Last Act in Palmyra
Encyclopedia
Last Act in Palmyra is a crime
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

 novel by Lindsey Davis
Lindsey Davis
Lindsey Davis is an English historical novelist, best known as the author of the Falco series of crime stories set in ancient Rome and its empire.-Biography:...

.

Plot introduction

Set in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Nabatea and Palmyra
Palmyra
Palmyra was an ancient city in Syria. In the age of antiquity, it was an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert...

 during AD 72, Last Act in Palmyra stars Marcus Didius Falco
Marcus Didius Falco
Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the concepts of modern detective stories , Davis portrays the world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian...

, Informer and Imperial Agent. It is the sixth in her Falco
Marcus Didius Falco
Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the concepts of modern detective stories , Davis portrays the world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian...

 series.

Explanation of the novel's title

The title refers to the hunt undertaken by Falco for a murderer, the last act of which takes place in Palmyra
Palmyra
Palmyra was an ancient city in Syria. In the age of antiquity, it was an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert...

, as well as playing upon his temporary employment as a playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 with a travelling theatre group.

Plot summary

In Last Act in Palmyra, Falco takes on a new spying mission for Vespasian
Vespasian
Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...

 to the east of the Empire. He also plans to investigate the disappearance of a young musician, Sophrona. With Helena Justina, he travels to Petra
Petra
Petra is a historical and archaeological city in the Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that is famous for its rock cut architecture and water conduits system. Established sometime around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans, it is a symbol of Jordan as well as its most visited...

, where they encounter a theatre group who have just lost their playwright due to drowning. Joining them, Falco attempts to fulfil his various investigations, whilst at the same time write his new play, The Spook Who Spoke.

Main Characters

  • Anacrites - Imperial spy
  • Helena Justina - Daughter of the Senator Decimus Camillus Verus
  • Marcus Didius Falco - Informer and Imperial Agent from the Aventine.
  • Musa - Priest from Dushara
  • Sophrona - Musician
  • Thalia - Snake dancer

The Theatre Company

  • Byrria - Actress
  • Chremes - Actor-manager
  • Congrio - Billposter
  • Davos - Actor
  • Grumio - Clown
  • Philocrates - Actor
  • Phrygia - Actress, wife of Chremes
  • Tranio - Clown

The Orchestra

  • Afrania - Tibia-player
  • Ione - Tambourinist
  • Plancina - Panpipe girl
  • Ribes - Lyre-player

Major themes

  • Several investigations, including a spying mission for the Emperor, a disappearing musician and the murder of a travelling playwright.
  • Developing relationship of Marcus Didius Falco and Helena Justina.

Allusions/references to other works

  • Members of the company make several references to New Comedy.
  • As noted in the footnotes (p. 401 UK paperback edition), Falco's play, The Spook Who Spoke, bears more than a little resemblance to Hamlet
    Hamlet
    The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

    by William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

    .
  • During the course of their journey, the travelling theatre company perform or refer to various plays, poems and playwrights. These include:
    • Medea
      Medea (play)
      Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed...

      , The Trojan Women
      The Trojan Women
      The Trojan Women is a tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides. Produced during the Peloponnesian War, it is often considered a commentary on the capture of the Aegean island of Melos and the subsequent slaughter and subjugation of its populace by the Athenians earlier in 415 BC , the same year...

      and The Bacchae
      The Bacchae
      The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigeneia at Aulis, and which...

      by Euripides
      Euripides
      Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...

    • The Birds
      The Birds (play)
      The Birds is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BCE at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for its mimicry of birds and for the gaiety of its songs...

      by Aristophanes
      Aristophanes
      Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...

    • Oedipus the King
      Oedipus the King
      Oedipus the King , also known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone...

      by Sophocles
      Sophocles
      Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...

    • The Girl from Andros
      Andria (comedy)
      Andria is a comedy by Terence, a Roman playwright. It was Terence's first play, and he wrote it when he was approximately 19 years old. Terence adapted through translation from Menander's play, although as he is at pains to point out in his prologue he goes beyond mere translation. It was first...

      and The Mother-in-Law by Terence
      Terence
      Publius Terentius Afer , better known in English as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic, of North African descent. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought Terence to Rome as a slave, educated him and later on,...

    • The Rope, The Pot of Gold
      Aulularia
      Aulularia is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title has been translated as The Pot of Gold, and the plot revolves around a literal pot of gold that the miserly protagonist, Euclio, guards zealously...

      and Amphitryon
      Amphitryon
      Amphitryon , in Greek mythology, was a son of Alcaeus, king of Tiryns in Argolis.Amphitryon was a Theban general, who was originally from Tiryns in the eastern part of the Peloponnese. He was friends with Panopeus....

      by Plautus
      Plautus
      Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...

    • The Arbitration by Menander
      Menander
      Menander , Greek dramatist, the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy, was the son of well-to-do parents; his father Diopeithes is identified by some with the Athenian general and governor of the Thracian Chersonese known from the speech of Demosthenes De Chersoneso...

    • The Garland by Meleager
    • Aeschylus
      Aeschylus
      Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...


Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

  • Begins in Rome
    Rome
    Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

     in AD 72, during the reign of Emperor Vespasian
    Vespasian
    Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...

    .
  • Journey takes them through Nabatea to Petra
    Petra
    Petra is a historical and archaeological city in the Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that is famous for its rock cut architecture and water conduits system. Established sometime around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans, it is a symbol of Jordan as well as its most visited...

    , then to the Decapolis
    Decapolis
    The Decapolis was a group of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in Judea and Syria. The ten cities were not an official league or political unit, but they were grouped together because of their language, culture, location, and political status...

     and Palmyra
    Palmyra
    Palmyra was an ancient city in Syria. In the age of antiquity, it was an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert...

    .

Release details

  • 1994, UK, Century Hardback (out of print)
  • 1995, UK, Arrow, Paperback ISBN 0-09-983180-5
  • 1995, UK, Magna, Large Print, ISBN 0-7505-0839-6
  • 1996, US, Mysterious Press, Hardback (out of print)
  • 1997, US, Mysterious Press, Paperback ISBN 0-446-40474-8
  • 2003, UK, Arrow, Paperback ISBN 0-09-945199-9 (as part of single-volume omnibus edition, Falco on the Loose, with Time to Depart
    Time to Depart
    Time to Depart is a crime novel by Lindsey Davis.-Plot introduction:Set in Rome during October AD 72, Time to Depart stars Marcus Didius Falco, Informer and Imperial Agent...

     and A Dying Light in Corduba
    A Dying Light in Corduba
    -Plot introduction:Set in Rome and Imperial Spain during the spring and summer of AD 73, A Dying Light in Corduba stars Marcus Didius Falco, Informer and Imperial Agent...

    )

Sources, references, external links, quotations

Author's Official Website
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