Silver Pigs

I’m not sure where I found this book, except on my shelves, but it was an excellent, fun read. I mostly read it before bed, but found myself going to sleep earlier so I could read it later. Incredibly well researched, the plot follows Marcus Didius Falco, a private detective or informant, as he tries to track down a conspiracy involving silver pigs, or lead ingots, which were going to be used to fund a push for the empery. The conceit was somewhat silly - a private detective in Rome? - but it also was probably true in some sense, as there’s always an underbelly for every city, and there certainly was one there. Poor Didius is dragged halfway across the empire to Britain - at one point, he ends up voluntarily working in a lead mine there for three months and almost dying as a result - and finally uncovers the plot and wins the approval of the emperor, as well as a minor fortune of 400 sesterces, which he rejects in a fit of moral pique. A rollicking read.

Of course, you can’t have a mystery story without some good sex and blood. The sex was somewhat lacking for most of the book, until one memorable lacuna where “that was between me, the senator’s daughter, and the gardener’s horse,” which I loved. Helena is a good femme fatale, and I thoroughly enjoyed the witty spats between her and Didius. The blood was the normal sort - people do get banged up a lot, don’t they.

I loved this book. I’ll have to get the rest of the series.

Vocabulary I learnt

I often keep a running tab of new vocab for a book. For this one, I wasn’t the best at making notes, as I was mostly reading in bed. However, here’s a list of the words I did learn:

clinker-built, adj. (of a boat) having external planks secured with clinched nails such that the bottom edge of an upper plank overlaps the upper edge of a lower plank
cupellation, n. The act or process of refining gold or silver, etc., in a cupel.
cupel, n. a shallow, porous container in which gold or silver can be refined or assayed by melting with a blast of hot air which oxidizes lead or other base metals.
assayed, adj. To subject, as an ore, alloy, or other metallic compound, to chemical or metallurgical examination, in order to determine the amount of a particular metal contained in it, or to ascertain its composition.
wide boy, n. a man involved in petty criminal activities. English
electrum, n. a natural or artificial alloy of gold with at least 20 percent silver, used for jewelry, especially in ancient times.
torque, n. a neck ornament consisting of a band of twisted metal, worn especially by the ancient Gauls and Britons.
torc, n. alternate spelling of torque
barrow-boy, n. a boy or man who sells wares from a barrow in the street.
barrow boy, n. a lowerclass trader in British banks after the 80s
barrow boy, n. one of the bier-holders in British mountain rescue
costermonger, n. an apple seller from a cart, a barrow boy
costard, n. an apple (mediaeval)
dosh, n. money
lurcher, n. a crossbred dog, typically a retriever, collie, or sheepdog crossed with a greyhound, of a kind originally used for hunting and by poachers for catching rabbits.
niffy, adj. smelling bad
niff, n. an unpleasant smell
malabathron, Malabathrum, malobathrum, n. cinnamon spice used as a perfume
aedile, n. either of two (later four) Roman magistrates responsible for public buildings and originally also for the public games and the supply of grain to the city.
fug, n. a warm, stuffy or smoky atmosphere in a room
antimony, n. Chemical element 51, Sb, sometimes know as kohl, used in medicine and cosmetics in the ancient world
pergola, n. an archway in a garden or park consisting of a framework covered with trained climbing or trailing plants.
tip-tilted, adj. (especially of a person’s nose) turned up at the tip.
corkage, n. a charge made by a restaurant or hotel for serving wine that has been brought in by a customer
carter, n. someone who carts
rissole, n. a compressed mixture of meat and spices, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.
sûpreme, n. the best cut of meat, a fillet
côtelette, n. a cut of meat, côtellete de volaille is a Chicken rissole in Russia
circonflexe, n. another spelling of circumflex
hot-wine, n. mulled wine, conditum paradoxum
footslogger, n. someone who footslogs
footslog, v. (especially of a soldier) walk or march for a long distance, typically wearily or with effort