Steven Saylor - Catilina's riddle

Books beget books, and I should acknowledge the one that first made me think that a novel about Catilina was dramatically feasible, The Conspiracy of Catiline by Lester Hutchinson (Barnes and Noble, 1967), which remains my favourite book-length reconstruction. Among shorter works, 'In Defense of Catiline' by Walter Allen, Jr. (Classical Journal 34,1938) provided unique insights. I should also acknowledge Arthur D. Kahn's The Education of Julius Caesar (Schocken Books, 1986); the very title of his chapter 'The Conspiracy of Cicero and Catilina' challenged me to turn every interpretation I encountered inside out.

Among primary sources, after Cicero and Sallust come the Roman histories of Appian and Dio, and of course the Lives of Plutarch, a treasure trove of juicy details, including the use of Tironian shorthand to record the Senate's debate, Cato's altercation with Caesar over Servilia's love letter, and the notorious riddle itself What a pity that Plutarch left us no full-scale biography of Catilina!

Readers of previous novels in the 'Roma Sub Rosa' series, curious about Gordianus's benefactor, Lucius Claudius, may wish to know that he has previously appeared in short stories belonging to the series, most of them published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Research for this novel was conducted at the San Francisco Public Library and through the Interlibrary Loan system; at the Perry-Castaneda Library at the University of Texas in Austin; and at Harvard's Widener Library. For access to the latter I am grateful to Michael Bronski and Walta Borawski.

My personal thanks, as always, to my editor Michael Denneny and his assistant, Keith Kahla; to Penni Kimmel for reading the manuscript; to my sister Gwyn, Keeper of the Disks; and of course to Rick Solomon, Master of the Macintosh and all its mysteries.