The Temple of Fortuna (The Wolf Den Trilogy)
Plinia Amara has risen in the world from her humble beginnings as a prostitute in the Wolf Den (brothel) in Pompeii. Now a pampered courtesan, she makes her play in the power politics – and the cat-fighting – in the ancient Roman world.
She knows all the courtesans serving Rome’s top men. With frenemy Saturia, the sadistic Domitian’s courtesan, she attends the funeral of Emperor Vespasian. Set to marry her patron, Demetrius, Amara is determined to safeguard the secrets of her past and protect her daughter Rufina’s future. But this is 79 CE. Mount Vesuvius is about to enter the story in a big way.
This book, the third in the Wolf Den Trilogy, piques our interest by weaving a narrative around famous names: Berenice, Domitian, Pliny. The fictional characters lower down the social order – servants, courtesans, slaves – are named from real Pompeiian graffiti, to complete the slice of life. The characterisation reveals not only an intimacy with Roman society but also a deep understanding of human nature and the games we play. It is a tale told from the point of view of the women making their way in a man’s world, not the high-born married women, but mistresses, gladiatrices, slaves and whores.
The plot is not complicated. It is mostly ‘a day in the life of’ these women, and that day is August 25, 79 CE. As the refugees struggle to survive, it becomes clear that the same rules of society apply in disasters: survival for the rich, misery for the poor. And yet destruction of the old life leads to the birth of a new one for Amara. The style is smooth, the picture of Roman society vivid, sophisticated and nuanced.
