “Felix just got luckier” with news of another disappearance, Flavia suspects the powerful local landowner Publius Pollius Felix, who happens to be her uncle Gaius’s patron. Felix visits the refugee camp, ostensibly helping the Emperor organize supplies for the refugees. By playing up Jonathan’s infirmity, Flavia contrives to have herself and her three friends invited to Felix’s villa to recover while the refugees are being sorted out. There they meet Felix's beautiful but spoiled daughter Pulchra, his wife Polla, and his two younger daughters. Pulchra takes an instant liking to Jonathan.
The four friends reside at Felix’s house for a while, slowly being taken in by its luxuries and Felix’s charisma. Flavia is initially appalled at seeing how Pulchra treats her own slave girl, Leda (including flogging her with a birch stick and making her stay huddled in a locked chest as punishment), but before long, she begins treating Nubia almost as poorly; Flavia does not abuse Nubia, but, in an effort to fit in with the way things are done at the house, begins ordering her around like a servant and then ignoring her like a piece of furniture.
Spying on various parts of the house, they notice suspicious signs; shortly after one of Felix’s clients comes begging the patron to help find his missing daughter, Lupus sees two men near the villa conferring on how to return her.
...
Wikipedia