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Alexandria (novel)
''Alexandria'' is a 2009 historical mystery crime novel by Lindsey Davis and the 19th book in her Marcus Didius Falco series. Set in Egypt and Ancient Rome, the novel stars Marcus Didius Falco, informer and imperial agent. The title refers to the setting where the deaths occur. Plot summary Falco and his family attend a dinner party in Alexandria, Egypt, hosted by his mother's brother Fulvius and his partner Cassius, to which the Serapaeion Chief Librarian, Theon, is invited. Unfortunately for them, Theon is later found dead, locked in his chamber, and Falco's entire family falls under suspicion for causing Theon's demise. As usual, Falco has to clear everyone's names. He visits the Serapeion and meets the people running it, including Philetus, its deceptively incompetent Director, and a naturalist, Philadelphion. Falco's family also cross paths with an old family friend, Thalia (from '' Venus in Copper'' and ''Last Act in Palmyra''), who has also arrived in Egypt presumably t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lindsey Davis
Lindsey Davis (born 1949) is an English historical novelist, best known as the author of the Falco series of historical crime stories set in ancient Rome and its empire. She is a recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger award. Life and career Davis was born in Birmingham and after taking a degree in English literature at Oxford University (Lady Margaret Hall), she became a civil servant for 13 years. When a romantic novel she had written was runner up for the 1985 '' Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Prize'', she decided to become a writer, at first writing romantic serials for the UK women's magazine ''Woman's Realm''. Her dedication of the book '' Rebels and Traitors'' (2009) reads: "For Richard / dearest and closest of friends / your favourite book / in memory", and the author's website relates: "I am still getting used to life without my dear Richard. For those of you who haven't seen this before, he died in October 008" The author says in her publisher's newsletter: "The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serapeion
A serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Greco-Egyptian deity Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was accepted by the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria. There were several such religious centers, each of which was a ''serapeion'' ( el, Σεραπεῖον) or, in its Latinized form, a ''serapeum''. An Egyptian name for the temple of Osiris-Apis ( , ) was Pr-Wsỉr-Ḥp "House of Osiris-Apis". Egyptian serapea Alexandria The Serapeum of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Kingdom was an ancient Greek temple built by Ptolemy III Euergetes. There are also signs of Harpocrates. It has been referred to as the daughter of the Library of Alexandria. It existed until the end of the fourth century AD. Saqqara The Serapeum of Saqqara is located north west of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, a necropolis near Memphis in Lower Egypt. It was a burial place of the Apis, sacred bulls that were incarnations of Ptah. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Alexandria In Art And Culture
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BCAD 500. The three-age system periodizes ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages varies between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During the time period of ancient history, the world population was already exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution, which was in full progress. While in 10,000 BC, the world population stood ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novels Set In Ancient Egypt
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Didius Falco Novels
Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to: * Marcus (name), a masculine given name * Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name Places * Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44 * Mărcuş, a village in Dobârlău Commune, Covasna County, Romania * Marcus, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Marcus, Iowa, a city * Marcus, South Dakota, an unincorporated community * Marcus, Washington, a town * Marcus Island, Japan, also known as Minami-Tori-shima * Mărcuș River, Romania * Marcus Township, Cherokee County, Iowa Other uses * Markus, a beetle genus in family Cantharidae * ''Marcus'' (album), 2008 album by Marcus Miller * Marcus (comedian), finalist on ''Last Comic Standing'' season 6 * Marcus Amphitheater, Milwaukee, Wisconsin * Marcus Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin * Marcus & Co., American jewelry retailer * Marcus by Goldman Sachs, an online bank * USS ''Marcus'' (DD-321), a US Navy destroyer (1919-1935) See also * Marcos (disambiguatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2009 British Novels
9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and Gupta started curving the bottom vertical line coming up with a -look-alike. The Nagari continued the bottom stroke to make a circle and enclose the 3-look-alike, in much the same way that the sign @ encircles a lowercase ''a''. As time went on, the enclosing circle became bigger and its line continued beyond the circle downwards, as the 3-look-alike became smaller. Soon, all that was left of the 3-look-alike was a squiggle. The Arabs simply connected that squiggle to the downward stroke at the middle and subsequent European change was purely cosmetic. While the shape of the glyph for the digit 9 has an ascender in most modern typefaces, in typefaces with text figures the character usually has a descender, as, for example, in . The mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musaeum
The Musaeum or Mouseion of Alexandria ( grc, Μουσεῖον τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας; ), which arguably included the Great Library of Alexandria, was an institution said to have been founded by Ptolemy I Soter and his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Originally, the word ''mouseion'' meant any place that was dedicated to the Muses, often related to the study of music or poetry, but later associated with sites of learning such as Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum. The Ptolemies reputedly established their Mouseion and Library with the intention of bringing together some of the best scholars of the Hellenistic world and collect all the books known at the time. Although it did not imply a collection of works of art, the word ''mouseion'' is the root for the modern usage of the word museum. History According to Johannes Tzetzes, the Mouseion was an institution founded by Ptolemy I Soter (c. 367 BC–c. 283 BC) at Alexandria, Egypt, though it is more likely that Ptolemy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catoblepas
The catoblepas (pl. catoblepones; from the Greek καταβλέπω (katablépō) "to look downwards") is a legendary creature from Ethiopia (Africa), first described by Pliny the Elder and later by Claudius Aelianus. It is said to resemble a cape buffalo, with its head always pointing downwards due to its great weight. Its stare or breath could either turn people into stone, or kill them. The catoblepas is often thought to be based on real-life encounters with wildebeest, such that some dictionaries say that the word is synonymous with "gnu". It is sometimes known as an African version of a Gorgon. Ancient and medieval descriptions Pliny the Elder (''Natural History'', 8.77) described the catoblepas as a mid-sized creature, sluggish, with a heavy head and a face always turned to the ground. He thought its gaze, like that of the basilisk, was lethal, making the heaviness of its head quite fortunate. Pomponius Mela (''Chorographia,'' 3.98) echoes the description given by Pliny t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nemesis (Lindsey Davis Novel)
''Nemesis'' is a 2009 historical mystery crime novel by Lindsey Davis and the 20th book of the Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries series. Set in Latium during AD 77, the novel stars Marcus Didius Falco, informer and imperial agent. In Ancient Greece and Rome, Nemesis was the spirit of divine retribution against those who had succumbed to hubris (overweening pride). In the book, Falco is warned by Anacrites, the Imperial Chief Spy, to be wary of Nemesis following Falco's inheritance of his father's sizeable fortune, while the Claudii, the novel's primary antagonists who meet unpleasant endings, are revealed to have fallen foul of their hubris. Plot summary The story, set in Latium in 77 AD, opens with the deaths of Falco's newborn son (posthumously named Justinianus) and Marcus Didius Geminus, alias Favonius, Falco's estranged father. Following the funeral, Falco is astounded to discover that his father has left him and the rest of the Didii family a sizeable fortune. There is a prob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Library Of Alexandria
The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts.Murray, S. A., (2009). The library: An illustrated history. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, p.17 The idea of a universal library in Alexandria may have been proposed by Demetrius of Phalerum, an exiled Athenian statesman living in Alexandria, to Ptolemy I Soter, who may have established plans for the Library, but the Library itself was probably not built until the reign of his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The Library quickly acquired many papyrus scrolls, owing largely to the Ptolemaic kings' aggressive and well-funded policies for procuring texts. It is unknown precisely how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, but estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 at its height. Alexandria came to be regard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Last Act In Palmyra
''Last Act in Palmyra'' is a 1994 historical mystery crime novel by Lindsey Davis and the sixth book of the Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries series. Set in Rome, Nabatea, and Palmyra, the novel stars Marcus Didius Falco, informer and imperial agent. The title refers to the hunt undertaken by Falco for a murderer, the last act of which takes place in Palmyra, as well as plays upon Falco's temporary employment as a playwright with a travelling theatre group. Plot summary In ''Last Act in Palmyra'', Falco takes on a new spying mission for Vespasian to the east of the Empire. He also plans to investigate the disappearance of a young musician, Sophrona. Falco and Helena Justina travel to Petra, where they encounter a theatre group who have just lost their playwright due to drowning. Joining them, Falco attempts to fulfill his various investigations, whilst at the same time write his new play, ''The Spook Who Spoke''. Characters in "Last Act in Palmyra" Main Characters * ''Anacrites'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venus In Copper
''Venus in Copper'' is a 1991 historical mystery crime novel by Lindsey Davis and the third book of the Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries series. Set in Rome during AD 71, just after the year of the four emperors, the novel stars Marcus Didius Falco, informer and imperial agent. The copper of the title refers to a simple copper signet ring featuring a portrait of Venus, worn by the suspect Severina Zotica. That Venus was the goddess of love hints at the motives for some of the murders perpetrated by the suspect: revenge out of unrequited love. Plot summary The story begins in Rome during late spring, AD 71. Falco is in the Latumiae Prison, accused by the spy Anacrites of having stolen lead ingots which were property of the State ( Shadows in Bronze). Bailed out by his mother, Falco is heading across the city to visit Helena Justina when he is beaten up by his landlord's bullyboys for defaulting on his rent—despite having been bailed out by none other than Helena Justina. Marcus d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
