Although it is set 10 years later, the events in "Sejanus" are closely linked with those in "Germanicus". Marcus Corvinus comes back to Rome from Athens for his father's funeral and despite his best intentions to the contrary he finds himself drawn into plots for and against Sejanus, the emperor's right hand man and would-be successor -- but which plots are for and which are against?

I started to lose track of some of the minor characters in this book and found myself looking back into "Germanicus" to find out who they were. Some hilarious dinner parties. ( )

Corvinus is back, and back into the middle of the Roman political scene, investigating the background of the Emperor Tiberius' favorite, Sejanus. A dangerous task indeed, and a very good entry in this series. ( )

Using Tacitus' annals as his principal source, and filling in the gaps, Wishart creates a great fun novel of plot and counterplot in ancient Rome concerning Sejanus' plot to whack Tiberius and supplant Caligula on the Imperial throne. His chosen sleuth, Marcus Corvinus is a young noble recently returned from Athens for his father's funeral, and is drawn into the thick of it by a command from the grave of Livia.
Anyone familiar with Robert Graves' "I Claudius" will know all the main characters. Unlike Graves though, they talk with a modern vernacular - which immediately draws comparisons with Lindsey Davis' Falco detective novels. Corvinus is posher than Falco, but otherwise these books are very similar in tone - both bringing a distinctly grubby Rome to life with its criminal underclass well to the fore.
Characterisation is great, Corvinus, his wife and the other main characters who we don't know already are well drawn, but I could only picture George Baker as the ageing Wart living it up on Capri, and Patrick Stewart as the scheming Sejanus!
Great fun, with labyrinthine plotting based on real events. ( )