This essay is a summary of The Venus Throw, by Steven Saylor, and how events and characters in the novel are related to real events in Roman history. Bibliography included.

The Venus Throw, by Steven Saylor, is about the death of the head of a delegation of 100 Alexandrians, Dio, sent to the Roman Senate to request that they stop meddling in Egyptian affairs, and to ask for their recognition of Queen Berenice. The delegation wanted to relieve King Ptolemy, who was currently in hiding, of his throne. The delegation arrived in Italy in the autumn of 57 B.C. They stayed the night in the housing …

…needed only her saying as evidence. However, Gordianus kept going down the wrong path, being lured to suspect the wrong people, until the end of the story of which he learns that his own daughter, in fact, poisoned Dio. Bibliography 1)Everitt, Anthony. Cicero. New York: Random House, 2001. 2)Berry, D.H. Cicero: Defense Speeches. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 3)Grant, Michael. Cicero: Selected Political Speeches. New York: Penguin Classics, 1989. 4)The New Encyclopedia Brittannica vol. 2. Micropaedia, Chicago, 1998.