In the great metropolis of Alexandria, they visit the Great Lighthouse and the Great Library, and Gordianus begins to suspect that his teacher is involved in a murderous plot.Įpilogue in Alexandria: The Eighth Wonder Interlude in Corinth: The Witch's Curse Īs they travel past the ruins of the city of Corinth, destroyed half a century earlier during the Achaean War, Gordianus and Antipater get involved in the gruesome murder of a group of Roman soldiers and tourists.Īt the city of Rhodes the pair see the fallen remains Colossus, and investigate the destruction of an ancient plaster model of the giant statue.Īs they visit ancient Babylon and view the massive walls and the famous Hanging Gardens, Gordianus gets caught up in a ghost story that turns into a murder mystery.Īs they visit the ancient city of Memphis and the Giza Necropolis, Gordianus and Antipater see the largest and oldest of the wonders, the Great Pyramid, and the Finder must solve the Riddle of the Sphinx. Gordianus must prove the innocence of an athlete suspected of murder. In Halicarnassus they visit the fabled Mausoleum, and Gordianus gets acquainted with two widows suspected of murdering their husbands.Īt Olympia the two watch the 172nd Olympiad, and see the magnificent statue of Zeus. Gordianus and Antipater visit the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, where Gordianus investigates the mysterious death of a young girl during a sacred procession honoring the goddess Artemis. Prelude in Rome: The Dead Man Who Wasn't Īfter Gordianus celebrates his 18th birthday, he leaves Rome to travel to the seven wonders of the ancient world in the company of his tutor, the poet Antipater, who has faked his death with the help of Gordianus' father in order to escape the attentions of the Roman authorities. The backdrop of the novel is the brewing conflict between Rome and Mithridates VI of Pontus. Along the route he gets entangled in several mysteries and murders that he helps solve, while he is starting to suspect that an even more sinister conspiracy is unfolding around him. Now he sets out on the journey of a lifetime, traveling with his teacher and friend Antipater of Sidon to see the seven wonders of the world. The young Gordianus is eighteen years old, and has just become a man. The novel is made up of a series of connected short stories, and the main character is the Roman sleuth Gordianus the Finder. It is the thirteenth book in his Roma Sub Rosa series of mystery stories set in the final decades of the Roman Republic, although it is chronologically the first. The Seven Wonders is a historical novel by American author Steven Saylor, first published by St.

Roman Blood by Steven Saylor