Mika Waltari — The Roman

Pan Books 1968 Paperback, 448pp. "This leviathan is the legacy-memoir of Minutus or ""the insignificant one,"" first met here at fifteen when he leaves for Rome to receive his man-toga. By the time that he has gone to his death facing the lions in the arena, he will have survived the eras of Emperor Claudius and Nero, long his friend; he will have traveled from his native Antioch to Britain to Corinth and finally to Jerusalem; he will have tamed and taken a hare-priestess in Britain, cohabited for years with Claudia, the emperor's daughter out of wedlock, a Christian convert; married and divorced the savage Sabina; loved perhaps only Antonia, Nero's half sister. Actually Waltari's Roman is a fairly undemonstrative character in what was certainly one of the most unruly eras of all time; his emotional and sexual needs seem very minimal. Cover rubbed, some foxing.", (ISBN: 9780330021005). Fair.