Review - Delicatus by S.P. Somtow

In the first century AD, a small village on the very edge of the Roman empire was overrun by pirates, who took a young boy hostage to sell on the slave market. The pirate's ship is captured by Romans, but the boy is still transported to the slave market in Ostia, on the coast near Rome. While waiting to be sold, someone notices that the boy bears a strong resemblance to one of the most powerful women in Rome, Poppaea. Named Sporus, the boy is purchased by the satirist Petronius, who seeks to protect Sporus from the excesses of the Roman elite. The boy learns to speak Latin, some Greek, and proves relatively adept at navigating the world of a slave destined to arouse the lascivious desires in the men he meets. But attempts to keep him from catching Emperor Nero's eye prove futile.

“Delicatus” is the first book of a fictional trilogy based on the life of the young man known to history as Sporus. This installment covers the early part of Sporus' “career,” from his initial enslavement through the death of his first Roman master, the greatest satirist of the time, Petronius, who is thought to have written Satyricon. Little is known about the origins of Sporus, and this book plays on that mystery a little by making the boy coy about where he came from. He witnesses much of the cruelty Rome inflicted on its poorer people, especially the slaves that the empire was built on. Yet, in this first book, Sporus manages to escape some of the worst that could happen.

The story is told by Sporus as he relates his life to the slave who's helping him get ready for his execution in the Circus Maximus, so there's no doubt that the fates catch up to him eventually. There is definitely no happily-ever-after ending to this tale. Sporus seems quite resigned to his fate, even though the author puts his age at twenty as he awaits his death.

Nero does appear in this first volume of the story, although there's not yet too many hints of what the young emperor will ultimately do with Sporus. There's been a tendency in recent years to rethink Nero's place in history. The suggestion is that many of the excesses he was accused of, such as fiddling while Rome burned, were made up by those emperors who came after him. The burning of Rome is a pivotal point in the plot of this first book. Nero doesn't play the fiddle. He plays a kithara while singing to his captive guests from a hill overlooking the burning city. We get the first glimpse of a man so inflated by the sycophants around him that he is entirely out of touch with reality. Yet, the startlingly perceptive Sporus also sees more. He sees a man isolated by his position who, although never left alone, is nonetheless lonely.

“Delacatus” is available from Amazon (commissionable link).