ROMAN SHADOWS

In this muffled sequel to Roman Nights (1991), the orator Cicero, who took such a prominent part last time, has to settle for a supporting role to his own acolyte, the fictional Gaius Livinius Severus, whom he casually suggests keep a close eye on ambitious politician Gaius Scribonius Curio. Livinius dutifully worms himself into Curio's confidence—and promptly finds that he's at the center of a maelstrom of murder (eventually totaling five victims); the scandalous Mark Antony's scabrous sexual practices; and the breakup of the Roman republic under Julius Caesar. Burns works hard to give this farrago of fictional homicide and political history urgency—framing it by references to Livinius's star-crossed interrogation years later by brilliant, brutal Augustus Caesar and ending with an extended Roman civics lesson—but the surprise he's saved for last falls flat. Only average, then, for Roman scandals, and well below the mark established by Burns's first.