Emperor’s Axe
Alex Gough
Silus on a new continent
Emperor's Axe is the third novel in Alex Gough's Imperial Assassin series. We ended novel 2, Emperor's Knife with Caracalla killing his co-emperor and brother Geta to become sole emperor of the Roman Empire. Caracalla consolidates his power by the time-honored method: shedding a whole lot of blood. Essentially everyone who has any power at all in whose loyalty Caraclla doesn't have absolute faith, or any who might have a claim on the Emperor's throne, no matter how oblique or distant, is killed.
Since the Arcani are the Emperor's assassins Silus is of course called into service. The title of this novel seems to come from a sentence Dio Cassius wrote about this period, "He [Caracalla] rebuked the slayer of Papinianus for using an axe instead of a sword to kill him."
Exhausted by their exertions, Silus and his associate Atius ask for an assignment outside the city of Rome itself. Their boss Oclatinius accedes, so Silus and Atius are attached to Marcellus, the new governor of Numidia and head off to Africa. Complications arise and they end up in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, a city as historically significant in its own way as Rome itself.
The plot is designed to make sure Silus has adventures at Alexandria's best-known landmarks, and also to introduce the reader to the many complexities of Alexandrian society. Silus navigates these with the combination of cleverness and historically realistic violence we have come to expect of him. Although Silus occasionally shows a tender side, it is not his most prominent trait.
I enjoyed this installment.
Thank you, and you're right about the title.