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Murder by one slave in a Roman household meant death for the other slaves. When Senator Caruso Pomponius is found stabbed, the seventeen-year-old secretary Hylas manages to escape arrest. In a desperate attempt to save his mother and fellow slaves, he is unexpectedly helped by Varro, a secret Christian, through whom he enlists the help of Camillus, a young tribune. Camillus soon finds himself reluctantly picking a dangerous way through the political plots of Nero’s Rome to discover the real murderer.