Lost Scrolls of Archimedes A Historical Novel of Ancient Rome and Egypt

In Tom Roberts' award-winning debut historical novel, Lost Scrolls of Archimedes, you will encounter improbable-though not impossible-history. Along the way, there will be danger, adventure, pain, and love. And a few philosophical discussions of the dangers of new technology. Marcus, a young Roman scholar, and Hippolytus, his mentor, steal two long-lost scrolls of Archimedes from the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Legends say the encrypted documents contain the knowledge of immense powers. When Hippolytus flees Alexandria to avoid Roman agents seeking him, Marcus is left to safeguard the scrolls. He waits, but after four years, he decides to try to crack the complex coding obscuring Archimedes masterwork. Marcus seeks help from his best friend, Kleon, and from the alluring Electra, cousin of Cleopatra and an expert linguist. The ambitious Kleon, seeking wealth and status, betrays Marcus to the agents of Roman strongman, Octavian. On a trading voyage for his father, Marcus is attacked and thrown into captivity as a galley slave. Marcus and Kleon thus begin a dangerous game of cat and mouse as each rush to extract the knowledge of the scrolls. Assassination, kidnapping, a midnight raid, and a long chase across the Tunisian desert bring Marcus to the climactic encounter with enemies-and friends-on the day of the epoch-making Battle of Actium, the funeral pyre of the Republic and the crucible of the Roman Empire.