Marcus Didius Falco

Marcus Didius Falco is the endearing central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the conceits of modern detective stories (with Falco as the private investigator, roughly translated into the classical world as a 'private informer'), Ms. Davis drags us through the sometimes familiar and sometimes alien world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian.

Falco's life history

Falco was born on 20 or 21 March 41 AD.In The Silver Pigs, p. 153 Falco celebrates his 30th birthday at Massilia in the spring of 71 AD. In Venus in Copper, p. 60 Falco gives his birthday as in March, on the cusp of Pisces and Aries i.e. 20 or 21 March. A veteran of the Roman army, he still grieves for his elder brother, Festus, who served in the legio XV Apollinaris and was posthumously awarded the mural crown after he was killed in 68 AD on active service during the First Jewish-Roman War in Judaea. Falco had also been a soldier, in the Legio II Augusta, but was 'invalided out' in 60 following the legion's disgrace in the Boudiccan Revolt. Falco's father left his mother for another woman; father and son were eventually reconciled in the course of an investigation (Poseidon's Gold) and now see one another occasionally, but Falco's sympathies remain with his mother.

Falco met his "wife", Helena Justina, while on an investigation in Britannia (The Silver Pigs), but their very different circumstances made it difficult for them to form a relationship. After a series of successful missions for the emperor, Falco has risen to a certain level of respectability, and he and Helena live together with their two daughters, in an arrangement recognised by his in-laws.

The current books in the Falco series are:

The Silver Pigs (set in Rome and Britain) in AD 70-71.
Shadows in Bronze (set in Rome and Naples)
Venus in Copper (set in Rome)
The Iron Hand of Mars (set in Rome and Germany)
Poseidon's Gold (set in Rome)
Last Act in Palmyra (set in Rome and Palmyra)
Time to Depart (set in Rome)
A Dying Light in Corduba (set in Rome and Córdoba, Spain)
Three Hands in the Fountain (set in Rome)
Two for the Lions (set in Rome and Carthage)
One Virgin Too Many (set in Rome)
Ode to a Banker (set in Rome)
A Body in the Bath House (set in Rome and Britain)
The Jupiter Myth (set in Britain)
The Accusers (set in Rome)
Scandal Takes a Holiday (set in Rome)
See Delphi and Die (set in Rome and Delphi)

Prominent acquaintances

Helena Justina - Falco's "unofficial" wife, a senator's daughter and therefore a highly inappropriate match.
Lucius Petronius Longus - Falco's best friend, a policeman who puts his daughters before alcohol, but alcohol before his wife.
Decimus Camillus Verus - Helena's father, who tolerates Falco socially.
Vespasian - the Emperor.
Titus and Domitian, the Emperor's sons.
Claudius Laeta, a Roman official.
Sextus Julius Frontinus.
Anacrites, the chief spy, Falco's arch-enemy and sometime partner

Other characters include Falco's mother, his sisters and their never-ending crowd of offspring, his father Geminus (a shady antique dealer), his two children and their British nursemaid, Helena's two brothers, Falco's one-time landlord Smaractus and Smaractus' wife, Falco's former neighbour Lenia, his personal trainer Glaucus, various murderers, criminals, exotic dancers and mangy animals, all of whom spend a great deal of time making Falco's life a little harder than it would be otherwise.

Points of interest raised in the novels

A turbot is a large variety of European flatfish, brown on top and white underneath. Its Latin name is "Psetta maxima".
Four sesterces = one silver denarius. Twenty-five silver denarii = one gold aurius. See also Roman currency.
Togidubnus, who lived at Fishbourne in Chichester, is the same man as Cogidubnus, but there is some controversy as to how his name should be spelled.
Ode to a Banker is a take on the vanity publishing industry, and See Delphi and Die deals with Mediterranean package holidays.

Other appearances

Falco also featured as the central character in the 1993 movie Age of Treason (played by Australian actor, Bryan Brown). The film was disowned by Lindsey Davis because it bore no resemblance to the books on which it purported to be based.
The first book was dramatised for radio by the BBC in 2004, the second in 2005, and the third in 2006. Anton Lesser played Falco (and Anna Madeley, Helena) in all 3. It is produced by Lindsey Davis's friend Mary Cutler, of The Archers fame.

Notes

External links