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Die Entführung auf dem Quirinal: Ein Krimi aus dem alten Rom
In ancient Rome a young philosopher C. Marcus Silanus searches for his kidnapped sweetheart, believing that she is being held by a terrifying religious cult known as Christians
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First published January 1, 1983
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About the author
Barbara Hambly
204 books1,580 followersaka Barbara Hamilton
Ranging from fantasy to historical fiction, Barbara Hambly has a masterful way of spinning a story. Her twisty plots involve memorable characters, lavish descriptions, scads of novel words, and interesting devices. Her work spans the Star Wars universe, antebellum New Orleans, and various fantasy worlds, sometimes linked with our own.
"I always wanted to be a writer but everyone kept telling me it was impossible to break into the field or make money. I've proven them wrong on both counts."
-Barbara Hambly
Ranging from fantasy to historical fiction, Barbara Hambly has a masterful way of spinning a story. Her twisty plots involve memorable characters, lavish descriptions, scads of novel words, and interesting devices. Her work spans the Star Wars universe, antebellum New Orleans, and various fantasy worlds, sometimes linked with our own.
"I always wanted to be a writer but everyone kept telling me it was impossible to break into the field or make money. I've proven them wrong on both counts."
-Barbara Hambly
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 31, 2013
When I first started reading SF/F, Barbara Hambly quickly became one of my favorite authors, and her Windrose Chronicles in particular I reread every year. So I was excited to find that she'd also written a mystery set in Ancient Rome. I love Rome! Awesome! But... it didn't really work for me.
The book has a great premise and setup: Here in the time of Trajan, Marcus Silanus, a noble young philosopher-in-training, is not so secretly in love with Tullia, who is betrothed to a rich Syrian merchant. They are meeting and bemoaning the fact that, well, they can't marry each other, when tragedy strikes! A gang of ruffians jumps them and abducts Tullia! They leave a little silver fish behind. Horrors! It's the Christians! Everyone knows they're a bunch of hideous baby-killers! They would definitely sacrifice her! So Marcus has to search the city to find her before it is Too Late.
Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, it's a good idea, but that's about all it is. With Hambly's usual style, the book goes for the sort of atmospheric setting description that is present in all her fantasy. But so many of the details are just a little bit wrong. And, okay, maybe it doesn't bother anyone else that "vomitoriums" are in there. Maybe it doesn't bother anyone else that pretty much every Roman name (including the main character and his love interest and the guy who is unfortunately named the Latin word for "couch") is done wrong. It's not quite Rome, and it kept throwing me.
But I think I could have overlooked that (okay, maybe not the names) if only I had come to care about the characters and what happened to them. I didn't. The Christians spent a lot of the time squabbling and accusing each other of heresies, and mostly it came across as a lot like an unfunny Life of Brian that was trying too hard. The Romans had the requisite orgies and lions in the arena. A lot of lions. It was all just kind of... meh. Maybe it's that one of the things I like about Hambly's writing is the female characters and there were no women here? I don't know. It just wasn't especially good.
The book has a great premise and setup: Here in the time of Trajan, Marcus Silanus, a noble young philosopher-in-training, is not so secretly in love with Tullia, who is betrothed to a rich Syrian merchant. They are meeting and bemoaning the fact that, well, they can't marry each other, when tragedy strikes! A gang of ruffians jumps them and abducts Tullia! They leave a little silver fish behind. Horrors! It's the Christians! Everyone knows they're a bunch of hideous baby-killers! They would definitely sacrifice her! So Marcus has to search the city to find her before it is Too Late.
Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, it's a good idea, but that's about all it is. With Hambly's usual style, the book goes for the sort of atmospheric setting description that is present in all her fantasy. But so many of the details are just a little bit wrong. And, okay, maybe it doesn't bother anyone else that "vomitoriums" are in there. Maybe it doesn't bother anyone else that pretty much every Roman name (including the main character and his love interest and the guy who is unfortunately named the Latin word for "couch") is done wrong. It's not quite Rome, and it kept throwing me.
But I think I could have overlooked that (okay, maybe not the names) if only I had come to care about the characters and what happened to them. I didn't. The Christians spent a lot of the time squabbling and accusing each other of heresies, and mostly it came across as a lot like an unfunny Life of Brian that was trying too hard. The Romans had the requisite orgies and lions in the arena. A lot of lions. It was all just kind of... meh. Maybe it's that one of the things I like about Hambly's writing is the female characters and there were no women here? I don't know. It just wasn't especially good.
October 27, 2023
One of Hambly’s earliest novels, published in 1983, Search is amazing historical fiction. Using an entirely fictional cast (with a few surprising exceptions) she weaves a rich tale of a kidnapping about which everything obvious is wrong.
“what’s the most important?” “They’re all the same thing. They’re what is—that is, True, and Good, and Beautiful.” “What if you found out the truth was ugly?”
Philosopher wannabee protagonist provides a lens through which the reader discovers what every Roman knows and eventually why it’s incorrect. His angst and monomania lead him into places no respectable Roman would venture—not just the brothels and baths, everyone frequented them. Under the Varian Amphitheater (AKA the Colosseum), into the Praetorian torture chambers, and the passages and catacombs which underlay the city.
“They’re all the same, aren’t they? Christians, Jews—it’s the same thing. And if they round up the lot of them and throw them to the lions, Rome will be the better for it.”
The culture and politics of Imperial Rome are vivisected. These were not nice people. Internal Christian arguments anticipate schisms within the church for the next four centuries. Similarly the condition of slaves in Rome was as bad as in America. Told with a conscience but not preaching.
“Since I had thrown those poor silly Christians to the beasts without any more thought than he showed, it made the accusation all the easier to believe.”
Hambly’s character-building and narrative engage and propel the reader. Her use of modern vernacular and slang occasionally knocks the reader out of her first century spell. Irony leavens sincerity.
“If there is divine justice,” he continued stiffly, as an old man does when he uses muscles long inactive, “I can only say that I am thankful that I received less than my deserving.”
July 4, 2021
I mostly know Hambly from her fantasy but she's also a fairly prolific mystery writer, mainly with the Benjamin January books. Based on this one, I really ought to read those, as this shows a quite effective mastery of the genre. Our protagonist, Marcus, is a member of one of the oldest aristocratic families of Rome who has quarreled with his father over his determination to study philosophy. (Hilariously, people he knows ask him "How's the philosophy going?", though mostly they're not interested in the answer.) Hambly maps the idea of philosophy as the search for truth onto detecting, but our hero, a rank amateur who is involved in the investigation of a kidnapping only because the victim is the girl he's in love with, is not the great detective here: instead, that's C. Sixtus Julianus, the retired former general and governor of Antioch, who has a decidedly Holmes-esque gift for interpreting clues. This means that, unlike most mysteries, the detective is not the fixed point around which the rest of the book revolves: instead, we get to see Marcus develop from a young man adrift, having abandoned (some of) his birthright but no longer certain that philosophy, at least as practiced by his teacher, is the solution, into a person with purpose and direction, a better understanding of his family -- they're mostly irrelevant to the mystery, but the scenes with them are quite well done -- and fewer illusions about the nature of the society he lives in.
And "Search the Seven Hills", which falls on the noir side of things despite the presence of a great detective, doesn't spare the nature of that society. Marcus spends much of his time working not with Sixtus but with the Praetorian centurion Arrius, a shrewd, hard-bitten cop who would prefer that the criminals are the ones thrown to the lions but knows that his job is to find somebody to be thrown to the lions, guilty or not. Especially since the criminals appear to be Christians, a proscribed sect who everybody knows are vile outlaws who will stop at nothing and are thrown to the lions on general principle. The reader, knowing more about Christians than the average Roman of Trajan's time, and also knowing that the first suspect is rarely the true criminal, will be skeptical of the attribution of the crime to them, and so will be willing to see the corruption of Roman society in the mistreatment of Christians, the abuse of slaves, the depravity of high society orgies, and so on: nothing really new, but never feeling stale or cliched. In particular, Hambly avoids making the Christian characters into saintly martyrs, partly thanks to the vituperative theological argument that inevitably breaks out whenever two Christians are together. But though the innocence of the Christians and the guilt, in a larger sense, of society are both clear, Hambly expertly keeps the reader in suspense over who is responsible for the kidnapping until practically the end, and if the climax is a bit over the top, the reader won't mind. Highly recommended for both mystery lovers and Classics nerds.
And "Search the Seven Hills", which falls on the noir side of things despite the presence of a great detective, doesn't spare the nature of that society. Marcus spends much of his time working not with Sixtus but with the Praetorian centurion Arrius, a shrewd, hard-bitten cop who would prefer that the criminals are the ones thrown to the lions but knows that his job is to find somebody to be thrown to the lions, guilty or not. Especially since the criminals appear to be Christians, a proscribed sect who everybody knows are vile outlaws who will stop at nothing and are thrown to the lions on general principle. The reader, knowing more about Christians than the average Roman of Trajan's time, and also knowing that the first suspect is rarely the true criminal, will be skeptical of the attribution of the crime to them, and so will be willing to see the corruption of Roman society in the mistreatment of Christians, the abuse of slaves, the depravity of high society orgies, and so on: nothing really new, but never feeling stale or cliched. In particular, Hambly avoids making the Christian characters into saintly martyrs, partly thanks to the vituperative theological argument that inevitably breaks out whenever two Christians are together. But though the innocence of the Christians and the guilt, in a larger sense, of society are both clear, Hambly expertly keeps the reader in suspense over who is responsible for the kidnapping until practically the end, and if the climax is a bit over the top, the reader won't mind. Highly recommended for both mystery lovers and Classics nerds.
December 31, 2018
A mystery set in Imperial Rome. Marcus, the youngest son of an arrogant patrician, has renounced his family's money and power in order to become a philosopher. He's in love with his neighbor and childhood playmate Tullia, but unfortunately her father is a politician, and one more interested in arranging a marriage for her that will bring in money and alliances than one with a penniless scholar. Just before Tullia's marriage to a Syrian merchant, she is abducted by a vicious and notorious cult – the Christians! Marcus sets out to find her, along with the help of Arrius, a centurion of the Praetorian Guard; Sixtus Julianus, former governor of Antioch and currently writing an encyclopedia on eastern cults (and somewhat of a Sherlock Holmes cliche, though his character deepens in unexpected ways as the book goes on); and Churaldin, a Celtic slave.
Though Search the Seven Hills (alternatively titled The Quirinal Hill Affair in some editions) was one of the first books published by Hambly, originally appearing in 1983, it bears a striking resemblance to her later writing. There's a focus on underrepresented groups - slaves, women, members of minority religions – the skillful use of modern language styles to represent historical dialects, and the recreation of a vivid and well-researched past world (though I did catch one mistake - the common misconception that rich Romans had "vomitoriums" for puking during feasts.) Hambly is also particularly good at using dramatic irony to highlight the differences between historical norms and modern assumptions; I never got tired of laughing at various Romans being terrified by the mere mention of Christians or passing on weird rumors about them. And, as always, her writing is skillful, characters three-dimensional and sympathetic, and plot nicely twisty and surprising.
Though Search the Seven Hills (alternatively titled The Quirinal Hill Affair in some editions) was one of the first books published by Hambly, originally appearing in 1983, it bears a striking resemblance to her later writing. There's a focus on underrepresented groups - slaves, women, members of minority religions – the skillful use of modern language styles to represent historical dialects, and the recreation of a vivid and well-researched past world (though I did catch one mistake - the common misconception that rich Romans had "vomitoriums" for puking during feasts.) Hambly is also particularly good at using dramatic irony to highlight the differences between historical norms and modern assumptions; I never got tired of laughing at various Romans being terrified by the mere mention of Christians or passing on weird rumors about them. And, as always, her writing is skillful, characters three-dimensional and sympathetic, and plot nicely twisty and surprising.
September 5, 2025
A good historical mystery which ends in a potential setup for a series, but Hambly never went further with this, which is probably just as well as there are a ton of good historical mysteries set in ancient Rome (probably the best being the "Roma Sub Rosa" series that Steven Saylor started in 1991). Major themes in this book include early Christianity and the widespread slavery of the Roman Empire. I can see that her treatment of slavery here probably led her in a direction that would eventually take her to writing FREE MAN OF COLOR (1997) and the Benjamin January mysteries. Overall, SEARCH THE SEVEN HILLS is good, but not nearly as good as her later novels. The plot is solid with a lot of twists and red herrings leading to a satisfying ending. I didn't figure out who the villain was until near the end, but that's on me as the author did provide more than a few hints. * Unlike many of her later books, this one has a protagonist who isn't really good at much; he's a decent guy, but not especially skilled at anything. Weirdly, the protagonist’s brother, despite being a Roman patrician, has his dialogue straight out of Jeeves and Wooster. 3.5 stars.
* I did guess who the secret "pope" was, though.
* I did guess who the secret "pope" was, though.
August 21, 2024
I waited far too long to read this.
I think in some of the author's notes in Darwath and maybe Dragonsbane and Ben January it mentioned "Search the Seven Hills" but I didn't buy it until recently on Kindle and finally got around to reading it.
Hambly does a great job describing how a Roman citizen would see Jews and Christians. I have no way of knowing if it's accurate but there are a lot of little details scattered throughout, like the conflict between the 7 and 8 day weeks that make it clear she has done plenty of research.
The mystery itself is good (for me - I'm not the smartest at solving mysteries) though the "solution" does make the villain out to be quite incredibly awful, rather than just bad on a small scale.
Still it ends on a happy note with room for a sequel which I guess never happened.
Definitely worth a read
I think in some of the author's notes in Darwath and maybe Dragonsbane and Ben January it mentioned "Search the Seven Hills" but I didn't buy it until recently on Kindle and finally got around to reading it.
Hambly does a great job describing how a Roman citizen would see Jews and Christians. I have no way of knowing if it's accurate but there are a lot of little details scattered throughout, like the conflict between the 7 and 8 day weeks that make it clear she has done plenty of research.
The mystery itself is good (for me - I'm not the smartest at solving mysteries) though the "solution" does make the villain out to be quite incredibly awful, rather than just bad on a small scale.
Still it ends on a happy note with room for a sequel which I guess never happened.
Definitely worth a read
March 26, 2023
Interesting but potentially off-putting
This would be an interesting mystery if it were not so charged with religious prejudice. For the first half of the novel, it seemed as if the author herself really wanted to believe the horrifying lies about early Christians (which seems likely, given that Christian-analogous religions in her fantasy universes are always the bad guys). Then the Christians become the only ones trying to help the main character. So a Christian reader is likely to be frustrated by the first half, while a Christian-hating reader is likely to be frustrated by the second half.
Although I enjoyed the mystery well enough to have given this four stars, there were enough things that I found off-putting that it's more like 3 1/2 stars.
This would be an interesting mystery if it were not so charged with religious prejudice. For the first half of the novel, it seemed as if the author herself really wanted to believe the horrifying lies about early Christians (which seems likely, given that Christian-analogous religions in her fantasy universes are always the bad guys). Then the Christians become the only ones trying to help the main character. So a Christian reader is likely to be frustrated by the first half, while a Christian-hating reader is likely to be frustrated by the second half.
Although I enjoyed the mystery well enough to have given this four stars, there were enough things that I found off-putting that it's more like 3 1/2 stars.
March 31, 2023
I've read this about once a decade since it came out in the early 80s, and it's always good. Bonus this time: it had been so long I'd forgotten whodunnit, which is really a minor point in my enjoyment of it, but was nice this time around.
The loud, continuing arguments over the nature of Christ and which books are scripture and what's heresy are both completely true to the times and downright funny. No wonder the Romans couldn't understand them, and we still have so many sects!
The loud, continuing arguments over the nature of Christ and which books are scripture and what's heresy are both completely true to the times and downright funny. No wonder the Romans couldn't understand them, and we still have so many sects!
October 31, 2022
I've been slowly reading some of Barbara Hambly's many novels and, as with all the rest, I enjoyed this one. Set in Ancient Rome, aspiring philosopher (and disappointment to his father) Marcus has just found out that his childhood playmate and love of his life Tullia is engaged to be married. He knows that he is not able to offer her father any reason to choose him over the rich provincial that has been chosen but he waylays Tullia on her way home to talk to her. After a disappointing conversation, Marcus watches in horror as Tullia is kidnapped right in front of her house. As he goes to her rescue he is beaten up and he is left wondering how he can help find her. A small amulet of a fish makes him think that Christians are involved, and he pulls away from his philosophical studies to try and find her. He does get involved with Christians but not in the way he thinks (he thinks they are baby eaters -- that's what everyone says after all!). This is one of Hambly's earlier books, but it was quite entertaining.
May 18, 2019
Un bel giallo nel periodo dell'antica Roma. Scritto molto bene. Un bell'intreccio.
March 28, 2021
This was fun. It is one of Hambly’s earliest works, and does not have the polish or humor of her later books, but the attempt to catch the flavor of Ancient Rome with detailed, sensorally-rich descriptions is there full force.
November 29, 2011
I've been looking for this book for ages - it is one of the few by Hambly that I hadn't read - so was very excited to see that it was now available as an ebook on the Kindle. However I just couldn't really warm to it. The first thing that threw me out of the book was the romance between Marcus and Tullia who is abducted - it just didn't come across for me. Secondly they were supposed to be childhood playmates but there was a six year age gap which again didn't work for me. Thirdly I just didn't warm to Marcus as a hero - he's a bit of a prototype Antryg I think but very much in the rough. Fourthly there should have been some magic! And fifthly the Christians squabbling was all too Monty Python without the humour; a few more cries of 'splitter' would have cheered me up. So a fail for me but still with Hambly's beautiful writing and amazing vocabulary. A must for the completist.
March 21, 2017
I've reread this book a lot of times over the years. It's not my favorite of Hambly's work, but it's a solid story and solid mystery. It's one of those books that I always feel a little differently about (in a good way), each time I read it and the older I get. I also always feel regretful that Hambly never wrote more than the one book. On the one hand, there are plenty of historical mysteries and, after writing this, she moved into the SFF genre. On the other hand, I would definitely have liked to read more about Marcus becoming an investigator for the Praetorian Guard, with Sixtus as his mentor.
April 21, 2012
I found it kinda slow starting, and in fact read several books between starting this and finishing it. But eventually I got far enough that the inherent readability of Barbara Hambly kicked in.
I will say that at first I thought it was a more recent book with a subtext about the current state of religious intolerance in America, but, no, it's from 1983.
Ok, but not exactly my cup of tea.
I will say that at first I thought it was a more recent book with a subtext about the current state of religious intolerance in America, but, no, it's from 1983.
Ok, but not exactly my cup of tea.
January 24, 2017
This is Barbara Hambly's first novel, and it is quite well done. Good writing and good characterization. It's fun to listen to the heated jailhouse theological arguments of the members of that dreaded, dangerous cult--the Christians! Ms. Hambly knows her history, and this is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of historical fiction.
February 11, 2015
Well... I love this author and her historical mysteries, but this seems like a very early effort, and it's not a patch on either Lindsey Davis or Steven Saylor. The descriptions of the early Roman Christians... eh.
March 31, 2011
decent historical mystery/suspense
December 29, 2014
Reread this book after more than 20 years and I think I liked it even more. Fascinating view of this time in history.
July 19, 2014
Hambly shows that she has a broader range than Fantasy. This historical novel pokes about in the complex religious/political world of ancient Rome.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews