It seems to be an unspoken agreement amongst Roman historical murder mystery authors to have a murder mystery involving the Vestal Virgins. Wishart goes one step further, blatantly drawing parallels to the Bona Dea scandal of 63 which tends to misdirect the reader who is aware of that historical event, perhaps deliberately. So, with the inevitable comparisons to JMR and Davis, amongst others, aside, Marcus Corvinus moves into his latest novel with an easy familiarity.
Last Rites deals with another consular-level murder, Marcus being called in to discreetly investigate the death of the Vestal Cornelia during the Bona Dea rites. A reluctance for the senior protagonists to admit to anything that would indicate scandal leads us a dance through the subsequent suicide of Marcus Lepidus -Cornelia's childhood friend, and the deaths of Cornelia's maid Niobe, a fluteplayer who wasn't present at the rite, Thalia, the original assassin, and an unfortunate member of the Watch, Chiro. There is the usual mix of accompanying characters, headed by the senatorial family comprising Marcus Lepidus Senior, his overtly promiscuous daughter Lepida and the fateful Marcus Lepidus Junior. The tight-lipped Vestal community headed by Junia Torquata and the immediate affiliates of the consul Galba all serve ensure this is one murder mystery that has Marcus delving into the highest echelons of Roman society. However Marcus spends the few days running up to Saturnalia picking his way through Rome's murky politics and assorted colorful characters with a dry wit that makes for fluid reading.
All this, mixed in with Marcus' daily home trials, epitomised in this novel by a very amusing episodic dealings with Perilla's latest fad of a water clock and the delightful continuing development of the character of Bathyllus, means that Last Rites is another excellent offering from Wishart.
I must confess I managed to read White Murder before this one and this novel confirms Wishart's tendency to use Rufia Perilla as Marcus' 'sounding board' to both recap the day's events and to outline theories. It is faintly annoying as it implies the author is keen to ensure we don't miss a single clue and, rather than allowing us to theorize ourselves, dictates that we follow Corvinus' thought process to the letter.
That aside, what Wishart does so well is mix murder and Roman politics so well, spending considerable time providing plausible motive for each crime, which is what makes Marcus Corvinus' installments so fascinating. Highly recommended.

A MANUAL OF AKKADIAN by David Marcus. 182 pp. New York : University Press of America, 1978. ISBN 0-8191-0608-9 (pbk.)

David Marcus tells us in his Preface that the present Manual "is designed to teach Akkadian, [one of the languages] of ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), to beginning students by the inductive method. By this method the student is immediately introduced to cuneiform writing, and Akkadian grammar is learnt directly as it is encountered." The Manual is supposed to have been designed for absolute beginners, and we are told that no background in any other Semitic language is required.

After a brief Introduction which provides some basic information about Akkadian, its dialects, the dialects and script used in the Manual, and how to use the Manual, 21 Chapters follow, the first two of which cover Syllables, basic signs, verbal system, weak verbs, phonological rules, transliteration, and normalization.

Each of the 19 Chapters which follow contain a cuneiform text which ranges in length from the 3 lines of Chapter 3 to the three whole pages of cuneiform given in Chapter 21. The texts have been drawn from three sources : The Code of Hammurapi; The Descent of Ishtar; and The Annals of Sennacherib.

Each text is followed by detailed grammatical notes, and students are required to translate almost all of the passages by themselves since translations are provided only for the cuneiform texts in Chapters 3, 4, and 5. The book is rounded out with a 14-page SIGN LIST, a 42-page GLOSSARY, a grammatical INDEX, and a useful 4-page section of SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING.

David Marcus, who is an Assistant Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, may have been exaggerating when he described this work as "a self-teaching Manual," since Akkadian is not an easy language and questions began to occur to me at once for which I wasn't able to find answers in the book.

But so far as I can see, the biggest problem with this Manual, which has not been set up in print but is a reproduced typescript, is that no instruction is given on how to write the cuneiform signs, and the signs themselves have been printed far too small.

Cuneiform, as Stephanie Dalley points out in her 'Myths from Mesopotamia,' is "an ambiguous and exceptionally complicated writing system" (page xv). The learner needs to be able to see these highly complex signs printed large and bold and clear. But in a book with pages that measure only 8.5 by 5.5 inches, and which cram as many as five or six hundred of these signs on a single page, the difficulties of the learner are considerably increased.

And to make matters even worse, the book has one of those detestable glued spines that cannot be opened flat, thereby adding further to one's difficulties. One wonders who makes these decisions, and just what is going on in their heads?

Marcus's 'Manual of Akkadian' is, on the whole, a fascinating and well thought out textbook, and the thought that by means of it one can learn to reach so far back in time as to understand the words of the Mesopotamians is truly exciting. Working one's way through it would involve a great deal of hard work, certainly for those who are not linguistically gifted, but the rewards would start to come soon. What a pity that the heavy task of the student wasn't made a bit lighter by the choice of a more intelligent and practical format!

Biography written in 1909 about one of United States most interesting business and political figures. Mark Hanna was an successful industrialist, a U.S. Senator, campaign manager for President McKinley, most powerful political figure in Cleveland, and more. All throughout, Hanna led an amazing life. This was one of the more difficult books I have ever acquired -- finally got it through Amazon -- it has been out of print for many many years.

In 'Greek and Roman Philosopy After Aristotle', there is and extended excerpt from 'Octavius' by Marcus Minucius Felix. Its summary of pagan Roman views on Christianity was so dead-on accurate, I just had to read the whole thing. Unfortunately, the Christian response isn't as incisive as as the attack. It is primarily a defense of the idea of a single creator god, coupled with the idea that Christians are restrained, ethical and good people. Jesus is not really menitioned at all. Felix's view might be called "Ethical Monotheism". The second work in the book, Justin Martyr's 'First Apology' is very revealing of 2nd century Christian thought, and touches on many practical and philosophical issues, not only regarding Christian practice and paganism, but Jewish uses of Greek philosophy. This book is quite a find. While it is not a new translation, it is a modern, idiomatic, if somewhat oversimplified, rendition of the translations contained in the hoary, 130-something year-old 'Ante-Nicene Library'. Portions of 'Octavius', and Justin Martyr's 'First Apology" are rearranged, to a degree, on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis, and other portions are relegated to appendices, but both works are present in their entirety, and a bit more logical, to modern readers, than the originals. At the price of $..., you'd be silly not to check these accessible, yet ancient works out. See what they were thinking in the 2nd century. They won't bite!

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The authors present a whole new way of looking at vision and how it effects/impacts one's life. Visual implications in various types of learning/reading disorders, athletic performance, working at a computer, driving an automobile, and your personality are all discussed. Must reading for the insightful reader.

This book is EXCELLENT!! She is almost 10 yrs old and for almost 2 years, our daughter has been struggling in school. We've watched her grades and attitude plummet. We've tried EVERYTHING to get her help. On an annual, routine eye exam, our eye doctor found a problem and sent us to Dr. Arthur Seiderman. I watched as she was tested and was AMAZED by the results. How did she get as far as she did with this vision disability? Moreover, only being 2 weeks into her therapy, we see a dramatic change in her attitude and boost in her confidence level. We read this book and it says it all! I highly recommend this book to anyone who see a problem with their child's behavior. Many ADHD people are misdiagnosed and they really have vision problems. We are thrilled with this book and are lending it to all of our friends!

David Wishart's Marcus Corvinus series has developed well. However this latest offering is a little formulaic. There is a tendancy for Marcus to spend a day sleuthing and then to summarise what he's learnt to Perilla - you get the mild impression it's to ensure the reader hasn't missed anything.
The premise of this installment - a murder of the White's chariot first team Leader, Pegasus, right under Marcus' nose - is to enter the murky underworld of Rome's Circus Maximus, chariot racing, racing-throwing and the factions of Green, Red and Blue, White. Wishart creates a credible picture of life at the races, building a suitable tight-lipped and close-bunched set of teams and fans and Corvinus has to pick his way through lot to establish motive. Everyone has one, of course, and it appears that for all the expressions of closed doors each team is more closely interwoven than would be evident at first glance.
Glee clubs, personal feuds, elopement and Bathyllus' love-sick state of mind all provide another fun outing in Marcus Corvinus' Rome.
It is written as well as ever. We are, by now, very comfortable with the main characters, yet the plot and the denouement are, perhaps, not as complex as they could be ; with the result the strong suspicions of who the culprit(s) is/are from the opening chapters end up being confirmed. So, not Marcus' best outing, but, as a series, long may Corvinus continue...